Simon Stone
Receiving theNestroy Theatre Prize 2015
Born	(1984-08-19)19 August 1984 (age 40) Basel, Switzerland
Nationality	Australian
Occupation(s)	Director, actor, writer
Years active	2002–present

Simon Stone (born 19 August 1984) is an Australian film and theatre director, writer and actor.

Stone is Australian, but was born inBasel, Switzerland and grew up in Cambridge and Melbourne.^[1] His father, Stuart Stone, was a biochemist and his mother, Eleanor Mackie, a veterinary scientist. Stuart Stone died of a heart attack aged 45; Stone, aged 12 at the time, witnessed it, and has spoken about the ways in which that trauma has influenced his work.^[2][3]

In 2007 Stone founded the independent theatre company The Hayloft Project and adapted and directed their inaugural production ofFrank Wedekind'sSpring Awakening. This production was remounted in 2008 atBelvoir St Theatre and was described inThe Sydney Morning Herald as "a lean, contained, ultimately furious, liberating production that is well-attuned to Wedekind's poetic rhythms, wit and pubescent discoveries".^[4] Other productions Stone adapted and directed for The Hayloft Project includePlatonov,3xSisters,The Suicide andThe Only Child, a new version ofHenrik Ibsen'sLittle Eyolf which won theSydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production.^[5]

In 2009 he directedAleksei Arbuzov'sThe Promise forBelvoir. In 2010 he directed and co-wrote withMark Leonard Winter,Thomas Henning and Chris Ryan a version ofSeneca'sThyestes for The Hayloft Project andMalthouse Theatre, Melbourne. He directedThe Cherry Orchard forMelbourne Theatre Company in 2013.^[6]

In 2011 Stone became the resident director at Belvoir. In his first year he wrote and directedThe Wild Duck, afterHenrik Ibsen, which has become his calling card production and has played internationally, including at theHolland Festival. In 2011 he also directedRobyn Nevin inLally Katz'sNeighbourhood Watch for Belvoir and adapted and directedBertolt Brecht'sBaal for theSydney Theatre Company.^[2][7]

ForTheater Basel, where he was a house director from 2015, he has directedAngels in America,John Gabriel Borkman (for which he won the 2015Nestroy Theatre Prize),Three Sisters, and Korngold's operaDie tote Stadt.^[8] A companion project with the works ofAugust Strindberg,Hotel Strindberg, premiered atTheater Basel in 2018.^[9]

ForIvo van Hove's companyInternationaal Theater Amsterdam, he has directed Euripides'Medea in his own new adaptation,Husbands and Wives,Ibsen House, a new play by Stone which threads together the plots of several of Ibsen's plays in a new modern scenario, andFlight 49, inspired by the novelOp Hoop van Zegen byHerman Heijermans.^[10][11]

In 2016, Stone premiered an adaptation ofFederico García Lorca'sYerma at theYoung Vic in London. The production starredBillie Piper in the title role,^[12] and was well reviewed,^[13] returning for a second run in 2017 before transferring to thePark Avenue Armory in New York in 2018.^[14] It won theLaurence Olivier Award for Best Revival in 2017.

Stone directedLuigi Cherubini's operaMédée at the 2019Salzburg Festival,^[15] returning there in 2023 forMartinů'sThe Greek Passion sung in English.^[16]He took his production of Euripides'Medea, withRose Byrne andBobby Cannavale, to theBrooklyn Academy of Music in 2020.^[17] He made his debut at theMetropolitan Opera in New York in 2022 with Donizetti'sLucia di Lammermoor, set in present-day America'sRust Belt.^[18][19]

In 2023, he idealized the direction ofArrigo Boito'sMefistofele for the opening night of the new season of theTeatro dell'Opera di Roma.

His updated adaptation ofPhaedra was produced at theNational Theatre February to April 2023; the company includedMackenzie Davis,Assaad Bouab andJanet McTeer.

Stone has acted in the television seriesJohn Safran's Music Jamboree,MDA,Blue Heelers,Rush,City Homicide, and the filmsJindabyne,Kokoda,Balibo,Blame, andThe Eye of the Storm.^[20]

Stone's directorial debut filmThe Daughter premiered at the2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in Australia on 17 March 2016 and he won Best Adapted Screenplay at theAACTA Awards.^[21]

He directed the British drama filmThe Dig in 2021.^[22] It focuses on anarchaeological dig inSutton Hoo in 1939.

Stone married Jessamy Dyer in 2004^[2] though the marriage ended in divorce. He has since married again. His current wife is Stefanie Hackl, a dramaturge.^[23]

Stone likes to take pieces from the standard theatrecanon which, with the help of his cast, he reworks into intimate, almost cinematic performances. He often works fromimprovisation creating an entirely new script through which the original play nevertheless shines. This practice is sometimes referred to as "over-writing".^[24]

Stone believes in theatre as a place for polemic: "One can't make theatre based on fear and compromises. Without argument, there is no art."^[25]

Yet, at the same time, he acknowledges that his own art has its roots in finding a language for the trauma of his father's death. "I certainly couldn't talk to people about what had happened to me. Especially at a young age, people are very confronted by 'how on earth do I even talk about that absurdly dark thing that happened to Simon?'. Of course, in cinema and literature, you find conversation partners. They're not talking back but they kind of are because they're telling you you're not the only person who's been through that thing."^[26]

• Media related toSimon Stone at Wikimedia Commons

• 1984 births
• Living people
• Australian theatre directors
• Australian film directors
• Australian opera directors
• Australian television actors
• Australian male film actors

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