Running 5 to 21 March 2026, this dynamic interpretation of Sophocles’ timeless tragedy launches the season with raw energy and unflinching urgency, inviting audiences into a world where personal conviction collides with authoritarian power.

Antigone places a fearless young woman at its centre – one who refuses to be sidelined, silenced or intimidated by the structures built to control her – who speaks directly to the fractured realities of the present day.
Opening on the eve of International Women’s Day, the production reverberates with questions of voice and agency while remaining grounded in a profoundly human story.

La Boite Theatre Artistic Director Courtney Stewart co-directs the work with Nigel Poulton and says Antigone is a deliberate and powerful way to begin La Boite’s 2026 season.

“We’re determined to bring audiences bold, urgent theatre that is deeply engaged with the world we’re living in; Antigone sets the tone for exactly that,” Stewart says.

“There’s something both ancient and shockingly current about Antigone. It’s a story that feels alive, following a young woman who chooses to act according to her conscience, even when that choice costs her everything.
“That act of courage continues to resonate, particularly when we’re thinking about whose voices are heard, and whose are expected to stay quiet.”

After Antigone’s brothers Eteocles and Polynices kill each other while on opposing sides of a civil war, King Creon honours Eteocles but leaves Polynices’ body unburied as punishment for attacking Thebes. When Antigone defies the king’s command and buries Polynices herself, she ignites a brutal clash between personal conviction and authoritarian power.

Antigone’s act of resistance sparks questions that burn with urgency today: Who gets to decide what is just? Where should our loyalty lie? What price are we prepared to pay to honour the truth?

Antigone
5 – 21 March 2006
La Boite Theatre, Brisbane
www.laboite.com.au

A show of young love and survival!

Once in a blue moon, in the middle of nowhere, two teenage boys meet under a lemon tree. When they look at each other, it’s tense, exciting, and strange.

Ty and Neddy fall madly in love, as teenagers are wont to do. After a rough start, a fragile friendship fruits into a heady romance.

If history would just unfurl a little differently, the boys might have a beautiful future ahead of them. But without knowing it, Ty and Neddy are poised on the brink of a world that is about to change forever.

It’s the early 19th century. Ty is River Mob. Neddy is Mountain Mob. And the earth they stand together on is about to be declared ‘Australia’.

Featuring Pertame and Tiwi actor Joseph Althouse (The Visitors) and Danny Howard (Jacky), who has Barrd, Yamatji, Noongar, Bunuba and Ngadju ties, Whitefella Yella Tree is the La Boite debut of award-winning Palawa playwright Dylan Van Den Berg, winner of the Griffin Award, the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, the David Williamson Prize and two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Co-directed with subtlety and sophistication by Griffin Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Declan Greene and Wiradjuri and Worimi theatremaker Amy Sole, Whitefella Yella Tree is a heart-warming and heartbreaking story about love, Country, and Blak queerness.

Whitefella Yella Tree
23 October – 8 November 2025
La Boite Theatre, Brisbane
www.laboite.com.au

Billed as a “love letter to Brisbane”, the stage version of Heiss’ best-selling novel premieres 5 to 24 September at La Boite’s Roundhouse Theatre after three years of creative development.

Tiddas, a commonly used term in the community for “women who are like sisters”, is a First Nations-led work about five best friends since childhood – Izzy, Veronica, Xanthe, Nadine and Ellen – whose monthly book club meetings cover life, love, literature and everything in between.

These women from diverse backgrounds are bound by decades of friendship until their long-held secrets bubble to the surface and threaten to fracture everything, forcing the group to question whether they truly know each other and if their sisterhood is enough to keep their bond intact.

A powerhouse cast of homegrown talent breathes life into the revered and relatable characters with Chenoa Deemal as Ellen, Anna McMahon as Veronica, Louise Brehmer as Nadine, Phoebe Grainer as Izzy and Shakira Clanton as Xanthe.

Supporting them on stage is Queensland theatre luminary Roxanne McDonald as Mum/Noon and the versatile Sean Dow playing the roles of Richard, Asher, Spencer, Craig and Rory.

Also bringing the acclaimed novel to the stage is Brisbane-based Heiss in her playwriting debut.

Tiddas
5 – 24 September 2022
La Boite Theatre
https://laboite.com.au/

Over 10 days from 21 April to 1 May, 2022 more than 114 extraordinary performers will thrill, entertain and mesmerise audiences with 76 diverse performances across 6 venues in Brisbane including Brisbane Powerhouse, Metro Arts, The Tivoli, La Boite Theatre, The Ron Hurley Theatre, and Kingston Butter Factory.

The brainchild of Cluster Arts, the nations’ celebrated production house for performing arts’ Circus & Physical Theatre companies, CIRCFest22 Meanjin will showcase First Nations artists, independent companies, and Australian international superstars of the circus world.

Circus has come a long way from the sawdust big top with a ringmaster whip-cracking tired lions through hoops. Australian contemporary circus is a modern performance artform of breathtaking human athleticism, raw emotional power, pure entertainment, and sharp social commentary. CIRCFest22 Meanjin offers everything from blazing burlesque to stiletto funambulists, powerful physical theatre to radical drag, crazy clowns to breathtaking acrobats.

Directors Deb Wilks and Kate Malone who have programmed 14 Queensland premieres celebrating Brisbane’s colourful underground history as a circus city said, “CIRCFest22 Meanjin brings together a bold and ambitious program that celebrates circus in all its richly diverse forms – there is something for everyone. Our focus has been on delivering a festival where the artists are at the heart of every decision and that makes for some spectacular outcomes.”

As well as a public facing program, CIRCFest 22 Meanjin will have key industry activations, hosting a number of forums & sector development opportunities including a First Nations led sector development for circus & physical theatre. This will be done in conjunction with The Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM). It is hoped in the future, as borders reopen for touring, international buyers and presenters will attend, along with Brisbane audiences being able to experience international circus companies’ performances.

Ruth Wikler Deputy Director of Programming, TOHU from Montreal said, “The proposed virtual exchange between Montreal’s International Contemporary Circus Market (MICC) & Brisbane’s Cluster Arts will draw on the momentum built over the past two years. CIRCFest22 Meanjin’s international digital platform, followed by the MICC’s in-person market, provide an ideal opportunity for this & underpin a reciprocal touring arrangement between Canada & Australia -two global circus countries.”

Australia is recognised internationally as a leader in the artform and Brisbane is its hothouse, home to companies like Circa, Casus Circus, Briefs Factory, Hoopla Clique, ARC Circus and Chelsea McGuffin & Co who are in high demand on every international festival circuit.

CIRCFest22 Meanjin will see Brisbane come alive with death defying feats, breathtaking spectacles and something to entertain and engage everyone from the subversive and sexy for adults only to the fun and thrilling for the family.

CIRCFest22 Meanjin
21 April – 1 May 2022
Brisbane Powerhouse, Ron Hurley Theatre, The Tivoli, La Boite Theatre, Kingston Butter Factory, Metro Arts
www.circfest.live

Set in 1967 against the backdrop of an Australia embroiled in the Vietnam War, three separate families pack-up their lives for Christmas at the beach where a freak storm forces their respective vacations to fall apart and intersect in the most magical way.

With a rollicking 60s soundtrack and star-studded cast including Queensland theatre luminaries Roxanne McDonald, Christen O’Leary and Bryan Probets, this sun-kissed revival breathes new life into Michael Gow’s adored Australian classic, taking audiences on a nostalgic journey from deep suburbia to the Gold Coast’s glitter strip for the ultimate summer fling.

“Plays like Away are what make us fall in love with theatre for the first time or all over again. This one bristles with life and death, joy and pain, love and loneliness, awakenings and awkwardness, the things we hold onto and the things we can’t let go of – for better or for worse.” – Director Daniel Evans

Away
25 October – 13 November
La Boite Theatre
www,laboite.com.au

The two leads are young and exciting and the veteran actors on stage are generous with both their presence and acting skills. The play features a very clever stage set up that appears very simple at first only to surprise with a depth of application. The use of stage props is excellent throughout as well. There are interludes of song that buttress the work with a fresh approach.

Dressing the cast in skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors and doing away with the trappings of time and opulence makes the look feel current. Staging the fight scenes as street gang warfare turns the brutality into choreographed dance. All these new strands weave together splendidly. This is a play for the fans of Will and those that have a will to be fans.

Cast
Kerith Atkinson, Jack Bannister, Bridget Boyle, Grady Ferricks-Rosevear, Eugene Gilfedder, Darcy Gooda, Nicole Hoskins, Nikhil Singh, Colin Smith and Wei Lan Zhong

Creatives
Writer: William Shakespeare, Director: Todd MacDonald, Additional Dramaturgy: Lucas Stibbard, Set & Costume Design: Anthony Spinaze, Lighting Design: Katie Sfetkidis, Sound Design: Anna Whitaker and Fight Choreographer: Nigel Poulton

Romeo and Juliet is playing at the La Boite Theatre, Brisbane from 25 May – 15 June 2019. Head to their website for more information and tickets www.laboite.com.au

Photo Credit: Stephen Henry