Diane Cliento returns to Australia

Visionary theatre producer, director and actor as well as recognised Australian film star, Diane Cilento returns to the Sydney stage in January 2010.

Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee, Ms Cilento will tour Australia starring in the Australian premiere of the one-woman, tour-de-force Woman Before a Glass about the life and times of art icon Peggy Guggenheim.

The play, by award-winning US playwright Lanie Robertson (Nasty Little Secrets, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Stringbrean, Bringing Mother Down), will be directed by critically acclaimed Sydney-based director Kate Gaul and opens on January 16 at Sydney’s Parade Theatre before transferring to Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre on February 13.

Tickets for these shows are now available through Ticketek and other cities will be announced shortly.

Woman Before a Glass was originally produced in New York in 2005 with Mercedes Ruehl (from Frasier) as Peggy Guggenheim.  It’s a spectacularly demanding one-woman show, set in Venice, where Peggy drops bombshells – and raises eyebrows – about her life, her famous family, her loves… and her art.

Diane Cilento won international acclaim as an actress during the 1950s and 1960s. The twists and turns of her extraordinary life took her from a childhood in Queensland to Broadway, then to London in the Swinging Sixties where she established an identifiably recognised and dynamic career. Tony Award winner for Tiger at the Gates and Oscar nominee as the seductive Molly in the feature film Tom Jones, Ms Cilento’s other notable film credits include The Admirable Crichton, Hombre with Paul Newman and The Wicker Man. She was for 12 years married to Sean Connery, with whom she has a son. Her career embraces producing, acting, directing in theatre and film, as well as writing, translating and teaching. Ms Cilento was inspired to return to her roots and create the vision that is now The Karnak Playhouse, a totally unique centre for performance set in a Qld rainforest. This venture she shared for many years with her late husband, playwright Anthony Shaffer. Ms Cilento is the mother of Giovanna and Jason.

Woman Before a Glass is produced by Cygnet Australia. This Australian premiere production comes ahead of planned tours to Singapore, New Zealand, London, New York and Abu Dhabi (where the new Guggenheim Museum is being built).

The show previews from January 13 ahead of a January 16 opening night. Bookings: 132 849.