AustLit

'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 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.

'Rice explores the business of global food production, namely rice, and women in business. There are two main characters. The central character is Nisha. She’s 28, a young and precocious corporate hotshot working as the Executive Officer of Golden Fields, Australia’s biggest rice company. She’s a second generation Indian. Yvette is 61, Chinese; she’s a cleaner in the Golden Fields building. Golden Fields is in Melbourne; Nisha and Yvette play all the other characters.

'Nisha is close to sealing a confidential contract with the Indian government, which would see Golden Fields taking over India’s public food distribution systems – rice is a major staple distributed through this system. This secret contract is worth billions. When a flood in one of the southern states in India looks to distract the government and delay the deal, Nisha decides that she needs to go to India to finalise the contract in person, taking with her Graeme, the CEO, and Tom, the marketing manager that Nisha has romantic feelings for.

'Yvette’s daughter, Sheree, is facing charges for a protest that resulted in the assault of the CEO of Coles.'

Source: Author's website (http://www.michelevanlee.com.au/current-projects/rice/) (Sighted: 12/07/2016)

'What if Oedipus lived next door? What if the whole street knew what he’d been up to with his own mother, because of the word daubed in fluorescent letters on his garage door?

'Queensland Premier’s Drama Award winner Daniel Evans brings the drama and horror of an Ancient Greek myth to the sleepy cul-de-sacs of modern Australian disturbia in this wild, wonderful ride spinning off from Sophocles’ 2500-year-old Theban plays. Evans (The China Incident, I Want to Know What Love Is, I Should Have Drunk More Champagne) shines a blacklight into the bedrooms and basements of the most infamous family in mythology by reimagining them as the unseen but most gossiped-about family on the block.

'In this dark and savagely funny play we’re led by a chorus of quirky characters into the secret, tragic, desperate lives of a family cursed to be the centre of attention. Evans asks what devils lurk in our own backyards? How do tight-knit communities cope with unspeakable tragedy? How do we point the finger when there’s nowhere to lay the blame? And who ends up playing the monster?

'Oedipus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is the story of a tragedy no one saw coming, but everyone wants to talk about.' (Production summary)

'Clara lives with her partner, Erik, in a clean, modern home untouched by a flood that has ravaged many parts of their town. Recently unemployed and growing fat and slovenly, her days are spent in front of the television, awash with images of disasters and destruction and programs that flaunt versions of the woman Clara could be if she tried. She is overwhelmed to the point of apathy; immobilised. Feeling so numb, she toys with Erik'’s emotions, and sends him on excursions to fetch her obscure items for a book he has obligated her to make, as if to extract some new reaction from him. She is, perhaps, trying to sabotage their comfort.

'One stormy night, Eugenie comes to the door as a Jehovah'’s Witness to speak to them about the End Days. When she is invited in to take shelter, the evening soon drips with danger, violence, and ugly truths. And Clara’'s hideous troll skin will be revealed and burst open. ' (Publisher's blurb)