You know you are in for a good year at the theatre when the season launch has you laughing, gasping and leaves you reflecting on the stories that will be told. The launch of the Canberra Theatre Collected Works 2016 season left us wanting to know more.

The season will kick off in grand style when Civic Square becomes the home of The Famous Spiegeltent for a three week season. The 1920s mirrored tent will add to the spectacular as Canberra hosts the world premiere of the new cabaret production La Clique. With a bit of burlesque, a touch of magic, musicians and aerial acrobatics we can’t wait to experience something we have ‘never seen before’.

Unfolding Collected Works 2016

Our highlights for Collected Works 2016 include:

The musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors looks like it will be a lot of fun (or maybe frightening fun?). Puppet masters Erth will be designing their magic into the production, creating Audrey II. The audience is sure to be singing along to ‘Feed Me’ and ‘Suddenly Seymour’.

We love that Bell Shakespeare is commemorating 400 years of Shakespeare’s death, by bringing in the classics – Romeo And Juliet and Othello. In his first year as the full Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare, Peter Evans, said he wanted to direct the first play he was obsessed with – Romeo and Juliet. His interpretation draws on the traditional – inspired by the 16th century and the passion of forbidden love.

The theme of forbidden love continues, with the contemporary theatre company Shake & Stir Co, adaptation of Emily Brontë’s gothic classic, Wuthering Heights. Bringing this classic to a modern day audience the staging plays with the dark and light and wet and dry of the original.

Dance lovers will not be disappointed. Sydney Dance Company’s CounterMove brings together the work of choreographers Rafael Bonachela and Alexandra Ekman for two unique pieces. And Bangarra Dance Theatre will share three stories through their mix of traditional and contemporary dance in OUR land people story.

Posters for some of the Collected Works 2016 productions.

There was a definite excitement in the room when the preview of Queensland Ballet’s The Nutcracker was shown. The Tchaikovsky favourite will be on stage in November. Artistic Director, Li Cunxin suggests it is one of the two ballets everyone must see (any guesses for the other?). Seeing the Nutcracker is going to be a great way to kick off the festive season next year.

Opera is back on the bill! Opera Australia will be bringing Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro to the Canberra stage performing with a small orchestra. This operatic comedy is suitable for all ages; the preview of the period set and costumes look spectacular.

There are so many other opportunities to take children to the theatre next year; May Gibbs’ Snugglepot & Cuddlepie will delight both young and old, and The Peasant Prince is an adaption of Lu Cunxin’s autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer. Circa’s Carnival of Animals is also designed for a younger audience. It looked like a lot of fun, bringing in multimedia backgrounds to tell the story with the acrobats and performers.

And the political satirical The Wharf Revue, will provide comedic relief for living in the political circus of ‘Canberra’. There was a few jokes about them being able to show in Canberra for 51 weeks of the year, and never running out of content.

The Canberra Theatre website has full details of the entire Collected Works program, dates and ticketing.

Will we see you there?

Photography: So Frank

Tips:

• Interested in seeing four or more performances? Consider a subscription package to save some money and get the best seats.
• Accessible theatre – some productions include audio described or live captioned performances, as well as tactile tours for vision impaired patrons.
• If you are under 27, the theatre offers special ticket pricing.
• Single tickets go on sale on the 23rd of November for all productions except Bell Shakespeare.