Queensland Theatre Company Season 2016

Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) has revealed its Season 2016 featuring 10 productions, including the world premiere of The Wider Earth, a collaboration between QTC and Dead Puppet Society. From Molière and Shakespeare, to local stories from around the corner, international masterpieces and the Australian writing, QTC is set to celebrate ambition and achievement.

In unveiling his final season before he departs for Sydney Festival, QTC Artistic Director Wesley Enoch said 2016 would engage and challenge on the need for bravery and moral fortitude in shifting times, providing a forum for debate, diversity and the driving of change.

Season 2016 opens in January at the Playhouse with Quartet, a comedy that journeys into old age. Writer Ronald Harwood takes on retirement with tenderness, grace and hope - but no self-pity - in this moving and all too truthful tale of the frustrations and fears of getting old. Andrea Moor, fresh from directing Grounded and Venus in Fur pulls the stage strings while actors Christine Amor, Andrew McFarlane, Trevor Stuart and Kate Wilson thoroughly enjoy themselves in this bawdy romp through the golden years. The show will then go on to tour regional Queensland.

Photographer: Davd Kelly

Based on the award-winning novel by Kate Grenville, The Secret River, winner of six Helpmann Awards including Best Play, Best Direction and Best New Australian Work, is a powerful story of the bloody beginnings of colonial Australia, when pardoned convicts clashed with the traditional owners of the land they settled. The Sydney Theatre Company production brings together celebrated Australian director Neil Armfield and adaptor Andrew Bovell, with actors Nathaniel Dean, Trevor Jamieson, Matthew Sunderland and Ningali Lawford-Wolf to tell the deeply moving tale of two families divided by culture and land in this Queensland premiere.

Photographer: James Green

In April, QTC presents Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Jason Klarwein, with Ellen Bailey and Tama Matheson as the young starry-eyed couple, leading an all-star cast featuring Christen O'Leary, Hugh Parker and Bryan Probets. This romantic sparring is the tale of two pairs of very different sweethearts starring some of the best acting talent in the country.

Photographer: David Kelly

In May, QTC leaves the Playhouse until October, making its home in the Bille Brown Studio (BBS). From Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith comes Switzerland, a new two-hander starring Andrea Moor, moving from director to on-stage lead. This is a theatrical thriller with author Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley) centre stage, having to pen one last devastatingly brilliant book.

Photographer: David Kelly

In July, QTC and Dead Puppet Society, in another collaboration, will stage the world premiere of The Wider Earth, a coming-of-age story about science and faith that recounts the tale of a younger Charles Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle.

"The Wider Earth will be a piece of visual theatre, placing strong emphasis on the staging and use of theatrical devices to paint our own vision of Darwin's world. That means puppets - a lot of them. More than we've ever made before. At the moment, our plans for the production include more than 30. From tiny beetles to southern right whales, to the iconic Galapagos turtles. We're excited that this work will bring human performers and our trademark puppet characters together in a meaningful way that isn't often seen in mainstream theatre," said David Morton from Dead Puppet Society, who penned The Wider Earth and will also direct and design.

Photographer: David Kelly

St Mary's in Exile opens at the Bille Brown Studio on August 27 and is a tale that would be beyond belief if it wasn't true. Gripping and inspirational, the play strikes close to home, telling the story of beloved priest, Father Peter Kennedy, excommunicated from St Mary's in South Brisbane for preaching acceptance and equality. Written by Brisbane playwright David Burton, the cast includes Chenoa Deemal and Caroline Kennison, under director Jason Klarwein, also moving from actor to director.

Photographer: David Kelly

Novelist and screen writer Ayad Akhtar's theatrical debut, Disgraced, comes to the Playhouse from Melbourne Theatre Company in October. The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama poses challenging questions about identity, tribalism and the fragility of friendships and will be directed by Nadia Tass, and includes the Mitchell Butel.

Photographer: John Laurie

Tartuffe is a bawdy play about power, hypocrisy and gullibility, pillorying religious fanaticism and moral weakness. Adapted by Justin Fleming from French playwright Moliere's 17th century comedy, it demonstrates that perhaps modern attitudes haven't changed as much as we think. Ribald and riotously irreverent, Tartuffe is a co-production with Perth's Black Swan Theatre Company and features st Darren Gilshenan, Hugh Parker, Rose Reilly, Steve Turner, Alison Van Reeken and Alex Williams.

Photographer: David Kelly

A little newer to Australian theatre is Bastard Territory, a confessional human drama about identity. This new Australian play from Brisbane-based writer Stephen Carleton, Bastard Territory mixes wry humour, raw insight and a 60s and 70s soundtrack, along with the talents of Benhur Helwend, Suellen Maunder and Peter Nortondirected by Ian Lawson.

Photographer: David Kelly.

The finale for the 2016 Season, the epic and intimate Motherland  from Brisbane-based writer Katherine Lyall-Watson, was recognised as a Patrick White Playwright's Award Finalist. A tapestry of displacement and identity, it explores the casualties of love, ambition and politics.

Photographer: David Kelly

Artistic Director Wesley Enoch said 2016 season was a collection of love letters to artists and audiences. "There are shows that represent the plethora of conversations we have been having over the past four years and the wonderful rapport that we have been developing," he said. "Theatre is a sacred place where opposing ideas are argued out to create drama, a place where audiences continue the discussion outside the theatre and where those ideas can take root in social movements. We all have examples of drama that changed our opinions, informed our positions or frustrated us. That is the joy of theatre; one of the last places where we can openly debate, be engaged and entertained."

queenslandtheatre.com.au

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