Queensland Theatre Season 2024

Image: Pride & Prejudice. Photographer: Sam Scoufos 

From courtrooms to saloons, outback towns to the corridors of power, Queensland Theatre stages eight mainstage productions in 2025 – including three at QPAC’s Playhouse – and infuses its program with world premieres, award-winning works, big-name artists, Queensland stars and unmissable storytelling.

The 2025 Season begins with a retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, followed by a rollicking musical revival of Calamity Jane, David Williamson’s spiky and sassy Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica, the ensemble piece Dear Son, Julia, Back to Bilo, new work Malacañang Made Us and Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men.

Cementing the “Queensland” in Queensland Theatre, the company launches its Creative in Cairns initiative, delivers programs in 73 regional Queensland districts, and stages its first mainstage performance of 2025 in Toowoomba.

Image: Rhinestone Rex & Miss Monica. Photographer: Jeremy Grieve 

Queensland Theatre CEO Criena Gehrke said the 2025 Season was a theatrical love letter to audiences, old and new, with each programmed work a new page carefully crafted to enchant and entertain.

“Queensland sits at the epicentre of our 2025 Season, from the stories we tell, to the artists on the stage, to the creative forces working behind the scenes and critically, to the people in our audiences who trust us to inspire, excite and delight them,” Gehrke said.

“We are so proud to present a season that includes two world premieres – Dear Son and Malacañang Made Us – alongside bold new work, reimagined classics, blockbusters and globally resonant events adapted for the stage.

“Whether you are a Queensland Theatre veteran or inspired to join us for the first time, we know you’ll fall in love with the 2025 Season.”

Image: Dear Son. Photographer: Sam Scoufos 

Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch welcomed the launch of Queensland Theatre’s 2025 Season.

"With a wealth of stories, programs and productions for audiences and communities across the State, Queensland Theatre is offering an expansive and inclusive season of work in 2025,” Minister Enoch said.

“Queensland Government investment in Queensland Theatre’s First Nations Development Program over the next two years will also work to create new First Nations-led theatre work and exciting career pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and arts workers.

“Our investment in Queensland Theatre is delivering on the priorities of our Creative Together 2020-2030 roadmap and celebrate our stories as we prepare to share them on the global stage of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

The Plays

A Bridgerton-esque retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice premieres at Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre (13 February) before playing QPAC’s Playhouse (20 February to 9 March). Patrick White Award-winners Wendy Mocke and Lewis Treston breathe fresh life into literature’s original romantic comedy with Bridget Boyle and Queensland Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director Daniel Evans co-directing an all-Queensland cast including Maddison Burridge and Andrew Hearle.

Image: Calamity Jane. Photographer: Sam Scoufos 

The Bille Brown Theatre transforms into an immersive old-time Western bar – complete with on-stage saloon seating – for a raucous revival of the musical Calamity Jane (22 March to 17 April), starring Naomi Price (Drizzle Boy, Ladies in Black), and directed by Richard Carroll.

Double Gold Logie-winner Georgie Parker (Home and Away) and Glenn Hazeldine (Colin From Accounts) reunite to trade barbs and banter in David Williamson’s Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica – 15 years after they starred in its world premiere and 30 years since Parker last trod the Queensland Theatre boards. They reprise their roles as two single, middle-aged people – wholly incompatible in every way – in a gleeful two-hander about accidental attraction at Bille Brown Theatre (28 May to 21 June).

The Bille Brown Theatre then sets the stage for the world premiere of Dear Son (28 June to 19 July), directed by Queensland Theatre’s Head of First Nations Theatre, Isaac Drandic, who crafted the work with John Harvey. The page-to-stage adaptation embodies the handwritten and heartfelt letters of 12 Indigenous men to their sons, published in author Thomas Mayo’s titular book and including missives from Stan Grant, Troy Cassar-Daley and Charlie King.

Image: Julia. Photographer: Rene Vaile

Justine Clarke steps into the shoes of Australia’s first female Prime Minister in Julia, a re-examination of an unforgettable moment in feminist history: Julia Gillard’s seminal 2012 speech to Parliament. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, written by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by Helpmann Award-winner Sarah Goodes, Julia makes its Queensland premiere at QPAC’s Playhouse (16 to 30 August).

Back to Bilo, a Queensland story that became another rallying chapter in Australia’s history, makes its mainstage debut at Bille Brown Theatre (3 to 13 September). The true tale of a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee family ripped away from their adoptive Biloela home captured the nation’s headlines and hearts and is told with compassion and care by Brisbane theatremakers, Belloo Creative.

queenslandtheatre.com.au

Image: Back to Bilo. Photographer: Stephanie Coombes