Queensland Theatre Company reveals Season 2026

With its heart on its sleeve and its feelings on show, Queensland Theatre Company’s (QTC) Season 2026 champions work that gets under your skin and stays with you, from the curtain raise to the final bow.

This is a season of landmark collaborations, world premiere works, reimagined classics, fresh voices and trailblazing pioneers – a season that is All Feeling. No Filter.

Season 2026 marks the inaugural season programmed by QTC’s visionary new Artistic Director, Daniel Evans, and it crackles with a deep humanity and raw emotion that begs to be shared and experienced together.

It features eight mainstage productions: four staged at QTC’s Bille Brown Theatre, three at QPAC’s Playhouse, one at Toowoomba’s The Empire Theatre and one at QPAC’s brand-new Glasshouse Theatre.

Coinciding with the Season 2026 launch, the state’s leading arts organisation reaffirms itself as Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) to reflect the collaborative community of artists, theatre makers and supporters who contribute to the company.

2026 MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS

THE GREAT GATSBY

5 – 6 February | The Empire Theatre, Toowoomba

12 February – 8 March | Playhouse, QPAC

Season 2026 begins with an opulent reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic Jazz Age novel, The Great Gatsby, brought to the stage in partnership with the independent and inimitable Shake & Stir Theatre Company. Continuing a new and beloved tradition, this fever dream of excess, escape and aspiration makes its debut at Toowoomba’s historic The Empire Theatre, demonstrating QTC’s commitment to championing a love of theatre across the state.

TORCH THE PLACE

10 – 29 March | Bille Brown Theatre

Torch the Place is the relatable and razor-sharp debut play from Queensland-raised writer Benjamin Law, which unpacks the chaos of family, identity and intergenerational trauma. The profoundly moving comedy dissects the tension between letting go of the past and holding on to what’s dear, featuring Law’s signature whip-smart dialogue and endearing familial characters.

THE SAPPHIRES

28 April – 24 May | Bille Brown Theatre

Immortalised on film, the real-life story of four Yorta Yorta women who sang for troops during the Vietnam War returns to the stage in a knockout new production of The Sapphires. Former QTC Artistic Director Wesley Enoch returns to direct the stellar and soulful musical, which features a talented cast of First Nations artists.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

10 – 26 July | Playhouse, QPAC

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person not in possession of a ticket to 2025’s sold-out Pride & Prejudice, must be in want of an encore season. Audiences can fall in love all over again with the colourful, contemporary take on Jane Austen’s timeless tale when the Regency rom-com returns for another turn about the room.

DO NOT GO GENTLE

11 – 30 August | Bille Brown Theatre

A star-studded cast of Australian theatre veterans rally and rage against silence, diminishing spirits and the slow fade of age in Patricia Cornelius’s Do Not Go Gentle. The Bille Brown Theatre stage transforms into the icy expanse of Antarctica in the haunting, unflinching and ultimately heartening metaphor for old age.

STRONG IS THE NEW PRETTY

1 –19 September | Playhouse, QPAC

The spotlight shines on the quiet power of determined women in Strong is the New Pretty, the untold story of the behind-the-scenes fight that willed the AFLW competition into existence. The world premiere play by revered Australian playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) makes its anticipated debut in partnership with Brisbane Festival, Sydney Theatre Company and Trish Wadley Productions, featuring a cast and creative team of talented women.

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS

13 October – 1 November | Bille Brown Theatre

Embark on a silent retreat with a wayward bunch of misfits in the groundbreaking Small Mouth Sounds. Even without a word being uttered, the audience can tune into the reactions behind the actions, with headphones relaying an audio-immersive symphony of sound effects engineered by the cutting-edge Queensland collective, Counterpilot.

INTO THE WOODS

11 – 21 November | Glasshouse Theatre, QPAC

Season 2026 ends in a fitting crescendo, bringing together three of the state’s cultural powerhouses – Queensland Theatre Company, Opera Queensland and Queensland Symphony Orchestra – in a magical staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods at QPAC’s brand-new Glasshouse Theatre. Forget the fairy tales you think you know; this soaring musical presents a complex and compelling examination of longing, wishes, desire and what really happens after “happily ever after”.