We have all been wondering when the Second Coming would happen and now we know, thanks to La Boite Theatre.
We can report that Second Coming begins on August 6 and runs until August 22 next year. So, be prepared. Or at least get a ticket for a play by the multi-talented Kathryn Marquet.
This Second Coming will be directed by Ian Lawson and will star Ashlee Lollback, Gideon Member and Anthony Standish, three fine actors doing a new play by a terrific playwright.
It’s one of a suite of four mainstage works that La Boite is putting on next year, beginning with Antigone in March. Yes, that Antigone, by Sophocles no less, co-directed by La Boite’s artistic director Courtney Stewart and Nigel Poulton. Stewart will also share dramaturgy honours with Brady Watkins.
When I meet her to discuss the upcoming season, I feel I need to ask her a question about this. You haven’t messed with Sophocles too much, have you?
“We have done a robust edit,” Stewart says. “Bearing in mind we were thinking about contemporary audiences and their attention spans. But there will be no contemporising of the language, though, but just some editing to make space.”
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She agrees that Sophocles words, like The Bard’s, are somewhat sacrosanct. Phew.
What else does she have in store for us next year? Well, it’s a very attractive line-up. It’s not often one opens a program and feels excited about everything. Antigone is a great start and that is followed by Eat Slay Zombie in May. (Thank God they are not doing Eat Pray Love!)
Alinta McGrady is the playwright and if the first sentence of the program blurb doesn’t get you in: “A bowling alley, two best friends and a shit ton of zombies.”
Is that more than a shit load? Does anyone know? McGrady will be co-directing with Lisa Fa’alafi of Polytoxic fame and it’s a “horror/comedy about colonisation, friendship and state occupation … except it’s zombies”.
What’s not to like. Then there is the aforementioned Second Coming (on your knees and pray everyone). “It’s 2026, Earth is burning and time is running out.”
Gulp. It’s about a geneticist (Evie – get it?) charged with rescuing every species two by two (how biblical) for a new beginning on Mars. Hopefully, Elon Musk won’t be up there too.
“It asks with dark humour and heart: if we can’t learn from our mistakes on Earth, what hope do we have on Mars?” Exactly. That one is in August, by the way.
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La Boite will finish the 2026 season with a flourish with Koreaboo by Michelle Lim Davidson (she was terrific in The Newsreader), who will also star alongside Heather Jeong. It’s about Hannah who travels to South Korea to visit her birth mother but her K-pop dream bubble gets burst along the way.
“It’s a big journey of self-exploration, identity and trying to find a sense of home,” Stewart says. “It’s based loosely on Michelle Lim Davidson’s story as an intercountry adoptee and her journey.”
With all things Korean – or South Korean – so popular right now, it’s perfect timing. Stewart herself lived in Seoul for a time and says it is an amazing city, although it’s a bit of a reality check for the character in the play.
‘I have been here almost four years … and it’s the hardest thing I have ever done’
It’s a terrific La Boite season ahead and after almost four years in the job Stewart says she is “getting the mix right”.
“That has been through trial and error,” she says. “I have been here almost four years now and it has gone quickly. And it’s the hardest thing I have ever done. Prior to this I was working at Sydney Theatre Company as an associate director, so this job was a big step up.”
But Stewart has proven that she’s up to the task, being multitalented as she is. She started out as an actor and many of us remember her first mainstage role – as a witch in the Michael Attenborough directed Queensland Theatre Company production of Macbeth. It was terrific and Stewart was a great witch. She says she learnt a lot, fresh out of QUT and thrust onto the stage with the likes of Jason Klarwein, Veronica Neave and Eugene Gilfedder.
“I remember standing side-stage watching everyone and studying them,” she says. “I learnt so much.”
Stewart still takes to the stage sometimes and has filled in when need be and reprised her role in Single Asian Female at La Boite, although she says she has no plans to go back on stage anytime soon. She has the luxury, meanwhile, of knowing that the company she is running (she’s negotiating her future with it right now) is secure with eight years of funding guaranteed between Creative Australia and Arts Queensland.
“The thing I’m most proud of is being able to secure that future for the company,” she says. “It’s the culmination of a lot of work by everyone.”
La Boite recently turned 100 and is one of the most vital theatre companies in the country. Stewart is just back from Singapore with the Congratulations, Get Rich Tour. That work debuted at La Boite in association with Brisbane Festival and was recently put on by Singapore Repertory Theatre and is now heading for Sydney.
Exporting culture to Sydney – we like that. Now here’s to the next 100 years of La Boite.