What a year, but The Holidays comes soon for Queensland Theatre

After the year that has been 2020, more than a few of us will be looking forward to the holidays.

But no one will happier for The Holidays to finally arrive than Queensland Theatre’s artistic director, Lee Lewis.

In her first year at the helm of the state company, Lewis has overseen just one show and one preview before the curtain closed due to COVID-19.

But with a COVID-safe plan in place and a theatre capacity reduced by 50 per cent, live performance is set to return the Bille Brown Theatre at South Brisbane.

Breaking the pandemic theatre drought will be the world-premiere season of The Holidays, by David Megarrity, from November 14.

Lewis admits this is not how she expected the 2020 season at Queensland Theatre to turn out.

“It's nothing like I could have imagined and I have a pretty big imagination,” she jokes.
But in the best theatre tradition, the show will go on … finally.

“We’ve pulled together as a team to try to get back to what we do best, which is tell people’s stories, she said.

“Rehearsals are about to start, the set is ready for bump-in and our COVID-safe plans are all in place. Queensland Theatre is back.”

The Holidays, starring Bryan Probetts and Louise Brehmer, is an exploration about the relationships between generations set in a “quintessentially Queensland beach getaway”.

The “touching meditation on mortality” has been a long time in the works for Brisbane playwright Megarrity, bizarrely starting life as a world for the creators of the Teletubbies.
Ragdoll Productions, the team behind the British children's television series, called for submissions for new worlds for a future production.

Megarrity submitted a world based on the beach shack which will be the set of The Holidays.
It made it through to round two of the submission search but no further. So Megarrity began work on a novel. Some way in, he realised it would work better as a play.

Others obviously agreed as the play won the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award for 2018-19.

Had COVID not hit, the play would have opened on July 11 and would already be memory for Queensland Theatre audiences.

But everyone is just pleased that it will happen.

“What a brilliant way to end a tumultuous year, with a new work by an outstanding local playwright and starring some audience favourites,” Lewis said, adding it would come with a tinge of anxiousness.

“The whole world is watching Queensland at the moment because we are reopening,” she said. “I feel the responsibility that Queensland has to the rest of the country to not mess it up.”

There is also a responsibility to Queensland Theatre audiences and the staff and creatives for this to go well.

“Look, obviously we took a huge financial hit this year,” Lewis said, adding that going on at all would only be possible with state government support.

The 2021 season is under wraps but Lewis said it would include some shows that should have happened in 2020.

And there will be “some difficult choices”.

“Anything new we put on will be at a much-reduced budget,” she said.

But right now, the focus in squarely on The Holidays.

“It is truly exciting to be staging The Holidays,” Lewis said.

“Queensland Theatre will be providing a COVID-safe theatre experience in line with Queensland Health guidelines. To comply with social distancing measures, our theatre capacity has been reduced, but we will run the season for longer so as many people as possible can see this beautiful story.”

The Holidays runs from November 14 to December 12. Limited tickets go on sale October
15.