Tennis on the stage: The rise of sports-themed plays in Australia

Sports plays are among the riskiest in the theatrical world because sport often doesn't translate as well to the stage as traditional dramas. However, given the place of sport in Australia's cultural psyche, it is perhaps unsurprising that we are seeing an increasing number of sports-based plays around the country, with acclaimed playwright Suzie Miller premiering the AFL-W-themed Strong is the New Pretty with Sydney Theatre Company this year and Melbourne Theatre Company looking into World Series Cricket next year. 

The tennis world has not been left out of the sport theatre craze, with Belvoir St Theatre bringing Malthouse Theatre Company's 'Game. Set. Match' to Sydney just in time for the Australian Open. The show will actually run while the United Cup is in Sydney and follows a dark love story set against the background of tennis. 

For playwright Megan Wilding, who is also a highly acclaimed actor, tennis has always been something close to her, which inspired her to write this play. 

"I've always been a fan of watching [tennis], and I've always been a fan of picking up a racquet and trying to hit a ball," said Wilding to The First Serve. "I think it's something you can play by yourself, but it's better with friends. When it comes to tennis, things change so quickly that you can't help but get swept away in it. I guess that's what appeals to me.

"When I started at WAAPA [the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts], one of my teachers said, 'Play it to win. Play it like a tennis match. Every hit needs to win.' That really resonated with me, and tennis was always going to be part of my life, and now I've also got to write something about it."

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In preparing to write the play, Wilding watched a lot of tennis to understand the psyche of tennis players, including the iconic 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, which is referenced in the play.

"It's that dance between those two players that had quite a significant influence on how I let scenes unfold," she said. "It's a fantastic match where there's so much legacy being written. I think they're both so aware of that, but they can't afford to think about it. They've just got to play the situation they're in. I guess that's how it weaves in and out of the play."

For Wilding, who counts Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka as her favourite players, capturing the rhythm of a tennis match in the dynamics of her play was especially important when constructing the work.

"Sometimes you get these huge rallies, and they're over in a second," she said. "I think I put that into the script, but when I came to act it out, I was like, 'What have I done?' It just shows how quickly things can change, much like a tennis match.

"It was hard to wrap my head around as an actor because you think, 'But what's underneath it?' Sometimes you're not even aware of it. You just hit the ball down the line and win."

While Wilding's play does not feature any physical tennis, another play at Belvoir St Theatre this year, A Room with a View (which arrives in Melbourne with Melbourne Theatre Company in November), actually includes a choreographed Edwardian-era tennis match on stage in the play.

For choreographer Elle Evangelista, choreographing singles and doubles tennis on stage was one of her highlights of the show. 

"We first explored the idea for the tennis scene in the development of the work in 2025," said Evangelista to The First Serve. "To see if this idea would work, I learned and taught a long rally from Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki's rally from the 2014 US Open Final.

"It acted like a placeholder while we tested the idea but also showed two really different approaches - one player who had to run a lot and the other who was more still and in control. This was also useful for the characters, as George (played by Luke Wiltshire) is more in control of the game while Freddie (Tomáš Kantor) has a more dramatic playing style. Some of this rally still exists in the beginnings of the singles match in A Room With a View." 

For Evangelista, choreographing doubles on the stage was even more complicated but ultimately extremely rewarding. 

"I realised it was actually more helpful to choreograph where the ball was going and then place who was receiving it while also keeping it to real tennis rules, such as Lucy (Nathalie Morris) serving the entirety of the game," she explained.

"It was also an interesting way to add additional layers to the story, such as the romantic tension between Freddie and Mr Beebe (Tom Conroy)."

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"Putting all the elements together of the doubles match was a real team effort," she said. "It took a few really focused rehearsals to get the choreography down and add on the timing, placing that with the live piano (played by Patrick Williams, composed by Grace Ferguson) and also adding in the dialogue and the timing of Charles Wu delivering his lines at exactly the right time amongst the game!"

When watching tennis as regularly as readers of this masthead do, it is easy to lose sight of the unadulterated beauty of the game, but when the game is transformed into a theatre setting by talented professionals, the beauty of the game comes out in a way that fans of the sport may sometimes miss. For the production team for A Room with a View, maintaining the aesthetics of the game was particularly important, even if it meant sacrificing realism. 

"That's why at times we suspend how high the ball goes or where it does in ways that wouldn't at all be real," said Evangelista. "I'm pretty proud that by the end of the doubles it's so tightly choreographed that it really is a dance."

With sports-focussed plays on the rise around Australia, this may not be the last we see of tennis on the stage in the near future. While the crossover between the two disciplines may not be obvious, the sheer talent of the playwrights and the performers who are tackling this work means that Australia really is at the forefront of exploring the intersection, which makes sense given the importance of sport to our culture. 

When asked by The First Serve why tennis fans should come see 'Game. Set Match.', Wilding summed it up perfectly. 

"Theatres are capable of holding good matches, too."

Game. Set. Match plays at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney from 7-24 January. A Room With a View plays in Melbourne at Southbank Theatre from 14 November - 19 December. 

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