Andrew Upton

Andrew Upton (born 1 February 1966) is an Australian playwright, screenwriter, and director. He is the husband of the actress Cate Blanchett.

Career

As a playwright, Upton created adaptations of Hedda Gabler, The Cherry Orchard, Cyrano de Bergerac, Don Juan (with Marion Potts), Uncle Vanya, The Maids and Children of the Sun for the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and Maxim Gorky's The Philistines for London's Royal National Theatre.

His original play Riflemind, with Hugo Weaving as an ageing rock star planning a comeback tour, opened at the STC on 5 October 2007 to favourable reviews.Riflemind opened in London in 2008, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman but closed after a short run due to uniformly poor notices and the pressure of the Global Financial Crisis. In 2008, Upton and wife Cate Blanchett became joint artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company for what became a five-year term.

Upton and Blanchett formed a film production company, Dirty Films, whose projects include the short film Bangers (1999) and the feature film Little Fish (2006). Upton wrote, produced, and directed Bangers, which starred Blanchett. He was the associate producer on Little Fish, which also starred Blanchett. In 2006, he wrote the film Gone which was directed by Ringan Ledwidge. Upton wrote the libretto to Alan John's opera Through the Looking Glass which premiered in May 2008.