Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre takes a stand in 2026, with a compelling programme of mainstage works promising resistance, rebirth, and belonging.
La Boite turned 100 in 2025. Now, it strides confidently into the next century, with a season grounded in big ideas and dreams, fuelled by fearlessness, and filled with moments of beauty and understanding.
First up – a modern reimagining of Greek myth ‘Antigone’. It’s a story of protest and defiance, with an iconic heroine played by Maddison Burridge. La Boite Artistic Director and CEO Courtney Stewart will adapt the classic, and co-direct with Nigel Poulton.
“I’m really excited to strip back the text and see Nigel bring some of those big scenes to life physically. Having Antigone as a scrappy, tough, bolshy, young woman will keep the fire burning in a classic play that scrutinises the fine line we tread between democracy and dictatorship.”
Then, there’s the apocalyptic buddy adventure ‘Eat Slay Zombie’ – a new work about friendship, and finding your way in an inhospitable world by emerging playwright Alinta McGrady, directing alongside Lisa Fa’alafi.
“La Boite is continuing to invest in contemporary First Nations voices, asking artists what stories they want to tell and how they want to tell them. There’s a big theme of resistance that runs through Eat Slay Zombie but this beautiful story of friendship and found family sits at the forefront.”
Climate responsibility is put centre stage for ‘Second Coming’. It’s the third instalment in Queensland playwright Kathryn Marquet’s eco-feminist triptych, following ‘Pale Blue Dot’ and ‘The Dead Devils Of Cockle Creek’.
“I’m excited about the conversations that this will spark around what right we have to take our problems elsewhere,” Courtney says. “Kathryn’s perspective on the climate crisis will pose some challenging questions and touch on our human need to hold on to things. It is exciting, horrifying, terrifying, larger-than-life and very funny.”
'Eat Slay Zombie'
Wrapping up the 2026 mainstage season is a search for identity and family, in ‘Koreaboo’.
‘Koreaboo’ mirrors the experience of acclaimed Australian performer Michelle Lim Davidson, and marks her writing debut.
“‘Koreaboo’ is a work of fiction but steeped in lived experience. Michelle has been quite open in her journey as an intercountry adoptee and has since made trips back to South Korea to try to connect with her birth mother. This play came out of that very personal line of inquiry,” Courtney describes.
Outside of the mainstage events, La Boite will continue its dedication to artists and audience development, with the return of the Assembly programme. It’s a six-month skills development programme supporting emerging writers, directors and actors in creating a new short work for the stage.
Plus, there’ll be an extensive programme of in-school and in-theatre workshops, post-show Q&As, and ‘Stage Secrets’, exposing students to the myriad pathways into the theatre industry.
“We want to have those conversations with our audiences in a way that holds on to the humanity, heart and even humour of what’s going on in the world,” Courtney Stewart says of the 2026 season.
“Humour is not used in a way to undercut or take the heat out of the conversations but rather, it is akin to hope.
“If anything’s going to help us hold onto hope, to find the answers that we need to make meaningful change, we need to have that shared humanity and laughter to help us take in what’s happening, digest it, synthesise it, understand it and then act on it.”
La Boite Theatre’s (Brisbane) 2026 season begins with ‘Antigone’.
