Kiwi actor and mainstay of Australian TV Rebecca Gibney will soon return to the stage for the first time in almost 20 years.

The star of Packed to the Rafters and Prosper, who was recently inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame, is set to lead Sydney Theatre Company's (STC) 2025 production of Circle Mirror Transformation, a 2009 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning American Annie Baker.

Gibney, who turns 60 later this year, says it's "daunting" to step back onto the stage for the first time since 2006, but she's excited by the challenge.

"I'm at an age now where I just feel like I need to keep testing myself and keep pushing the boundaries," she says.

In Circle Mirror Transformation, Gibney will play Marty, a drama teacher working at a community centre. Her students include her husband James; recently divorced carpenter Schultz; shy high schooler Lauren; and ex-actor Theresa.

"[Marty is] kind of a free spirit, and she's very spontaneous, and she's a bit of a hippie, so she's definitely got sides of me," Gibney says. "When I'm at home, I'm exactly like that. I just love that she's trying to bring the best out of these people, which is kind of what I try to do."

Circle Mirror Transformation is one of the 12 plays that make up STC's 2025 season, the final from outgoing artistic director Kip Williams.

Williams says casting Gibney was a no-brainer: "She's a living national treasure and such a phenomenal actor.

"Marty is the heartbeat of the play, so you need somebody who has the dramatic chops to drive the drama, but also has the heart and comedic dexterity to land the warmth and the humour."

Gibney was offered the role a couple of weeks after she finished shooting Happiness, a Kiwi comedy series about an amateur theatre company putting on a musical.

"I loved being part of an ensemble creating a stage show. I thought, 'This is really fun'," she says.

"[When the offer came in] I was still buzzing and still on a high from [Happiness], and said yes straight away."

Shying away from the stage

Gibney was last on stage in 2006, in the Melbourne season of sketch show Mum's the Word 2: Teenagers.

She'd only ever appeared in one stage show before that, in the 1999 national tour of Happy Days: The Arena Mega Musical, playing the lead role of Fonzie's ex-girlfriend Miss Frost.

"I think my opening-night audience [for Happy Days] was 20,000 people … My leg was shaking so much, people in the front row could see!"

That stage fright, coupled with the anxiety she experienced in her 30s, is just one reason she's stayed away from the theatre for almost 20 years.

"I don't like being in enclosed spaces, and I don't like expectations [laughs]. On a set, you can do it again if you stuff it up," she says.

Gibney also pegs her reluctance on her lack of professional training: She fell into acting in the early '80s, having first worked as a model.

"I just kept getting work, and I kept thinking, 'I've no idea what I'm doing'. It wasn't until I was halfway through Flying Doctors [which aired from 1986-1992] that I went, 'OK, maybe I can really work hard at this'," she says.

"Because of that, I think my tendency was to stick with what I knew, and that's television and film."

Gibney plans to approach the role of Marty with the same sense of vulnerability she brings to all of her work.

Williams agrees that Gibney brings vulnerability and authenticity to the role.

"There is this magnetic truth that emanates from her, and you feel instantly like you know her," he says.

Supporting Australian artists

The rest of STC's 2025 season is bursting with Australian work, old and new: a total of eight plays.

"I'm thrilled that two-thirds of the plays are written by Australian writers," says Williams. "What drives my programming is how to tell stories that are going to connect to audiences here and celebrate the best of our artists here.

"A big thing that I've wanted to do at the company is to increase our production of Australian writing and I'm really pleased that this season does that."

That list of Australian plays features three world premieres, including a new version of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith and starring Will McDonald from Heartbreak High. It's joined by Congratulations, Get Rich! by Merlynn Tong and an adaptation of classic Australian novel The Shiralee by Kate Mulvany.

Following a successful season at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2023, the new Australian musical Bloom by Working Dog (Utopia) will be coming to Sydney for the first time. Tom Wright's adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock will also make its mainstage Sydney premiere, and Dylan Van Den Berg's award-winning Whitefella Yella Tree will transfer from Griffin Theatre.

Then there's encore seasons of productions RBG: Of Many, One by Suzie Miller, starring Heather Mitchell; and an adaptation of Pip Williams's much-loved novel The Dictionary of Lost Words, after sell-out runs across the country.

Throughout his time at STC, it's been important for Williams that shows like these travel to other companies to reach a wider audience — and that other companies' productions also get a run in Sydney.

He notes a great sense of collaboration between theatre companies at the moment, possibly as a result of the pandemic, when artistic directors had to figure out how to "come out of that existential crisis together".

"The dialogues and willingness to share work feels very open [now]," he says.

"And I think that there is a shared understanding that it's really good for the works to have second, third, fourth seasons and to be able to develop and grow."

Williams is not directing any shows in STC's 2025 season, but will act as dramaturge on The Shiralee and return to the company in 2026 with a new show.

"Plus, there are a number of shows of mine that are set to tour for the company, so I feel pretty connected still," he says.

"But this is my final season, and I'm really proud of it."