Simon Stone

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Australian film and theatre director

title: "Simon Stone" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1984-births", "living-people", "australian-theatre-directors", "australian-film-directors", "australian-opera-directors", "australian-television-actors", "australian-male-film-actors"] description: "Australian film and theatre director" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Stone" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian film and theatre director ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Simon Stone
image	Simon Stone Nestroy-Theaterpreis 2015.jpg
caption	Receiving the Nestroy Theatre Prize 2015
birth_date
birth_place	Basel, Switzerland
nationality
occupation	Director, actor, writer
years_active	2002–present
::

Early life and education

Simon Stone was born in 1984 in Basel, Switzerland. He grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and Cambridge, England, where he was educated.

He decided to be an actor at the age of 15, and set to reading the complete works of Shakespeare in chronological order.

Career

Theatre

In 2007 Stone founded the independent theatre company The Hayloft Project and adapted and directed their inaugural production of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. This production was remounted in 2008 at Belvoir St Theatre and was described in The Sydney Morning Herald as "a lean, contained, ultimately furious, liberating production that is well-attuned to Wedekind's poetic rhythms, wit and pubescent discoveries". Other productions Stone adapted and directed for The Hayloft Project include Platonov, 3xSisters, The Suicide and The Only Child, a new version of Henrik Ibsen's Little Eyolf, which won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production.

In 2009 he directed Aleksei Arbuzov's The Promise for Belvoir. In 2010 he directed and co-wrote with Mark Leonard Winter, Thomas Henning and Chris Ryan a version of Seneca's Thyestes for The Hayloft Project and Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. He directed The Cherry Orchard for Melbourne Theatre Company in 2013.

In 2011 Stone became the resident director at Belvoir. In his first year he wrote and directed The Wild Duck, after Henrik Ibsen, which has become his calling card production and has played internationally, including at the Holland Festival. In 2011 he also directed Robyn Nevin in Lally Katz's Neighbourhood Watch for Belvoir and adapted and directed Bertolt Brecht's Baal for the Sydney Theatre Company.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Ibsen_House_(programmaboekje).pdf" caption="Brochure for ''Ibsen House'' (in Dutch), made with [[Internationaal Theater Amsterdam]], staged in [[deSingel]] in Antwerp (2019)"] ::

For Theater Basel, where he was a house director from 2015, he has directed Angels in America, John Gabriel Borkman (for which he won the 2015 Nestroy Theatre Prize), Three Sisters, and Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt. A companion project with the works of August Strindberg, Hotel Strindberg, premiered at Theater Basel in 2018.

For Ivo van Hove's company Internationaal 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, and Flight 49, inspired by the novel Op Hoop van Zegen by Herman Heijermans.

In 2016, Stone premiered an adaptation of Federico García Lorca's Yerma at the Young Vic in London. The production starred Billie Piper in the title role, and was well reviewed, returning for a second run in 2017 before transferring to the Park Avenue Armory in New York in 2018. It won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival in 2017.

Stone directed Luigi Cherubini's opera Médée at the 2019 Salzburg Festival, returning there in 2023 for Martinů's The Greek Passion sung in English. He took his production of Euripides' Medea, with Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2020. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2022 with Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, set in present-day America's Rust Belt.

In 2023, he directed Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele for the opening night of the new season of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome, Italy.

His updated adaptation of Phaedra was produced at the National Theatre in London from February to April 2023; the company included Mackenzie Davis, Assaad Bouab and Janet McTeer.

Film

Stone appeared in the films Kokoda (2006), Jindabyne (2006), and Balibo (2009), before turning to theatre direction.

Stone's directorial debut feature film The Daughter,

He directed the British drama film The Dig in 2021. It focuses on an archaeological dig in Sutton Hoo in 1939.

Television

Stone has acted in the television series John Safran's Music Jamboree, MDA, Blue Heelers, Rush, City Homicide, and the films Jindabyne, Kokoda, Balibo, Blame, and The Eye of the Storm.

Philosophy and style

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

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."

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".

Personal life

Stone married Jessamy Dyer in 2004 though the marriage ended in divorce. He then married Stefanie Hackl, a dramaturge.

Works and performances

Film

Director

The Turning (2013) (segment "Reunion")
The Daughter (2015) (also writer)
The Dig (2021)
The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025)
Elsinore (TBA)

Stage director

Verdi: La Traviata (2019) (Direct-to-video)
Die Teufel von Loudun (2022) (Direct-to-video)

Acting roles ::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Kokoda: 39th Battalion	Max Scholt
Jindabyne	Billy 'The Kid'
2008	Nice Shootin' Cowboy	Cormac	Short film
2009	Balibo	Tony Maniaty
2010	A Love Story	Robin	Short film
Blame	Nick
2011	The Eye of the Storm	Peter
2012	Being Venice	Lenny
::

Television

Director

National Theatre Live: Yerma (2017) (TV movie)

Stage director ::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Notes
2021	Korngold: Die Tote Stadt	TV movie
2022	The Metropolitan Opera HD Live	Episode "Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor"
::

Acting roles ::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002–2003	MDA	Jason Henderson	5 episodes
2002–2005	Blue Heelers	Mary Farris / Clayton Sanders
2009	City Homicide	Billy Pierce / Will Fenech	1 episode
2009	Rush	Ted Holston	1 episode
::

Theater

Dramaturge ::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Venue
2010–2011	Human Interest Story	Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
::

Acting roles ::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Venue
2001	Antony and Cleopatra	Melbourne Grammar School
2002	The Bridge	Butter Factory Theatre, Wodonga with HotHouse Theatre
The Sea	University of Melbourne
2006	Sugar Mountain	Cinema Nova, Melbourne
A Kind of Hush
Jet of Blood	Theatre Works, Melbourne
2007	Ashes to Ashes	Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
2008	Miss Julie
::

References

(29 June 2017). "Simon Stone Direction".
Blake, Elissa. (2011-02-15). "A theatre man in a hurry".
(2012-05-03). "Hurtling Stone". [[The Monthly]].
Hallett, Bryce. (30 June 2008). "''Spring Awakening''".
"2009 Sydney Theatre Awards". [[Sydney Theatre Awards]].
"''The Cherry Orchard''". [[Melbourne Theatre Company]].
Croggon, Alison. (2013-08-09). "When Simon Stone speaks, Australian theatre listens".
"Simon Stone, director".
"''Hotel Strindberg''".
"Simon Stone".
"''Flight 49''".
(2016). "''Yerma'' Review Young Vic". TheatreSmart.
Clapp, Susannah. (7 August 2016). "''Yerma'' Five-Star Review – Billie Piper Is Earth-Quaking as Lorca's Heroine". [[The Observer]].
"''Yerma'' : Program & Events".
[https://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/en/p/medee "''Médée''], [[Salzburg Festival]] 2019
Allison, John. Report from Salzburg. ''Opera'', October 2023, Vol.74, No.10, p1192-4.
Alexis Soloski. (1 January 2020). "Simon Stone Faced the Unthinkable. He Thinks You Should Too.". [[The New York Times]].
[https://www.metopera.org/discover/articles/fading-dreams/ "Fading Dreams"], interview by Matt Dobkin, [[Metropolitan Opera]]
[[Zachary Woolfe]]. (24 April 2022). "Review: In ''Lucia'' at the Met, a Modern Woman Comes Undone". [[The New York Times]].
"AACTA AWARDS".
Kenny, Glenn. (2021-01-28). "'The Dig' Review: Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes on a Treasure Hunt". The New York Times.
{{IMDb name. nm1404307. Simon Stone
"Simon Stone".
"Simon Stone".
Maddox, Garry. (2016-03-09). "The Daughter: how tragedy turned Simon Stone into one of our most promising directors".
(2023-01-21). "Director Simon Stone: 'My heroes are women'".

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