Overview
The Queensland Theatre Company have announced their 2014 season, revealing a program significantly stocked with Australian writing, including two Australian premieres.
“There is a very real focus on Australian work in 2014 with 75% of the season Australian plays, and for good reason – Australian stories and storytellers are amongst the very best in the world,” says artistic director Wesley Enoch.
The main stage season will kick off with Australia Day, a play set in a small Australian country town and written by that master of topical humour, Jonathan Biggins, (director of Sydney’s The Wharf Revue since 2000). Andrea Moor, fresh from directing QTC’s Venus in Fur, directs this humorous exploration of our national identity.
Second up is the Australian premiere of young American playwright Katori Hall’s hugely successful two-hander The Mountaintop, which takes as its premise the final night on earth of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Garnering much praise for its powerful and humane portrayal of King, the play won an Olivier Award (making Hall the first black woman in history to win the Olivier award for Best New Play) and took Broadway and the West End by storm. Starring Pacharo Mzembe as King, this definitely sounds like one to look forward to.
Internationally renowned theatre director Michael Attenborough CBE will direct Macbeth, starring Veronica Neave as Lady M and Jason Klarwein as her doomed spouse (you may recently have seen Klarwein as Hotspur in Bell Shakespeare’s Henry IV). The play features a local cast, taking place in association with seasoned Brisbane theatre troupe Grin & Tonic. It should be interesting to see what comes when you combine British theatre royalty with an Aussie cast.
Following the Scottish play is Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, a co-production with Sydney Theatre Company. Starring Queenslander Anna McGahan, the play follows a man and woman taking part in a clinical trial who fall in love — and then question whether it’s love they're feeling or just a chemical side effect. Exploring a topical dilemma in our pharmaceutical era, the play was well received in London by critics eager to see what Prebble would do next following her huge success with Enron.
Next is Gloria, a new Aussie work by Brisbane playwright Brisbane playwright Elaine Acworth specially commissioned for QTC. Led by Christen O’Leary (End of the Rainbow), the play explores themes of children, memory, love and loss — with the help of some music. And speaking of new Aussie works, following that Wesley Enoch directs Tom Wright's Black Diggers — a play that tells the story of the 1000 or so Indigenous soldiers who fought for Australia in WWI. Drawing on interviews with the families of the men and starring Luke Carroll (who this year appeared in QTC's Mother Courage), this promises to be an interesting work.
The main stage season ends, perhaps unexpectedly, with Gasp!, Ben Elton’s 1990 playwriting debut. Previously known as Gasping, the play is a merciless satire of the greed of big business and the advertising industry. It will be put on in collaboration with Perth’s Black Swan State Theatre Company, involving performers from both cities.
Also appearing away from the main stage in the Billie Brown Studio during May are two plays: A Tribute of Sorts is a wacky-sounding piece that follows two oddball teenage cousins on a mission and, in the process, explores the nature of theatre itself. The Magic Hour, starring award-winning actor/singer Ursula Yovich, is a weaving together of the twisted fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.
Season tickets are now on sale. For more information visit the QTC website.