Tender Napalm - La Boite Theatre Company & Brisbane Festival (2012)
This is the story of you and your first great love...
A young couple face an unnamed catastrophe. They wind their love back to its beginnings through a fantastical, erotic world of serpent slayings, monkey wars, alien abductions and a shipwrecked paradise. Dangerously and absolutely, they dream and dance themselves into the secret places of love and desire, back to the ecstasy of their first kiss.
Philip Ridley's daring new play is like no other. It boldly traverses the delicate and the brutal and maps the journey from first attraction to consuming devotion. This La Boite and Brisbane Festival production draws together a sensational creative team, including La Boite Artistic Director David Berthold and Australian Dance Theatre Artistic Director Garry Stewart, truly one of the world's great contemporary dance makers.
If you think you know love, think again.
At La Boite's Roundhouse Theatre, Brisbane, for a strictly limited season 21 September - 13 October 2012.
Bookings:
Director David Berthold
Choreographer Garry Stewart
Designer Justin Nardella
Lighting Designer Daniel Anderson
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
with Ellen Bailey & Kurt Phelan
Video by
Tender Napalm trailer soundtrack composed & recorded by Daniel Keogh
Neon Tiger // Coming soon
A LA BOITE PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRISBANE POWERHOUSE
NEON TIGER
A new musical love story set to the beat of Bangkok
BY JULIA-ROSE LEWIS
COMPOSED BY GILLIAN COSGRIFF
WORLD PREMIERE
The adult gap-year you never knew you needed.
Book now:
Fast, frivolous and continuously flashing, the always-awake playground of a tourist mecca in Bangkok paints the scene for Neon Tiger – a new Australian musical love story.
Chatterbox: Wednesday 7 November
Video by Optikal Bloc
Book now:
Machina @ La Boite- Sneak Preview - Rehearsals shot with undercover mobile!
QNews managed to by-pass the security people and film a snippet sneak preview of the rehearsals of their brand new playMACHINA that will debut @ La Boite May 8th-24th .
This is just the rehearsal space, no costumes, no makeup or lighting, no set just the RAW DEAL! They will kill us when they find out that we shot this on our phone but we just had to share this raw unedited footage. This is going to be one hell of a play and the bits we saw were compelling, funny and totally captures today's technology society and relationships and stuff. We kept laughing, so they eventually asked us if we would like a cup of coffee in the cafe, downstairs :) Cool people and crew and hot actors. The coffee was also nice!
From the writer of the hugely successful 25 Down Richard Jordan. It's really about the way we live now. About living on your phones; on Facebook, on Twitter, on Grinder, on Instagram, or Snapchat. Having a billion, I guess, ways to connect with people or feel constantly connected but also feeling isolated at the same time. It's a very funny play, especially with the Tom and Scott story-lines. In particular, It's about people being scared of intimacy but we treat it with a lot of humour. (short season likely to sell out quickly)
Full details here
The Séance - La Boite Indie Season 2013
This year, La Boite invites you to help choose one of six independent groups to move to QPAC in 2014. Voting opens 30 November 2013 --
ABOUT THE SÉANCE:
The Séance is an intimate performance encounter for a circle of people who wish to make contact with the ghost of a deceased Hollywood celebrity. With sixth senses attuned and palms turned skyward, sitters will invite into the room a restless spirit from the other side... Maybe you will see the face of God. Maybe nothing will happen.
Presented La Boite Indie & NO SHOW with the support of QPAC
Created by Mark Pritchard & Bridget Balodis
Producer: Bek Berger
Designer: Mattea Davies
Instrument Designer: Matthias Schack-Arnott with Sophie Webb
ABOUT LA BOITE INDIE:
La Boite Indie Season 2013 comprises six carefully selected works of dazzling range and is one of the leading platforms for independent theatre in Australia. Now in its fourth year, it's a curated season of independent works, occupying our specially reimagined 95-seat Roundhouse Theatre or other spaces in the precinct. La Boite Indie aims to nurture a more sustainable independent theatre culture, to cultivate new audiences, to enable closer ties between independent practice and La Boite, and to help create more outstanding, contemporary works for theatre.
Supported by La Boite, QPAC and Brisbane Airport Corporation.
Sunnytown - Trailer
Sunnytown is a surreal journey through a young girl’s subconscious. A dark and beguiling production created by some of Brisbane's leading theatre-makers, it explores the consequences of choosing to cope when change is your only hope
Director - Heather Fairbairn
Designer - Catherine Steele
Script Dramaturgy - Kathryn Kelly and Peter Matheson
Assistant Director - Jessica Palfrey
Producer - Emma Joenpolvi
Lighting Designer - Jason Glenwright
Sound Designer - Guy Webster
Stage Manager - Laura Hansford
with Caroline Dunphy, Olivia Hall-Smith, Ron Kelly and Vanessa Krummenacher.
Presented by La Boite Indie and Shot in the Dark with the support of QPAC.
Supported by The Arts Centre Gold Coast Works in Progress Program, and Playlab’s Lab Rats program.
Sunnytown is supported by Creative Partnership Australia through MATCH.
Sunnytown is supported by the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts’ Fresh Ground Space initiative, made possible through Arts Queensland.
The Wizard of Oz
A cyclone is coming! Get ready to be blown away by THE WIZARD OF OZ at La Boite, 7-28 September. Book now at
From Darkness - Education Video 2019
Book now:
From Darkness
A LA BOITE & BRISBANE FESTIVAL CO-PRODUCTION
7 – 28 September, 2019
Suitable for Grade 10-12
Curriculum Links:
- Contemporary Performance
- Contemporary Realism
- Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Forms
- Magical Realism
La Boite School Bookings:
A gripping, darkly funny drama about a spiritual force and a family’s need to connect with it.
It’s the anniversary of Vinnie’s death. His brother, 17-year old Preston is being visited by spirits— seemingly tormenting him while he sleeps. His sister, Akira buries her pain in her phone. Their father, Eric, is in denial and their mother, Abigail, is numbing her pain with drink, while Nan is coping with it all by talking… a lot.
There’s no denying that Preston’s on the cusp of something otherworldly. The family’s disconnect from each other and the world has gone on long enough. It’s time to purge the past to embrace the present, if they’re to have a future, and an encounter with spirits might just be the catalyst they all need.
Steven Oliver’s (Black Comedy, Black Queen Black King) deeply moving new play deep-dives into contemporary family politics and the connection between culture, grief and our humanity, with Oliver’s signature aplomb.
In his debut at La Boite, Isaac Drandic directs this incredible new Australian work with a stellar Indigenous cast.
Video by Georgia Serginson
Show Me Yours, Ill Show You Mine - La Boite Indie Season 2013
This year, La Boite invites you to help choose one of six independent groups to move to QPAC in 2014. Voting opens 30 November 2013 --
ABOUT SHOW ME YOURS:
Two men discuss love, life & the ins-and-outs of sex work
Not-Nick makes money from people who are genuinely in love with him. In a conversation with Tim Spencer, the male sex worker (portrayed by Charles Purcell) tells us about his work, his family and his love life. This scripted interview is an alluring study of integrity and play acting, made volatile by the rules of theatre. The men gently pry into each other's lives and discover the sheer pleasure of generosity and candour.
Widely held assumptions about sex work and theatre set up invisible cultural collisions between the two men, but if there is nothing risked, there is nothing gained.
Presented by La Boite Indie & Tamarama Rock Surfers with the support of QPAC
Director: Scarlet McGlynn
Sound Designer: Max Rapley
Lighting Designer: Jason Glenwright
Dramaturg: Charles Purcell
Producer: Nuala Furtado
with Charles Purcell & Tim Spencer
ABOUT LA BOITE INDIE:
La Boite Indie Season 2013 comprises six carefully selected works of dazzling range and is one of the leading platforms for independent theatre in Australia. Now in its fourth year, it's a curated season of independent works, occupying our specially reimagined 95-seat Roundhouse Theatre or other spaces in the precinct. La Boite Indie aims to nurture a more sustainable independent theatre culture, to cultivate new audiences, to enable closer ties between independent practice and La Boite, and to help create more outstanding, contemporary works for theatre.
Supported by La Boite, QPAC and Brisbane Airport Corporation.
Please note: this show is intended for an audience over the age of 16 as the piece explores adult themes.
La Boite 2019 // Season with Todd MacDonald
A beautiful collision of incredible history and future vision - welcome to La Boite's 2019 Season: laboite.com.au
Season 2019 trailer featuring introduction by Artistic Director Todd MacDonald.
See the next incredible Australian story, an old favourite returned or a re imagined classic..
Secure your seat with a Season Pass now:
2019 SEASON
Single Asian Female
by Michelle Law
16 Feb - 9 March 2019
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
25 May - 15 June 2019
From Darkness
by Steven Oliver
World Premiere
7 - 28 Sep 2019
Christmas Actually
by Adam Brunes and Naomi Price
27 Nov - 7 Dec 2019
Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts
Adapted for the stage by shake & stir theatre co
24 - 28 Jul 2019
Open Homes
by Jeffrey Tan (Singapore)
25 Oct - 10 Nov 2019
Open Homes // Coming soon
OPEN HOMES
25 OCT – 10 NOV 2019
LIKE MEETING AN OLD FRIEND FOR THE FIRST TIME
PRESENTED BY LA BOITE & BACKBONE
Personal stories from Brisbane’s neighbourhoods — this is theatre in someone's living room.
Ever wanted to step inside someone’s house, out of sheer curiosity? Open Homes is your invitation—a unique theatre experience coming to Brisbane in 2019.
The doors of local homes will be flung open over three weekends as residents invite us into their private spaces and enchant us with personal stories, histories and anecdotes. Facilitated by Brisbane-based theatre-makers, each 30-minute performance will deliver an intimate view of the heartbreak and humour, comedy and chaos, and domestic dramas and dreams that take place in our apartment buildings, Queenslanders and neighbourhoods across the city.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Lead Artist: Jeffrey Tan
Theatre Facilitators: Ayeesha Ash, Nadine McDonald-Dowd, Grace Edward, Katrina Graham, Lucinda Shaw, Todd MacDonald, Sean Mee, and Katherine Quigley
Storytellers: Amanda & Troy Casey, Virginia & Bob Dyer, Valerie Ferdinands, Léonie Flood , Lauren & Simon Fung, Angela Chaplin & David Gerrand, Abdul Ibrahimi, Michael Jeh, Anshula & Michael Jones, Gerald Keaney, Sam McGeown, Leon Miller, MJ O’Neill, Dee & Renny Rennie and Colin Young
Michelle Law talks about SINGLE ASIAN FEMALE Accessible
Presented by La Boite Theatre Company
Interpreted by Leanne and Bec Creative Access
Original video by optikal bloc
Single Asian Female
11 February – 4 March 2017
Auslan Interpreted Performance - 2 March 2017
Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia
laboite.com.au
La Boite 2019 // Season Launch
A beautiful collision of incredible history and future vision -
See the next incredible Australian story, an old favourite returned, or a reimagined classic with our 2019 Season.
Secure your seat with a Season Pass now:
SEASON 2019
Single Asian Female
by Michelle Law
16 Feb - 9 Mar 2019
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
25 May - 15 Jun 2019
Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes & Dirty Beasts
Adapted for the stage by shake & stir co
24 - 28 Jul 2019
From Darkness
by Steven Oliver
7 - 28 Sep 2019
Open Homes
by Jeffrey Tan (Singapore)
25 Oct - 10 Nov 2019
Christmas Actually
by Adam Brunes & Naomi Price
27 Nov - 7 Dec 2019
A Doll's House - La Boite Theatre Company
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen in a new version by Lally Katz
Nora seems to have it all - a successful husband, adorable children and a beautiful home. But this picture perfect life is actually a complicated trap of secrets and lies. Here is a story of domestic revolution, marriage and motherhood, female empowerment and the journey towards self-liberation.
Henrik Ibsen’s great psychological thriller was recently named as the world’s most performed play. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s brilliantly plotted, boasts striking characters, and tells a story that’s still as charged and moving as it was 135 years ago.
In a superb new version by Lally Katz, one of Australia’s most gifted playwrights, and directed by Steven Mitchell Wright, one of our most intrepid directors, this enduring masterpiece will be a highlight of La Boite’s season and the 2014 Brisbane Festival.
Season 6 - 27 Sep 2014
Show Times
Tues & Wed 6.30pm
Thurs - Sat 7.30pm
Selected 11am and 2pm matinees, and Monday performance
Venue Roundhouse Theatre
Tickets $25 - $68
Video and editing by optikal bloc
More information at laboite.com.au
Queensland Leaders stand up this White Ribbon Day
Thirteen of Queensland’s prominent business and community leaders have generously given their time to take part in a video supporting White Ribbon Australia’s 2015 campaign to end men’s violence against women.
White Ribbon Day (25 November) is about recognising the positive role that men play in preventing violence against women. This annual campaign fosters and encourages male leadership in the prevention of violence against women, based on the understanding that most men are not violent.
The silence around men’s violence against women has been broken. Change is happening. Increasingly men are standing up, speaking out and acting to prevent violence against women.
Our CEO, Todd MacDonald, is proud to be one of those men and part of the “Queensland Leaders Stand up campaign” as part of White Ribbon Day 2015.
Participants in the video campaign were:
• David Cant, CEO, Brisbane Housing Company
• Dr Michael Carroll, Principal, St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace
• Damian Frawley, CEO, QIC
• Lance Hockridge, CEO Aurizon
• Todd MacDonald, CEO and Artistic Director, LaBoite Theatre Company
• Dominic McGann, Chairman of Partners, McCullough Robertson
• Paul McLean, CEO, Savills Australia
• Zimi Meka, CEO, Ausenco
• The Right Hon. The Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Councillor, Graham Quirk
• Geoff Rodgers, Chairman, Rowland
• Dave Stewart, Director General, Department of the Premier and Cabinet
• Stephen Tait, CEO, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland
• Richard Wankmuller, CEO and Managing Director, Cardno
Men and women have worked tirelessly as part of the White Ribbon campaign over the last twelve years to engage and support men and boys to be drivers of the cultural change that is needed to prevent violence against women. The Campaign is one way to publicly voice your support for the cause and to bring about much needed attitudinal and behavioural change.
To show your support please go to day and stand up, speak out and act to prevent men’s violence against women.
A huge thank you to Rowland Group and Kanvas Four Consulting who have produced this video on a pro-bono basis.
SUE RIDER:Women in Theatre Exhibition
Sue Rider is a Brisbane-based director, writer, dramaturg and producer. Sue pursues the development of new writing and interprets existing works in theatre, music theatre, opera and theatre for young people, working across Australia and regularly in New Zealand. She is the recipient of eighteen industry awards for her productions and for writing and direction of her own plays, including five Matilda Awards, three NZ Listener Awards and a Helpmann nomination. From 1993 to 2000, Sue was Artistic Director of La Boite Theatre, leading the company to professional status and focusing on the development of local artists and contemporary Australian works. In 2001 she was awarded a Special Matilda Commendation for sustained contribution to Queensland theatre and in 2009 received the Playlab Award for outstanding contribution to the development of new work for performance in Queensland. Sue is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Queensland and Chair of Backbone Youth Arts.
greater than less than Romeo ampersand Juliet
Ten people aged 18-25 gather in a room. They play, dance, fight, kiss and talk about life, love, violence, sex and death. Taking Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, they remix the work by hanging new meat on the skeleton of the story. As the tale takes hold, the party dies down and the group sees the bloody consequences of their experiments.
Helpmann Award nominee Lucas Stibbard leads a cast of Brisbane's bravest emerging artists in this deconstruction and reconstruction of the greatest love story ever told.
Presented by La Boite Indie & The Breadbeard Collective with the support of QPAC
SUE RIDER:Women in theatre exhibition
Brisbane-based director, writer, dramaturg and producer. Sue pursues the development of new writing and interprets existing works in theatre, music theatre, opera and theatre for young people, working across Australia and regularly in New Zealand. She is the recipient of eighteen industry awards for her productions and for writing and direction of her own plays, including five Matilda Awards, three NZ Listener Awards and a Helpmann nomination. From 1993 to 2000, Sue was Artistic Director of La Boite Theatre, leading the company to professional status and focusing on the development of local artists and contemporary Australian works. In 2001 she was awarded a Special Matilda Commendation for sustained contribution to Queensland theatre and in 2009 received the Playlab Award for outstanding contribution to the development of new work for performance in Queensland. Sue is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Queensland and Chair of Backbone Youth Arts.
NPF14 'SAMSON' - Julia-Rose Lewis and Tim Roseman
At the 2014 National Play Festival in Sydney, Julia-Rose Lewis' 'Samson' featured in a program of new work in development.
Julia-Rose is a stage and screen writer based in Sydney. She has worked with companies including Griffin, ATYP, La Boite, Brisbane Powerhouse, Metro Arts and Grin & Tonic. In 2013, Julia was a playwright-in-residence with La Boite Theatre Company, a mentee in the ATYP National Mentoring Program and a Playwriting Australia Dramaturgy Intern.
ABOUT 'SAMSON'
They head towards the light. They burst from their chrysalis. But is their journey over? Six actors rehearse a play exploring gender and Asian identity.
Using words from the transcripts of over twenty-five interviews, Michele Lee offers a refreshing and hilarious take on 'the play within a play'. The conversation that unfolds will surprise and confront the actors and us.
Blindscape - La Boite Indie Season 2013
This year, La Boite invites you to help choose one of six independent groups to move to QPAC in 2014. Voting opens 30 November 2013 --
ABOUT BLINDSCAPE:
Our personal technologies have become an extension of ourselves. Blindscape looks to exploit that connection to engage its audience in a visceral environment that collapses real and imagined boundaries.
Using a provided iPhone, pre-loaded with the specially designed Blindscape App, you enter the virtual world as you enter the performance space. The Blindscape App is a 3D audio-virtual reality. Coloured in by an unseen hand, perception and reality fold over as you explore corridors, doorways and landscapes -- four unique stages of discovery moving to a final place of reflection. The light from your phone helps you to view fragments of circus which are spectacular but elusive, in this rare performance experience.
Presented by La Boite Indie & Skye Gellmann with the support of QPAC
Initiating artist/Collaborator/Performer: Skye Gellmann
Collaborator/Performer: Kieran Law
Producer: Gareth Hart
Programmer: Dylan Sale
Sound Design: Thom Browning
ABOUT LA BOITE INDIE:
La Boite Indie Season 2013 comprises six carefully selected works of dazzling range and is one of the leading platforms for independent theatre in Australia. Now in its fourth year, it's a curated season of independent works, occupying our specially reimagined 95-seat Roundhouse Theatre or other spaces in the precinct. La Boite Indie aims to nurture a more sustainable independent theatre culture, to cultivate new audiences, to enable closer ties between independent practice and La Boite, and to help create more outstanding, contemporary works for theatre.
Supported by La Boite, QPAC and Brisbane Airport Corporation.
Single Asian Female // Coming Soon
A heartfelt comedy about family, culture and the strength of women.
Michelle Law’s (Homecoming Queens, Bloomers) incisive and hilarious comedy Single Asian Female, tackling race and gender in contemporary Australia, is back.
Book now:
SEASON: 16 Feb - 9 March 2019
Tickets from $35
Single Asian Female follows the story of the Wong family as they deal with some of life’s big questions and explore what it means to be an Asian woman in Australia. Step into the afterhours of a suburban Chinese restaurant and meet the whip smart women who are definitely talking about you in their native tongue.
With two sisters at odds with each other and a mother harbouring a secret that threatens to tear her family apart, Single Asian Female is Australian domesticity like you’ve never seen it before.
Catch the Wong family in their return to the La Boite stage, following a sold out 2018 season in Sydney at Belvoir.
4 star review in The Australian
5 star review in The Guardian
“Joyful, and laugh-out-loud funny from start to end...” Suzy Wrong
This work was developed with the assistance of the Lotus Playwriting Project, an initiative of Playwriting Australia and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (formerly Performance 4a).
Trailer by Optikal Bloc: