AustLit

'Joan needs her father. She hasn't seen him since he left her and her Mum when she was just a little girl. She wants answers. she wants history, she wants to know more about who she is. She travels a long way into country as remote as it is strange to this city girl. She finds Mick; a man who doesn't speak much, and who bears little resemblance to the man who taught her to play Scrabble all those years ago.

'But amid the flies. the heat. the dust and the stillness of this small river town, lurk many ghosts and mysteries. Over cups of tea and Scrabble in Mick's weather-beaten old house, Joan is about to discover some family secrets that have been hidden below the surface for decades.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'Afghanistan 2011. Our Australian soldiers. A war no-one wins.

'Welcome to the remote Combat Outpost Mirage, home to eight Aussie Diggers mired in our longest war. From this tiny fortification overlooking a beautiful valley in the forbidding mountains of Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, Captain Trent Kelly and his men have a lot to deal with. When they aren't mentoring a platoon from the Afghan National Army, they're patrolling for Taliban insurgents, negotiating with a powerful local warlord, or simply making it through another day a long way from home.

'Written by a serving soldier and veteran of Iraq and afghanistan, First Casualty is a debut play like no other. It's an authentic account of the real lives of Australian troops at war—the triumphs and the tragedies, the strains and the sacrifices, the pressure and the release. There's tension, occasional explosions of violence, and humou, but at its heart First Casualty is about the friendship of the soldiers who have given up so much for their country.

'This is not an anti-war story. This is not a pro-war story. This is a story of soldiers—the sons, the husbands, the fathers, the people we love.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'In a year spent tending to the dead, a young man learns to live.

'Steve never imagined he’d end up working in the funeral industry. But when he finds himself living back home in Toowoomba to save up for his wedding, it’s the only job he can get.

'The year he spends working among the dead opens his eyes to what awaits us at the end and what it means to live.

'With respect, wit and a nod to pop-culture, Steve takes us on a journey that celebrates finding your place in the world, the power of personal redemption and humility in the face of the big questions.

'It’s a refreshing, honest and surprisingly uplifting invitation to start the conversations we all try to avoid.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'The Government has given us eternal youth, and we should be eternally grateful.

'In the not too distant future, coming-of-age is a little different. Thanks to a fantastic scientific discovery, wisdom no longer comes with age. Wisdom now comes with a strict pharmaceutical regimen, and it’s all government mandated.

'But an idyllic, strictly regulated existence free of the shackles of aging isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When side effects start to spread and citizens become aware of the lengths the state will go to maintain order, the only answer is revolution.' (Production summary)

'It’s the not-too-distant future, and with a defiant cry of QUEENSLANDER!, we’ve broken away. Again.

'First Lady Phaedra and President Theseus are building a mighty wall along Queensland's southern border to keep the 'filthy' Newies from our gates. When Theseus takes off with the triumphant Broncos on a moraleboosting tour, Phaedra is left alone to run the country and look after Theseus' teenage son, Hip, newly arrived from boarding school.

'Hip's arrival stirs something in Phaedra she never expected and when Hip's mother shows up on the doorstep, too … well you know what they say about Queensland. Beautiful one day, tragic the next.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'Eli Bell’s childhood in the outer Brisbane suburbs is far from the idyllic 1980s haze some kids would remember. His alcoholic dad has shot through, his ex-druggie mum is in jail, his stepfather’s dealing heroin, his brother Gus is a mute who swirls cryptic messages in the air with his finger, and his babysitter Slim is a convicted killer and infamous escapee from Boggo Road Gaol.

'Beset by chaos on all sides, a run-in with the local crime king and his henchman sets the 13 year old with the old soul on a journey to find out what kind of a man he is going to be.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The Holidays are on holiday: 12-year-old Oliver has been pulled out of school for an unexpected road trip with his mum and dad, en route to grandad’s seaside shack. But grandad, an eccentric artist, is not there. In this unkempt place stuffed with memories, it seems that the Holidays - instead of getting away from it all - have taken a lot with them.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'Scotty has it all: a multimillion-dollar loft in downtown Manhattan, a high-flying Wall Street job, and he’s about to marry the perfect fiancée, who also happens to be loaded. But when he meets trans performance artist Dexie, he discovers he wants something more. A friend? A confidante? A lover?

'When the secret of their affair gets out, it’s sure to shock not only his dudebro Jase, his highly-strung mother Deb, and his lesbian activist sister Claire, but also a theatre audience strapped in for the ride of their lives.

'From the wickedly funny pen of Australian-born, New York-based playwright, comedienne and performer Glace Chase, this play is an hilarious, honest and emotionally affecting look at entitlement, hypocrisy, and the realities of love.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'On board flight 404 a photojournalist settles in for another normal journey, but when their fellow passengers start seeming a little too familiar they’re forced to confront the subjects from all the photos they’ve shot across the years.

'Faced with a career’s worth of documented trauma, conflict, hardship, and grief the photojournalist, stuck in a tin can thirty thousand feet in the air, is forced to question the ethics of bringing about change one photo at a time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'All Breythe ever wanted was to be an actor, but this isn’t how he imagined his first big television gig – as a young Aboriginal man, being the face of a disastrous misfire of an advertisement that will get him roasted by his mob.

'When a messenger bird suddenly brings Breythe tragic tidings from his family, it spurs him on a journey of grief and duty. Returning home to Kalgoorlie, he is thrust headlong into family conflict and the reality of what it means to be an Indigenous youth in today’s Australia.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'They were writers, dreamers and free spirits. In the 1950s, Australian authors Charmian Clift and George Johnston fled halfway across the world to the idyllic Greek island of Hydra, determined to carve out a bohemian living as artists.

'As they revel in their picturesque community, far off the world’s literary map, inspiration for the great Australian work strikes. But a many-headed monster of jealousy, infidelity, illness and alcoholism also rises from the crystal blue waters of their sun-kissed island home.

'Award-winning Sue Smith weaves the original writings of two of Australia’s literary icons into a moving relationship drama. She conjures the passion and intensity of the near mythical ‘King and Queen of Hydra’ as they follow their dream, only to end up in a Greek tragedy of their own making.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

The Wider Earth recounts 'in epic form a scientific voyage of discovery that would, in the end, rock the foundations of religion and revolutionise scientific thought.' Over two hours, and with the incorporation of puppetry, writer/director David Morton focuses 'unwaveringly on Darwin’s journey from dilettantish family disgrace to tormented scientific pioneer thrown headlong into conflict with God' (Buzzacott).

In his review of the 2016 premiere production Martin Buzacott writes of the production's conception:

The kicker comes with the puppetry, beautifully rendered moving incarnations of the wildlife that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution. These gorgeous and charming creations (in part ­inspired by Handspring Puppet Company in Cape Town) not only captivate the audience’s imagination but, through theatrical ­estrangement, constantly rein­force the diversity, beauty and wonder of the natural world.

Entranced by the big picture horizons of galaxies and maps projected on to the cavernous Bille Brown Studio walls, the audience journeys with Darwin on the Beagle’s voyage in which 19th-century Bible-bashing runs headlong into evidence contradicting inherited belief (Australian 18 July 2016).

'Anna is coming of age. Possibilities are unfurling in front of her and she’s ready to take control. But her mother’s been standing guard all these years, taking care, editing the choices.

'When Anna makes a decision that could affect the rest of her life, can Renee stand by and watch?'

Source: Royal Exchange Theatre.

A localised version of Ben Elton's first play, this version of Gasp! is set in Australia in the 21st century.

The theatre company offers the following synopsis:

Phillip is an ambitious junior executive for Lockheart Resources, a major Australian mining company on the verge of collapse. The problem? There’s nothing left to mine! Under intense pressure from his boss, Chifley Lockheart, Phillip comes up with an idea for an exclusive new product, one for those that appreciate the finer things in life—designer air.

Phillip’s invention—the Suck ‘n’ Blow—stores air and cleans it before releasing it again, and soon becomes the must-have product for anyone wanting to breathe a little easier. Everything seems to be going well for Phillip; he gets promoted, he’s raking in money, and he’s landed his dream girl. The problem is, the Suck ‘n’ Blow stores too much oxygen, and the air’s getting thinner by the day. It isn’t long before Lockheart comes up with a solution: privatising the air industry. Not just premium air, all air. If you can’t pay, you can’t breathe.

Soon enough, thousands of people are suffering and suffocating, unable to pay the high price of oxygen, while air companies burn the excess to maintain a stable market. People are getting desperate, willing to do anything to breathe, but Lockheart won’t back down. Phillip faces a crisis of conscience, and must choose between his career and his personal convictions.

Source: Black Swan Theatre Company (http://www.bsstc.com.au/season-2014/gasp/). (Sighted: 27/10/2014)

'Young Storm Boy lives a simple yet free life on the coastal wilds of the South Australian Coorong, combing the beaches with his reclusive father, Hideaway Tom.

'During a long summer, he makes two friends who will shepherd him from childhood into adulthood: the jester Fingerbone Bill, who teaches him about his country; and Mr Percival, an orphaned pelican who prepares Storm Boy for the wider world with a poignant lesson about love, loss and letting go.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.