Queensland Theatre Company’s artistic director Daniel Evans has chosen to kick off 2026 with a stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
At first that sounds a bit gratuitous. The Gatsby name exudes, in some minds, Jazz Age glamour and decadence. But there’s more to it than that, which is what Evans is interested in. Evans wants his audiences to feel deeply and be moved – and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel (it recently turned 100) is the perfect foil for that.
Because at its heart it is a tragedy, with its central theme revolving around the downfall of the novel’s protagonist, Jay Gatsby. The tragedy lies in his pursuit of an unattainable dream of winning back his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, which ultimately leads to his death. People forget that and use the Gatsby name as a byword for Jazz Age glitz.
“Gatsby has become an adjective for flapper parties and that sort of thing but the reality is that Jay Gatsby was a lonely man,” Evans says. “I’m much more interested in the humanity and the broken dreams.”
To go deeper into the story, Evans has teamed up with the acclaimed Shake and Stir Theatre Co, which has a reputation for literary adaptations. Evans is working on this one with Shake and Stir’s Nelle Lee and he will be directing alongside Shake and Stir’s Nick Skubij. It’s a collaboration that makes perfect sense.
“We have been cooking this one up for a while,” adds Evans. “I said, let’s do something that is going to wow people.”
season 2026 champions ‘work that gets under your skin and stays with you, from the curtain raise to the final bow’
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So, season 2026 begins with an opulent reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic Jazz Age novel. This “fever dream of excess, escape and aspiration” makes its debut at Toowoomba’s historic The Empire Theatre, February 5-6, demonstrating QTC’s commitment to championing a love of theatre across the state. The production then moves to QPAC’s Playhouse for its Brisbane season.
Evans says QTC’s season 2026 champions “work that gets under your skin and stays with you, from the curtain raise to the final bow”. According to Evans, it is a season of landmark collaborations, world premiere works, reimagined classics, fresh voices and trailblazing pioneers – a season that is “all feeling, no filter”.
It features eight mainstage productions: four staged at QTC’s Bille Brown Theatre; three at QPAC’s Playhouse; one at Toowoomba’s The Empire Theatre; and one at QPAC’s spanking new Glasshouse Theatre.
Coinciding with the launch of the 2026 season 2026, the state’s leading arts organisation reaffirms itself as Queensland Theatre Company (QTC), putting “company” back in the title to reflect the collaborative community of artists, theatre makers and supporters who contribute to QTC.
Evans is a collaborator par excellence. He has even invited three past artistic directors to be part of season 2026. Michael Gow will return to help judge the Premier’s Drama Award, Lee Lewis will return to direct the world premiere of Suzie Miller’s play Strong is the New Pretty (a collaboration with Brisbane Festival, Sydney Theatre Company and Trish Wadley Productions) and Wesley Enoch returns to direct The Sapphires.
Immortalised on film, the real-life story of four Yorta Yorta women who sang for troops during the Vietnam War returns to the stage in a knockout new production featuring a talented cast of First Nations artists. QTC’s First Nations theatre head Isaac Drandic was behind the programming of this classic.
“Isaac wanted to inject a bit of Indigenous girl power into the program,” Evans explains. “It will be staged up close in the Bille Brown Theatre.”
Two major literary works in season 2026 is impressive. As a counterpoint to the tragic dimensions of The Great Gatsby, the company is reprising hit show Pride & Prejudice in July 2026.
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In the spirit of Jane Austen, the company says: “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person not in possession of a ticket to 2025’s sold-out Pride & Prejudice, must be in want of an encore season. Audiences can fall in love all over again with the colourful, contemporary take on Jane Austen’s timeless tale when the Regency rom-com returns for another turn about the room.”
As Evans explains, thousands of ticket holders missed out on the show this year due to Cyclone Alfred.
‘”In fact, 3500 people missed out and that really put a dent in our box office,” Evans says. “Due to the cyclone we had to close four shows and everybody kept calling saying they wanted us to do it again.”
The people have spoken and QTC will comply.
Strong is the New Pretty will be staged in September as part of Brisbane Festival. It focuses on the formation of the Australian Football League Women’s competition, the AFLW. Sydney Theatre Company will present it at the Sydney Opera House in October 2026. Directed by Lee Lewis, a former artistic director of Queensland Theatre, it will be something of a reunion as Lewis also directed Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, which was a huge hit for QTC.
The good news for us is that Strong is the New Pretty will have its world premiere here before Sydney.
QTC’s season 2026 ends in a fitting crescendo, bringing together three of the state’s cultural powerhouses – Queensland Theatre Company, Opera Queensland and Queensland Symphony Orchestra – in a magical staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at QPAC’s new Glasshouse Theatre.
Forget the fairy tales you think you know. This soaring musical presents a complex and compelling examination of longing, wishes, desire and what really happens after “happily ever after”.
But wait, there’s more, and you can go to the company’s website to find out what else Evans has in store for us.
This is the inaugural season programmed by Evans and he says he’s only just getting started. He’s already working on 2027. In the meantime, we give you … 2026.