Sydney Theatre Company is to collaborate with the Australian Defence Force in a new verbatim play that will bring the stories of servicemen and women to the stage in the centenary year of the start of the first world war.

The Long Way Home, which will premiere in February 2014, will include the experiences of personnel who have served in operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor – many of whom have been wounded or sustained illness as a result of their service.

The collaboration is the result of an approach from the ADF, said Andrew Upton, artistic director of STC. "I thought it was an amazing opportunity for the company, but it was also an amazing opportunity for these service people – a chance to tell their stories."

The timing, as the world focuses on Syria and possible military action, makes the work more important, Upton says.

The play will be directed by Stephen Rayne, the director of The Two Worlds of Charlie F, a British production featuring the stories of UK personnel which served as inspiration for The Long Way Home. The show will be performed by actors and soldiers, and will tour nationally.

"The thing about theatre is it's a safe space to be dangerous and political," said Upton. "This piece may have dangerous political voices and opinions in it. I wouldn't force that on it, but that's part of it. That's theatre's job."

The Long Way Home will form part of a 2014 season from STC that will include a new production of Macbeth with Hugo Weaving in the central role – and the audience all on stage.

The auditorium of of Sydney Theatre in Walsh Bay will become the performance space, and around 320 audience members will watch from the theatre's stage, having entered the theatre through the stage door. There are few plays that could take such staging, Upton said. "It's got to be a great play, a known play, so it doesn't get overwhelmed."

Other highlights for 2014 include David Williamson's Travelling North starring Greta Scacchi, a new play from Marius von Mayenburg called Perplex, a production of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Richard Roxburgh, and Children of the Sun – a new version of Maxim Gorky's play by Andrew Upton that premiered at London's National Theatre earlier this year.