Queensland Theatre 2024 season – a preview

Tickets are now on sale for Queensland Theatre’s 2024 Season, so theatre lovers can secure now their spot to any of the seven plays taking centre stage next year, including the world premiere of Round The Twist The Musical.

Artistic Director Lee Lewis says the 2024 line-up has some of the greatest theatrical experiences imaginable by the best of the best in Australian theatre. Lee says the season will “push the limits on societal norms and truly make the audience feel”. The productions bring everyday people, real world issues and thought-provoking ideas to the surface, presenting something for everyone.

Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight, the 1938 thriller adapted by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson, will open the 2024 Season in February, presented by Queensland Theatre and Rodney Rigby. The play known for introducing the world to the powerful term ‘gaslight’ will take over Playhouse, QPAC as the first stop on a national tour.

The world premiere of Noongar director Isaac Drandic and Trawlwoolway pakana playwright Nathan Maynard’s 37 follows in April. This production is also on tour, including Queensland Theatre’s Bille Brown Theatre. The co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company is set in the infamous era of Adam Goodes’ war-cry and named after his immortalised jersey number — 37 — telling a motivating story of an iconic Australian footy feat.

May will take audiences back to a 2,400-year-old tale of passion and revenge with Medea, the Greek tragedy — with a modern twist — by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks. Following his 2023 smash-hit shows Drizzle Boy and Vietgone, director Daniel Evans will use his magic touch to bring this play to life, to pull at the heartstrings by telling the story through the eyes of Medea’s young sons.

Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cost of Living by Martyna Majok takes to the stage at the Bille Brown Theatre in June, in an Australian premiere. The co-production with Sydney Theatre Company will ask if love really does have a bottom line, in a beautifully rendered story about the human need to care, despite age, race and disability.

Going back-to-back for another Australian premiere, Selina Fillinger’s POTUS, Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive will take over in July. This scandalous, femme-fuelled political production is centred around a team of highly competent women behind a very recognisable, highly incompetent President of the United States, promising endless laughter.

September brings the world premiere of Dear Brother by Lenny Donahue and Tibian Wyles to the Bille Brown Theatre, presented with BlakDance and in association with Brisbane Festival. This high energy work is all about giving today’s young Murri men a voice, and one that challenges the narrative and public perceptions of Aboriginal masculinity for a performance as physical as it is emotional.

The season rounds out with the widely anticipated world premiere of Round The Twist The Musical, with book, music and lyrics by Paul Hodge, and directed by Simon Phillips. The QPAC and Queensland Theatre co-production will bring the quintessentially Australian TV show to the stage, to take the audience on a nostalgic, magical, music-filled and big-hearted journey that’s expected to sell out fast.

To secure your tickets to any of the seven shows in Queensland Theatre’s 2024 Season, visit queenslandtheatre.com.au. Gift vouchers are also available for the perfect present this holiday season.

All shows and dates:

Other reviews you might enjoy:

• Queensland Theatre 2022 season
• Queensland Theatre 2021 season – theatre preview
• Gaslight (Queensland Theatre) – theatre review

David Edwards

David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television

www.theblurb.com.au/wp/