The inaugural program of Artistic Director Ebony Bott includes the world premiere of Suzie Miller’s latest play Strong is the New Pretty about the creation of the AFL Women’s Competition, and a new movement piece about mortality from The Farm called No One Gets Out of Here Alive (see page 63). La Boite presents Michelle Lim Davidson’s personal drama Koreaboo about her visit to Seoul to meet with her somewhat disinterested birth mother. The best-selling pub-themed show The Choir of Man has a season in the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent, while Luke Murphy’s part crime-drama, part psychological thriller Scorched Earth arrives after a New York season. This year’s new Festival Village – a large-scale riverside precinct at South Bank – also promises to be a lively spot with plenty of free and ticketed events.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Scorched Earth is part crime-drama, part psychological thriller – piercing into a dark but fundamental question of the Irish psyche. What right do we have to the land beneath our feet? What are we willing to do to keep it? Or take it.

Inspired by John B. Keane’s The Field, the work draws audiences into the stark world of an interrogation room, where a detective and suspect dredge through the ghosts of an unsolved murder long thought forgotten.

Blurring the lines of dance and theatre, Luke Murphy — creator of the flawless multi-award-winning Volcano, a hit at Brisbane Festival 2024 — weaves story, striking visuals, and visceral movement into a tapestry through which five international performers sear a picture of wanting, striving, deserving and resenting.

A poetic final chapter of reaching and failing leaves no doubt about the cost of success.