Theatre is in a really exciting place right now.
It has opened itself out to other art forms and fresh enunciations. Movement, music and image have been released from their boxes and often contribute as much as the spoken word. Large companies are collaborating with smaller companies. Independent theatre has grown quite sophisticated and is creating fascinating work. International connections are now commonplace. This new openness, this keen spirit of adventure, has delivered many rewards for both artists and audiences.
In 2010 La Boite will be alive onstage for 40 weeks. This is longer than we've ever played in the Roundhouse Theatre and double what we achieved in 2009. In making the leap, we have embraced Brisbane's hungry independent theatre community, long starved of space and opportunity, and extended the hand of creative collaboration to those in other nations, cities, and artistic disciplines. I believe this is crucial. Curiosity is a basic requirement for a buoyant theatre company just as it is for a thriving artist. To be curious is to look outward and to defy boundaries.
We have eleven productions in 2010. Our five main productions are joined by two made for children and young people and four from independent theatres. This is theatre that is brave and full of life. This is theatre to get the heart and mind racing.
We bounce from the musical sparkle of The Gruffalo to the spectacular cataclysm of Hamlet. In Stockholm, we meet the world's most perfect couple and watch them dance, act, cook and sweat their way to a transfixing climax. The world's oldest and most eccentric couple greets hundreds of guests in The Chairs, all waiting to hear the meaning of life before having the rug pulled out from under them in one of theatre's great cosmic jokes. I Love You, Bro sweeps us into a real-life love story that defies belief. Gwen in Purgatory matches Australia's finest director with our best young writer and takes us to the heart of faith and family. Engine grants us authentic access to teenage inspiration.
2010 is a year that will feed your curiosity and freshen your desires, for our theatre is an arena of inquiry and a coliseum of the senses. It's a theatre of bodies and minds, of sweat and song, of life and love. Seize it.
David Berthold
Artistic Director
