La Boite Theatre has announced a five-show 2027 season that features two world premieres, two homecomings and the return of acclaimed director Neil Armfield to the Brisbane company’s Roundhouse Theatre for the first time in 17 years.

Armfield will direct actor Darren Gilshenan in Calibre, a new political thriller by Brisbane playwright Paul Hodge, which closes the season in November. The production is among the highlights of a program that combines Queensland talent, established Australian artists and ambitious new writing.

Andrea Moor, Christen O’Leary and Carita Farrer Spencer: The Weekend. Photo supplied

The season opens from 6–27 March with the Queensland premiere of Sue Smith’s adaptation of Charlotte Wood’s internationally bestselling novel The Weekend. A portrait of friendship, ageing and the complexities of a lifetime’s accumulated history, the play finds the women confronting old assumptions and uncomfortable truths as they clear out the house before its sale.

Directed by Caroline Dunphy, the production brings together three of Queensland’s leading performers – Andrea Moor, Christen O’Leary and Carita Farrer Spencer – as lifelong friends reunited at a beach house following the death of their fourth friend.

April brings a homecoming for Lady Beatle, The Little Red Company’s production by Adam Brunes and Naomi Price, which returns to the Roundhouse from 14–24 April, 10 years after its world premiere there.

Fronted by Green Room Award-winning performer Price and accompanied by a live band, the production revisits the music and mythology of John, Paul, George and Ringo in a blend of concert, cabaret and theatrical storytelling. Since its La Boite debut, the show has toured more than 50 venues nationally.

Steven Oliver: Bigger & Blacker 2.0. Photo supplied

The second homecoming arrives during NAIDOC Week, with Steven Oliver and Michael Griffiths reuniting for Bigger & Blacker 2.0 (7-10 July). First presented at La Boite in 2021, the production combines comedy, cabaret, music and spoken word as Oliver explores identity, love, loss and the experience of being “a minority within a minority”, with Helpmann Award-winner Griffiths at the piano.

Kimie Tsukakoshi: Offset. Photo supplied

The first of the season’s two world premieres is Offset (11-25 September ), a La Boite and Sydney’s Seymour Centre co-production by internationally acclaimed Thai-Australian playwright Anchuli Felicia King.

Directed by Monica Sayers and presented in association with Brisbane Festival, the dark comedy takes aim at Australia’s property obsession. Starring La Boite regular Kimie Tsukakoshi, its two characters – a real estate agent and an apprentice electrician – find themselves negotiating the fault lines of class, money and home ownership after an unexpected late-night encounter.

Darren Gilshenan: Calibre. Photo supplied

The season culminates with Calibre (November 6–27), in which Armfield directs Gilshenan in a solo theatrical examination of John Howard’s campaign to introduce national gun-control legislation following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Drawing on almost 100 hours of interviews conducted by Hodge with Howard, state premiers, campaigners, lobbyists and survivors’ families, the play traces the political manoeuvring and resistance surrounding one of modern Australia’s most consequential policy decisions.

The season announcement comes as La Boite recruits a new Artistic Director and Co-CEO, with an appointment expected before Christmas. The incoming leader will help shape the company’s future artistic direction.

La Boite’s 2027 season is on sale now.