La Boite in the limelight: Brisbane’s oldest theatre hits the mark with 2027 season
This morning, Australia’s oldest continuously running theatre company announced a star-studded season for 2027, celebrating 102 years of bringing ambitious theatre to Brisbane. Next year, La Boite Theatre will welcome the return of one of the country’s most celebrated theatre directors along with two world premieres, two home-comings and a major Queensland premiere. Here’s what we know …
In 2027, La Boite’s five-show season will open the curtains with the Queensland premiere of Sue Smith’s The Weekend from March 6-27. Based on Charlotte Wood’s internationally best-selling novel and directed by Caroline Dunphy, The Weekend will see Andrea Moor, Christen O’Leary and Carita Farrer Spencer play lifelong friends on the Roundhouse stage, in a momentous premiere which has been made possible through the support of the Nelson Meers Foundation and arts philanthropist Lynn Rainbow-Reid AM.
Following this strong start, La Boite will next welcome home one of its biggest homegrown hits with The Little Red Company’s Lady Beatle landing on the Roundhouse stage from April 14-24. Ten years after it premiered at La Boite, Lady Beatle will return to the venue it was made for to tell the story of one of history’s biggest bands. Created by Adam Brunes and Naomi Price, the production has travelled to more than 50 venues nation-wide, enchanting audiences with its killer live band and rock-cabaret production.
The homecoming continues with a special NAIDOC Week season of Bigger & Blacker 2.0 from July 7-10 as Steven Oliver and Michael Griffiths return to La Boite, where the show made its debut in 2021. Having since graced the stages of the Sydney Opera House, Malthouse Theatre and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Bigger & Blacker 2.0 will retain the comedy, cabaret, music and spoken word that made it a national treasure.
Spring will bring La Boite’s first of two world premiere performances with internationally acclaimed Thai-Australian playwright Anchuli Felicia King’s Offset taking to the stage from September 11-25. Starring La Boite favourite Kimie Tsukakoshi, Offset examines Australia’s obsession with property, power, class and the stories people sell themselves.
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Closing out the season with a bang, La Boite will host the world premiere of Brisbane playwright Paul Hodge’s gripping new political thriller Calibre from November 6-27. Marking a major occasion for the theatre, Neil Armfield AO will return to La Boite’s Roundhouse Theatre for the first time in 17 years to direct the one-man show starring acclaimed actor Darren Gilshenan. Together, the two formidable Australian theatre talents will bring a show examining one of the most consequential episodes in modern Australian political history – John Howard’s controversial gun reform laws following the Port Arthur massacre just six weeks into his prime ministership.
La Boite Acting CEO Ian Prowse said the 2027 season celebrates the work and relationships that make La Boite such a special part of Brisbane’s cultural landscape.
“There’s a real sense of possibility about La Boite’s next chapter,” Prowse said. “We’re bringing remarkable artists together, investing in new Australian writing and creating work that we believe will resonate well beyond the Roundhouse.”
The announcement of La Boite’s 2027 season comes as the theatre progresses its recruitment of its next Artistic Director and Co-CEO, with an appointment expected before Christmas.
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