Observatory Theatre has launched their 2024 season, unveiling a year of new works by Brisbane-based playwrights and with a strong focus on creative development.
The season will open with a staged reading and post-show discussion of The Cane, a “hauntingly beautiful and viscerally atmospheric” new play by Fen Carter, in March: a meditation on the lives we make for ourselves in order to survive, the things that bind us to our past, and the easy isolation that can befall remote communities.
Initially slated for 2023, Oliver Gough’s satire Disney Off Ice will then premiere in August, exploring the legacy of cultural icons in the twenty-first century, and what it means to be successful in a post-capitalist world. Throughout the year, Observatory Theatre will also have three (3) new plays by Brisbane creatives in development: Grace Wilson’s fan-fiction drama Pony Club, Samantha Hill’s black comedy The Blackbird Killing, and a new fairytale-inspired musical from Anina-Marie Van Wyk, From The Cinders.
The Cane
by Fen Carter
23-24 March 2024
Studio1, Station Rd, Yeerongpilly
A run-down sugarcane farm in North Queensland. A brother and sister remain. Pandora stays to honour the passing of their mother and sister. Peter cannot bring himself to protest. The house is falling apart, the curling wallpaper filled with unspeakable memories. And boy next door William, with his eyes set on bigger things, has the two of them in the palm of his hand.
Disney Off Ice
by Oliver Gough
Aug 16 – Sep 1
Studio1, Station Rd, Yeerongpilly
After decades spent frozen in the cryonic tank of urban legend, Walt Disney is feeling refreshed and ready to make his mark in the new world. But times have changed. The theme parks are gone. And he finds himself the property of a giant corporation and at the heel of a strict publicist determined to set him straight. Welcome to the future, Disney.
In Development in 2024:
Pony Club (working title) by Grace Wilson, dramaturgy by Emma Churchland.
Commissioned through the Telescope New Writing Program.
“Pony Club” is an overnight fan-fiction sensation – with over 90 thousand reads and 22 thousand favourites, the name is synonymous with success. Little does the public know that the author PonyLuvr459 is a group of five teenage writers and they plan to keep it this way. One doesn’t have time for stardom, two have overbearing parents, one owns a cattle farm and the other is scared to be seen writing, well, fanfiction. That is until one team member anonymously leaks the identities of the five writers to the world before their big finale chapter. Confused, conflicted, and thrust into a world of Harry Potter superfans, a Twitter coup and a Tom Felton cameo, the team must figure out who the mole is before the rest of PonyLuvr459 is leaked to the rest of the internet.
The Blackbird Killing (working title) by Samantha Hill, dramaturgy by Emma Churchland.
Commissioned through the Telescope New Writing Program.
Sloane is disillusioned with mindless, low-skilled work, but knows it’s her path for the next 30 years. Relationships and children are not going to happen, and it’s been so long since she had a real friend that she’s wondering if her life has any purpose at all. But then she hits on a solution. That special tarot card that has followed her around her whole life has been trying to tell her something: Sloane’s meant to kill her boss and save everyone. Obviously. The Blackbird Killing is a black comedy about people searching for community, and some kind of life and identity beyond work.
From The Cinders (working title) by Anina-Marie Van Wyk, dramaturgy by Lachlan Driscoll
A musical reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella, redefining the identities of its central characters. The idea of a “Cinderella story” is exposed as a tale that is reenacted repeatedly in our society, highlighting the patriarchal ideas it teaches around love, self-image, happy marriages, and “happily ever after.” The work weaves together an anthology of character studies, unraveling key moments in their lives, challenging ideas of beauty as ‘goodness’ and ugly as ‘evil’. What is ugly really? The musical peels back the guise of illusion and magic, exposing the complex, very real characters behind the stereotypes. Using Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella as a backdrop to explore gender roles, diverse characters, queerness, feminism and otherness, From The Cinders is about finding the courage to expose one’s true authentic self in a world where we’re sold the magic of the illusion.
To read more about the 2024 season, and to book tickets, visit the Observatory Theatre website
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