2026 season announcements: our rolling guide to the performing arts

Season announcements for the new year always start as a trickle and quickly escalate to a flood. To help make life more manageable, this year ArtsHub will be compiling the 2026 announcements we receive into this regularly updated guide, in order to help you stay on top of what the new year has in store.

As in previous years, some of the smaller companies – especially those that are regionally based – are unlikely to announce their new seasons until 2026 is underway. No matter! We’ll include such announcements here also, as they come to hand.

December updates

Australian World Orchestra

The Australian World Orchestra, comprising Australia’s finest classical musicians gathered together from the world’s great orchestras and ensembles, celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2026 with a triple bill concert in Melbourne and Sydney next August.

Uniting orchestral musicians from across the country and bringing others home from around the globe, each concert will feature Stravinsky’s inventive score for the ballet Petrushka and Shostakovich’s post-war symphony Symphony No.10, in conversation with the world premiere of Jonathan Mills’ Songs for a Stranger – performed by Australian tenor Michael Petruccelli – at each concert.

The AWO’s Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Alexander Briger AO will be conducting the concerts, and believes the anniversary program symbolises the deep respect and commitment for classical music in Australia. 

‘It is a real joy to be celebrating our 15th anniversary of bringing an incredible repertoire of music to Australians, played by this country’s finest musicians. The AWO stands as one of the nation’s great cultural ambassadors – an orchestra that celebrates imagination, tradition, connection and the enduring power of musical artistry on the world stage. This year’s three mighty works showcase the musical complexity and vibrant energy that the AWO brings to every performance,’ Briger said.

Songs for a Stranger is a new orchestral song cycle expanding upon Mills’ opera Eucalyptus, which was based on the novel by Murray Bail. Combining two existing songs with two newly composed for the AWO, the work unfolds as a sequence of musical meditations exploring landscape, love and the spaces that connect them. 

Mills said, ‘It’s wonderful to be given the opportunity to write music for such a renowned and multi-faceted orchestra. Alexander Briger has a real commitment to Australian culture. He’s allowed me to compose a suite of songs that focus on love and…how people perceive the world. I feel somewhat privileged to be able to write music for the AWO to be performed in this country.’

Songs for a Stranger is the fourth work exclusively commissioned by the AWO from an Australian composer. Visit the Australian World Orchestra’s website for concert and ticket details.

November updates

Australian Haydn Ensemble

Four major concerts in NSW and the ACT comprise the Australian Haydn Ensemble’s 2026 main season, with a fifth concert marking the Ensemble’s Melbourne debut.

AHE Artistic Director Skye McIntosh said the season features ‘works by Haydn – of course! – Mozart, Beethoven and some exciting and rare works by little-known Bohemian composers,’ and takes inspiration from the natural world.

‘At the heart of our subscription season is the belief that music – like nature – speaks to something deep within us, and that hearing it live, in a shared space, is a kind of magic,’ she added.

The AHE’s mainstage concerts are spread across four separate series in Canberra, Berry, Bowral and Sydney. For the latter concerts, the Ensemble returns to the State Library of New South Wales’ Pictures Galleries as well as The Neilson, including an expanded number of performances in November. The popular pre-concert event series 18th Century Unpacked will continue at SLNSW.

The season opens in March with Mozart’s Spring, featuring Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14 K. 387 as well as Haydn’s Op. 33 No. 3 and Mendelssohn’s E-flat Quartet (MWV R18), believed to have been written when the composer was just 14 years old.

Additional AHE concerts in 2026 include Beethoven’s Fourth in May, featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 in B flat; Divine Bohemians in late July and early August; and in October, featuring works by Haydn, Richter, Mysliveček and Beethoven; and Haydn’s Oxford, featuring three works, including his Symphony No. 92 in G major.

Additionally, AHE launches its inaugural Melbourne concert season at Melbourne Recital Centre in 2026, playing in the Primrose Potter Salon in March. MRC Director of Programming Iain Grandage tells ArtsHub: ‘As a home for beautiful music making from around the country and around the globe, it is very exciting to be welcoming one of Australia’s premier ensembles onto the stages of the Melbourne Recital Centre as they expand their touring footprint into our city.’

McIntosh adds: ‘I am beyond thrilled to be bringing the AHE to the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2026. It’s such a beautiful venue, and we are delighted to present our first-ever subscription series to Victorian fans who have been asking when we will come to Melbourne for a long time now.’

Visit the Australian Haydn Ensemble for more details about the 2026 season.

Australian Theatre for Young People

Australian Theatre for Young People’s (ATYP) 2026 season – the first for newly appointed Artistic Director Hayden Tonazzi – features rising young talents, a new performance space, a return to Sydney Opera House and a national tour.

The season headliner is May’s encore showing of Saplings, a 2024 Sydney Festival hit (‘a series of vignettes [about young people’s experiences of the juvenile justice system] that are by turns moving, upsetting and, perhaps unexpectedly, strikingly funny’, according to ArtsHub’s 4½ star review) and winner of Best Production for Young People at the Sydney Theatre Awards.

Written by Yuwaalaraay playwright Hannah Belanszky and directed by Kalkadoon artist Abbie-lee Lewis, Saplings marks ATYP’s first production at Sydney Opera House in 17 years.

After its Sydney season, Saplings embarks on the largest national tour in the company’s history, visiting five states and territories, including Arts Centre Melbourne. In 2026, the play will also be included on the Victorian Schools Drama Syllabus, introducing thousands of students to its themes of resilience, humour and hope.

The season will see 15 emerging artists – actors, directors, writers and designers – featured across four major productions, and the opening of a new space, The Popsy (a versatile, 48-seat black box theatre and rehearsal space) located within ATYP’s Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. The first play staged in The Popsy will be Callum Mackay’s The Last Train To Madeline in March (telling the story of Wangaratta residents Maddy and Luke from the ages of eight to 17 to 23, and starring six ATYP performers aged 10 to 26), with the second being Lachlan Parry’s Straight Panic (billed as a ‘frenzied and biting comedy – a triptych of silliness and satire’) in June-July.

ATYP’s final production for 2026 in September – October is a recontexualised production of the Scottish folklore-inspired musical Islander (featuring two actors and a loop pedal, who between them create the play’s protagonists and its supporting cast), which will also be staged at The Popsy.

Learn more about ATYP and its 2026 season.

Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company

Western Australian company Yirra Yaakin (‘Stand Tall’) launched its 2026 season – exploring themes of family, identity, and legacy – on 27 November.

Artistic Director Maitland Schnaars said the new season features ‘three amazing, contemporary and powerful mainstage productions that speak to who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going.

These stories, all WA premieres, deserve to be seen, shared, and celebrated and explore themes as varied as father/daughter relationships, tick-a-box Blackfullas and Black exploitation.’

Yirra Yaakin’s mainstage season opens with Katie Beckett’s Which Way Home (28 April to 9 May), a father/daughter road trip – based on Beckett’s own memories of growing up with her single Aboriginal dad and originally staged by ILBIJERRI in 2017, in association with Belvoir and Sydney Festival – about the pair reconnecting on the drive back to Country. Real life father and daughter Derek and Shaquita Nannup star in the production.

In mid-July, Nathan Maynard’s Tasmania-set At What Cost? asks ‘what it is to be Aboriginal?’ and explores the issues of ‘tick-a-box Blacks’. Every year, more people turn up claiming to be Palawa: are they genuine? Or just ticking a box? Who gets to decide who is Aboriginal or not? What happens when your identity is up for debate? Schnaars directs the Western Australian premiere of Yirra Yaakin’s production of Maynard’s ‘astonishing … [and] not easy to forget’ play.

The company’s final production for 2026 is Declan Furber Gillick’s‘enormously entertaining, hilarious and heartbreaking’ Jacky , a co-production with Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Billed as a ‘funny and unflinching play about family, work and culture’ which ‘explores the compromises we are prepared to make to survive as Aboriginal people’, Jacky opens in late October.

A regional tour of The 7 Stages Of Grieving by Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, is also programmed for 2026, reaching as far north as Karratha and as south as Margaret River (subject to funding).

Throughout the year Yirra Yaakin will also continue to its Community, Young Artists, Education, and Emerging Storytellers programs, including its continued commitment to strengthening the Noongar language and the playwriting program for First Nations emerging and established playwrights, Yirra Yaarnz.

Visit Yirra Yaakin’s website for full season details. 

Red Stitch Actors Theatre

The 2026 season for Melbourne’s Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre – marking the company’s 25th anniversary – is anchored by a revival of Ray Lawler’s The Doll Trilogy, performed in its entirety for the first time since 1985.

‘Our 25th anniversary season is a celebration of the core values that have shaped Red Stitch from the very beginning – the intimacy of our space, the strength of our ensemble, and a fierce belief in the power of great writing … This program brings together extraordinary international voices, urgent new Australian work, and one of the most significant works in our national canon, The Doll Trilogy, realised as it was meant to be experienced by an ensemble of actors inhabiting the roles across three decades … While [Summer of the Seventeenth Doll] is widely recognised for its significant contribution to dramatic literature, the full trilogy is rarely staged due to its scale and complexity – but at Red Stitch, we love a challenge,’ said Artistic Director Ella Caldwell, who is directing the trilogy.

‘This season feels like the perfect moment to reflect on where we’ve come from, and to share work that speaks to who we are now, how we got here and who we might become,’ she added.

Lawler’s The Doll Trilogy – from the playful romance of Kid Stakes in 1937, through the war-shadowed years of Other Times in 1945, to the dramatic conclusion of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in 1953 – depicts working-class Melbourne and the rapidly changing outside world with warmth, humour and sensitivity. Following its Melbourne season, The Doll Trilogy will tour to Theatre Royal, Hobart (28–31 May 2026) and Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat (18–21 June 2026).

The season also features significant new international works, including the Australian premieres of Emma Dennis-Edwards’ Funeral Flowers (winner of the Scotsman Fringe First Award at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a ‘funny, fearless, heart-breaking piece’ according to respected British critic Lyn Gardner) and Naples-born filmmaker and playwright Pier Lorenzo Pisano’s philosophical, speculative drama, Carbon (winner of Italy’s most prestigious theatre prize, the Riccione Theatre Award).

The world premiere of Melbourne playwright Angus Cameron’s Luke – a decades-spanning, queer Australian story directed by Gary Abrahams (A Case for the Existence of God, Yentl), developed through Red Stitch’s INK program (which champions original Australian writing), has also been programmed.

Explore the full 2026 season at Red Stitch’s website.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ 2026 season features nine Sydney concerts, the second year of ChorusOz Perth (the first official offshootof the internationally acclaimed Sydney original), andan international tour, where the Choirs will premiere new Australian music at London’s Royal Albert Hall and in the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral.

The new year also marks the 25^th anniversary of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ young adult ensemble, VOX,and 20 years of formative input from Associate Music Director Dr Elizabeth Scott as VOX Director and a key member of the Choirs’ Artistic team.

Artistic and Music Director Brett Weymark said: ‘Our 2026 season includes some of the most loved choral masterpieces ever written, alongside lesser known and newly commissioned music that we are honoured and delighted to introduce audiences to. I look forward to collaborating with our incredible choristers and with some of Australia’s finest composers, soloists and musicians, to deliver a year of concert experiences that uplift, inspire and delight, reminding us once again of the incredible power of music and of human voices coming together in unity.’

Executive Director Matthew Beale adds, ‘In the 18 months since I joined Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, we have been pleased to grow our engagement beyond Sydney, enabling audiences in regional NSW and interstate in Perth, Western Australia, to engage with world-class experiences of choral music. It has also been great to witness the success of our new initiatives, our Emerging Composer Awards and Conducting Fellowship programs, which will be offered for a second year in 2026. And we build on our longstanding tradition of supporting Australian composers with no fewer than five new Australian works commissioned for the year ahead.’

Season highlights include the Choirs’ opening concert of the year, Gloria! Vivaldi, Bach & Handel, a season of baroque music performed at Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay; several works for choir and full orchestra including Bach’s St John Passion, highlights from Verdi’s Aida (presented for ChorusOz 2026) and Britten’s War Requiem, all performed at Sydney Opera House, where the Choirs are a Resident Company; and the VOX 25^th anniversary concert World O World, presented at White Bay Power Station and at All Saints Cathedral in Bathurst in November, featuring a selection of the many Australian works that they have premiered over the past 25 years as well as the debut of three brand new commissions.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs will end the year with an intimate performance of Lessons and Carols at one of Sydney’s oldest churches, St Philips on York Street.

Explore Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ 2026 Season.

Brown’s Mart Arts

Brown’s Mart Arts’ 2026 season is the first programmed by Co-CEO and Artistic Director Yvette Walker, a descendent of the Waanyi people of the Gulf of Carpentaria (Walker also has Scottish, Indonesian and Chinese heritage); notably, she is Brown’s Mart’s inaugural First Nations Artistic Director since the company was founded in 1972.

Walker said of the program, which was delivered with Co-CEO and General Manager Liz Rogers: ‘Curating my first season for Brown’s Mart, I set out to create a program that is as diverse and dynamic as the Northern Territory itself. I’ve championed female voices, placed First Nations stories and artists at the heart, and woven together new works that honour our past, interrogate our present and ignite our future.’

Rogers added: ‘The 2026 season is a testament to what’s possible when we work together filled with partnerships and collaborations that build on the generations that have gone before us.’

Season highlights include Genius by celebrated Territory writer Sandra Thibodeaux, in which a contemporary graffiti artist retells the story of Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, ‘the greatest female artist of the baroque age’, as The Guardian describes her; the premiere of The Present, a darkly humorous play from Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Sarah Reuben, the creators of I’ll Tell You In Person (2020) and The Hypotheticals (2021); and the world premiere of Walker’s own play, Seven Deadly Gins, directed by acclaimed Top End practitioner Shari Sebbens (Top End Wedding, The Moogai).

First Nations-led music and storytelling, expanded artist development programs, collaborations with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, festival partnerships with Darwin Fringe and Darwin Festival, the popular ‘Live on Fridays’ courtyard gigs series, and two original events from Whistling Kite New Music are also programmed in 2026.

Visit Brown’s Mart’s website for expanded program details.

Merrigong Theatre Company

After a momentous 2025, in which Merrigong was named Performing Arts Centre of the Year at the 2025 PAC Australia IMPACT Awards (while also breaking box office records – twice!), the company’s 2026 season celebrates theatre as a shared act of imagination.

‘Whilst it’s our artists who bring these stories to life, it is the presence of the audience and their ability to imagine which makes this experience meaningful,’ said Artistic Director/CEO Simon Hinton. ‘Together, we make something bigger than any of us could on our own, and that is what makes live theatre truly magical. In 2026, I hope audiences will fully embrace this experience with open minds and hearts.’

Merrigong Theatre Company’s new season features touring works from some of Australia’s best companies alongside innovative new works from the locally made MERRIGONGX Artists Program – with one such work from 2025, award-winning Gunai artist and writer Kirli Saunders’ one woman show Yandha Djanbay (‘Go Slowly’), transferring to the mainstage. Yandha Djanbay is described as ‘a powerful meditation on resilience, connection, and healing … [which] uses intimate storytelling to centre love, grief and responses to the recent referendum’, and can be seen in June next year.

Other mainstage works for 2026 include season opener Garabari by Wiradjuri choreographer Joel Bray, presented by BlakDance and exploring the Giilang (story and song) of the making of the Murrumbidgee River in February; Melbourne Theatre Company’s touring production of My Brilliant Career in May; the return of stage and screen star Noni Hazlehurst to Merrigong for the first time since 2016 in August, in playwright Daniel Keene’s new work, The Lark; and in October, Belvoir St Theatre’s Runt (based on the book by Craig Silvey and directed by former Adelaide Festival Co-Artistic Director Neil Armfield).

The MERRIGONGX Artists’ Program (providing independent artists with financial, technical and artistic support for the creation of new works) commences in March with Jake Māra and Lincoln Smith’s Arawarra, the tale of a First Nations leader and freedom fighter erased from our history books, and concludes in September with Lauchlan Grogan’s dance-theatre work Service, exploring the controlled chaos of the hospitality industry. Works for families – including popular children’s comedians The Listies – as well as add-on productions are also programmed.

Learn more about Merrigong Theatre Company’s 2026 season.

Omega Ensemble

Omega Ensemble’s 2026 season features six world premieres and three Australian premieres across 11 concerts, with featured artists including Australian trumpet virtuoso David Elton, French-born, Australian-based horn player Nico Fleury, rising star conductor Sam Weller and internationally acclaimed clarinettist David Rowden.

‘For me, the thrill after 20 years of leading Omega Ensemble [is] the discovery of finding the unexpected beauty that happens when artists take risks together on stage,’ said the Ensemble’s Artistic Director David Rowden. ‘In 2026, Omega Ensemble is embracing that challenge with pride and vigour, discovering new voices, and inviting audiences to experience Australian music in a completely new light.’

Highlights include the world premiere of a new double concerto for clarinet and trumpet by Australian composer Lachlan Skipworth in the season’s opening concert, Starburst, touring to Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne. Starburst also features special guest artist David Elton, the Principal Trumpet of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings.

In May, Omega Ensemble features the world premiere of a new commission by Paris-born, LA-based composer Daniel Wohl, and the Australian premiere of American composer Pierre Jalbert’s Howl, written for clarinet and string quartet and inspired by the groundbreaking work of the same name by Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg.

For Inner Landscapes, Omega Ensemble’s July concert, audiences in Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney will hear Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden (arranged for chamber orchestra by Gustav Mahler), accompanied by the world premiere of Sydney-based Australian composer Paul Stanhope’s new Clarinet Concerto. In August, the Ensemble performs New Now 2026, its annual showcase of works by emerging Australian composers. This year, Jessie Leov, Robert McIntyre, Thomas Misson and Beth Roche will debut new works developed through Omega’s CoLAB Composer Accelerator Program.

In September, Sirens features the Australian premiere of Joe Hisaishi’s Two Dances for Large Ensemble, alongside the world premiere of Grammy-nominated English composer Anna Clyne’s Concerto for Horn and Strings. Rounding out the 2026 season in November is The Trout, performed in Sydney only and featuring Schubert’s Trout Quintet, Guillaume Connesson’s Sextet, and a new work by award-winning South Australian composer Anne Cawrse.

Visit Omega Ensemble’s website for subscription and ticket details.

Darwin Symphony Orchestra

Season 2026 for Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is led by newly appointed Artistic Director and Chief Conductor, Richard Mills AO, who is also an internationally acclaimed composer. Mills said of the DSO’s 2026 season: ‘We play in concert halls and in the open air – for schools and families and those who visit our wondrous homeland so rich in culture.

‘We are remaking the traditions of orchestra in our city and landscape to bring moments of delight and the joy of discovery to our audiences of all ages … We all invite you to come and be part of our extended family and join us on an adventure – interesting, varied and with great collaborations which refresh our art.’

The season features new Australian works, established repertoire and wide-reaching outreach activities, beginning in March with the concert From Common Ground, featuring the world premiere of Ground by Composer in Residence Netanela Mizrahi. The concert also includes works by Shostakovich and Hindemith, in addition to pianist Stefan Cassomenos performing Franck’s Variations Symphoniques and Rachmaninov’s  Paganini Variations.

In May, guest conductor Fabian Russell leads the concert Island Signal, Island Song, repertoire inspired by islands from the Torres Strait and Venice to the Hebrides, including Mills’ own composition Island Signal, Island Song (featuring solos from four DSO horn players and originally premiered by the MSO in 2020). Works by Rautavaara, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky also feature.

In the dry season, the annual Amphitheatre Concert returns with Movie Hits, a program of film music performed by the full Orchestra – including two short orchestral-only works – alongside a live band and guest vocalists.

The dry season also features the world premiere of a concert-theatre performance for Darwin Festival, celebrating Shakespeare’s words and compositions inspired by them. Actor Rob Collins will perform Shakespearean extracts in this co-production with Brown’s Mart Theatre and directed by Brown’s Mart’s Artistic Director Yvette Walker, a proud Waanyi woman.

The Palmerston Classics and Palmerston Family Proms return with accessible orchestral programs for audiences of all ages, and the year concludes with Songs of the Season, highlighting Territory themes and including two world premieres: Mizrahi’s I, Rain and Mills’ Frog Voices/Frog Songs. Darwin vocal ensemble Vocalective will also perform a selection of carols at the concert.

DSO continues its education initiatives in 2026, expanding the Young Artists Program with new mentoring opportunities, while the Score! program links music with physical activity, transforming the Charles Darwin University Student (CDU) basketball court into a concert hall, in partnership with Hoops 4 Health and CDU’s Sports Fitness and Recreation department.

Acting General Manager Louise Potzeldt said, ‘Richard Mills’ vision for DSO builds on our strong foundations and looks to the future with creativity, collaboration, and ambition. In 2026, we’re looking forward to making music that is accessible, relevant, and inspiring for people of all ages across the Territory.’

Learn more about Darwin Symphony Orchestra’s 2026 season.Darwin Symphony Orchestra’s 2026 season.

Opera Queensland

Opera Queensland’s (OQ) 2026 season ‘celebrates the power of storytelling’, according to the company’s CEO and Artistic Director, Patrick Nolan, as well as the ways fairytales reveal profundities about our shared humanity.

‘Every opera, every song, every concert in 2026 asks us to imagine what happens when we dream, when we wish, and when we face what lies beyond “happily ever after”. These timeless stories remind us that our joy and our grief, lives in the stories we tell,’ he said.

Dvořák’s fairytale opera Rusalka, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and Russian folklore, is guaranteed to be a highlight. The production, commissioned by the Opera Conference (Australia’s national partnership of professional opera companies), was lauded as ‘everything one wants from an opera’ by ArtsHub reviewer Peter Hackney in his 4 ½ star review earlier this year.

Directed by Sarah Giles, OQ’s Rusalka stars Australian soprano Eleanor Lyons as the titular water spirit, Australian tenor Rosario La Spina as the human prince she falls in love with, and with Warwick Fyfe and Ashlyn Tymms reprising their roles from Opera Australia’s iteration of the production.

In November, OQ and Queensland Theatre Company join forces to stage Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Tony Award-winning musical Into the Woods; cast members include Amy Lehpamer, Nina Korbe, Ali McGregor and Kanen Breen, directed by Nolan.

Earlier in the year, OQ presents the third iteration of the Brisbane Bel Canto Festival, including the return of Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) after its 2025 season was disrupted by Cyclone Alfred, and the Studio Series returns with five intimate recitals across the year, including Jessica O’Donoghue and Jack Symonds’s undead in March, a celebration of Australian musical and literary talent. In May, the Festival of Outback Opera returns for its sixth edition, this year visiting Winton and Longreach.

The state’s Minister for Education and the Arts, John-Paul Langbroek, said: ‘The Crisafulli Government is proud to invest in Opera Queensland, its regional engagement and touring program, and its delivery of the Festival of Outback Opera, which in 2026 will feature the award-winning tenor Filipe Manu. 

‘By delivering uniquely Queensland arts experiences to audiences across the state, Opera Queensland delivers on our 10-year arts and cultural strategy, Queensland’s Time to Shine,’ Langbroek said.

Discover the details of Opera Queensland’s 2026 season.

La Boite Theatre

Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre – which celebrated its centenary this year – promises ‘resistance, rebirth and belonging’ in its 2026 season. Four mainstage productions play La Boite’s Roundhouse Theatre next year: a modern reimagining of Sophocles’ Athenian tragedy Antigone in March; Githabul and Migunberri-Yugumbeh woman Alinta McGrady’s horror-comedy Eat Slay Zombie (a redevelopment of the original 2024 production) in May; the world premiere of Queensland playwright Kathryn Marquet’s tragicomedy Second Coming in August, co-produced with Playlab; and in September, the Queensland premiere of Australian performer Michelle Lim Davidson’s playwriting debut, Koreaboo, exploring Davidson’s lived experience of being an intercountry adoptee.

La Boite Artistic Director and CEO Courtney Stewart has adapted Antigone and will co-direct it with acclaimed fight choreographer Nigel Poulton, marking his mainstage directing debut. ‘I’m really excited to strip back the text and see Nigel bring some of those big scenes to life physically. Having Antigone as a scrappy, tough, bolshie, young woman will keep the fire burning in a classic play that scrutinises the fine line we tread between democracy and dictatorship,’ Stewart said.

Read: So you want my arts job: Fight Director

Eat Slay Zombie uses a fictional zombie apocalypse to address real-world issues such as colonisation, community and state occupation, Stewart explained. ‘La Boite is continuing to invest in contemporary First Nations voices, asking artists what stories they want to tell and how they want to tell them,’ she said. Later in the year comes Second Coming, the final part of Marquet’s eco-feminist theatrical triptych following La Boite’s earlier seasons of Pale Blue Dot (2014) and The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek (2018). Secong Coming is a commentary on ‘the climate crisis [that] will pose some challenging questions…It is exciting, horrifying, terrifying, larger-than-life and very funny,’ Stewart said.

The company’s final mainstage production for the year, the Griffin Theatre Company production Koreaboo, ‘is a work of fiction but steeped in lived experience. Michelle has been quite open in her journey as an intercountry adoptee and has since made trips back to South Korea to try to connect with her birth mother. This play came out of that very personal line of inquiry,’ Stewart said.

La Boite also continues its focus on artist and audience development in 2026. The Assembly program (a six-month skills development program supporting emerging writers, directors and actors in creating a brand-new short work for the stage) returns, while the Education program includes in-school and in-theatre workshops, post-show Q&A sessions, and Stage Secrets (an initiative allowing students to explore pathways into the theatre industry, from stage management to set design).

Visit La Boite’s website to discover more about the company’s 2026 season.

Orchestra Victoria

Orchestra Victoria’s 2026 season is focused on collaboration, regional touring and community engagement, and building new partnerships. Anchored by a series of core concerts at Hanson Dyer Hall, the Southbank Series, the season also expands Orchestra Victoria’s popular Meet @ the Market concerts in North Melbourne, designed as a relaxed, intimate way to explore the season’s programs, including opportunities to meet the Orchestra’s musicians.

Artistic Advisor Jessica Gethin said the new season captures the spirit of exploration and collaboration that defines Orchestra Victoria’s work: ‘As one of Australia’s most versatile ensembles, Orchestra Victoria is proud to sit at the centre of our country’s cultural landscape through our integral work with The Australian Ballet, Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. These partnerships continue to inspire us, and to delight audiences with performances that combine tradition, innovation and artistry at the highest level.

‘I am also excited to be able to build on the success of our own concert series, in which we step forward as storytellers in our own right. In April, we welcome UK conductor Alice Farnham to present a program featuring Holst’s The Planets and John Psathas’ Djinn; well-loved conductor Umberto Clerici’s September concert features Nielsen’s sparkling Flute Concerto with soloist Lisa-Maree Amos; Eivind Aadland’s December program foregrounds Strauss’ deeply moving Metamorphosen. Each performance offers something unique, daring and unforgettable,’ Gethin said.

In April, Orchestra Victoria builds on its commitment to regional audiences by taking Celestial Threads (featuring underappreciated UK composer Imogen Holst’s Suite for String Orchestra, as well as her father Gustav Holst’s The Planets suite, arranged for a chamber orchestra by George Morton) to Warrnambool’s Lighthouse Theatre. The program, which opens the Orchestra’s core Southbank Series a week prior, will be led by British conductor Alice Farnham and accompanied by dedicated community engagement events, including Musical Storytime sessions for children and Orchestra Victoria Connect performances in aged-care communities, for audiences who are often unable to attend concerts in person.

Additional highlights include Caroline O’Connor: Music & Me at Hamer Hall in July, for which Orchestra Victoria partners with musical theatre star O’Connor (Gypsy, Bombshells, Anything Goes) for a Morning Melodies concert; and the August concert Across Silence, a collaboration with The Newmarket Collective and Deaf poet Walter Kadiki fusing signed poetry with music composed by Melburnian Andrea Keller.

Visit Orchestra Victoria’s website for season details.

Sydney Dance Company

Sydney Dance Company’s (SDC’s) recently launched 2026 program is described by Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela as ‘a year of reflection, celebration, reinvention… and empowerment’, and sees the Company present two major programs as well as tours and ancillary events, including June’s triple bill Engine at Sydney Opera House.

Engine comprises the world premiere of Bonachela’s The Journey Itself is Home, featuring music by The National’s Bryce Dessner; the Australian premiere of Berlin-based Spanish choreographer Fran Diaz’s recent work The Mass Ornament, inspired by a landmark 1927 essay by cultural theorist Siegfried Kracauer; and the return of Melanie Lane’s 2024 work, Love Lock (‘a stunning exposition of colour, movement and music’ according to ArtsHub’s 5-star review of the piece), which boasts costumes by Akira Isogawa and music by UK electronic artist Clark.

Throughout August and September, SDC celebrates 40 years of residency at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct with a public program, and the intimate Current in the 79-seater Neilson Studio, which features works by four contemporary choreographers. Raghav Handa, SDC’s 2025 Balnaves Artist in Residence, explores modern Australian identity through the principles of Indian kathak; Jenni Large, an alumnus of the Company’s New Breed program, fuses movement with apparatus and hyper-design; and Azzam Mohamed, a Sydney-based Sudanese dancer, choreographer and educator will blend traditional cultural, street, and club dance styles. The fourth work featured in Current will be Bonachela’s E2 7SD, created over 20 years ago, representing a significant moment in his artistic evolution, and hereto never performed in Australia.

The independent dance platform INDance returns in April (including a work by Jenni Large, the Company’s 2026 Balnaves Artist in Residence), and a new national touring initiative, ORBIT, supported by Creative Australia launches in November in partnership with Adelaide’s Australian Dance Theatre and Melbourne’s Dancehouse; ORBIT will see four existing independent dance works remounted and performed across three states.

Additionally, SDC will tour two main programs across New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with an additional, yet to be announced program also playing to Melbourne audiences. The Company will also tour internationally again, with details yet to be publicly confirmed.

Learn more about Sydney Dance Company’s 2026 season.

State Opera South Australia

Celebrating a landmark 50 years in 2026 – the company’s Golden Jubilee – State Opera South Australia (SOSA) has programmed four new South Australian-made productions for its 2026 mainstage.

Rossini’s 1817 opera La Cenerentola (Cinderella) gets a 1970s flavour courtesy of director Neil Armfield (former co-AD of Adelaide Festival) and designer Stephen Curtis, with Australian mezzo-soprano Anna Dowsley in the leading role. In August, SOSA stages two works in repertory on alternate nights: German composer Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1893 opera Hansel & Gretel and Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical Into the Woods. Both productions will be directed by Constantine Costi (Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera), with each production designed by Jonathon Oxlade (The Dictionary of Lost Words, Kimberly Akimbo). Hansel and Gretel will see soprano Sofia Troncoso return to Adelaide as Gretel, with in demand counter tenor Kangmin Justin Kim as Hansel, while Into the Woods features an all–South Australian cast led by former State Opera Children’s Chorus member, now popular Australian performer, Hugh Sheridan, returning to Adelaide – his home town – for the production.

SOSA’s final mainstage production for 2026 will be Bizet’s Carmen, directed by Laura Hansford and featuring the South Australian-raised soprano Charlotte Kelso in the title role.

Beyond the mainstage, Helena Dix headlines Norma in Concert at Her Majesty’s Theatre in May, conducted by Brad Cohen; Opera Australia’s new, 1950s-inspired Don Giovanni will debut in the Barossa Valley before touring nationally; and the UKARIA Recital Series, curated by Anthony Hunt, offers intimate performances in the Adelaide Hills. New works for younger audiences include First Nations’ composer Nardi Simpson’s Piccolini-gu: An Opera for Our Little Ones, an immersive opera for audiences under three years old, and A Score Through Time for regional and metro South Australian primary schools. And in November, the spotlight turns onto the State Opera Chorus for Golden Voices – 50 Years of the State Opera Chorus at St Peter’s Cathedral.

Artistic Director Dane Lam said of the season: ‘At the heart of it all are the voices, filling our theatres with sound and soul. Opera survives only when it speaks to the present and dares to imagine the future, and that’s exactly what this season sets out to do.’

Visit State Opera South Australia to learn more about the company’s 2026 season.

October updates

Flinders Quartet

After celebrating 25 years this year, the Melbourne-based Flinders Quartet (FQ) enters 2026 with a renewed sense of purpose, energy, and imagination. ‘You might imagine that after 25 years we’d be running short on ideas, but the opposite is true,’ FQ’s four members said in a joint statement.

The upcoming season consists of three discrete programs, opening with From Silence and Snow, billed as a dialogue between musical eras. Violinist Wilma Smith describes the repertoire as ‘an eclectic and complementary mix of the highest quality, from Beethoven to literally now.’ The concert includes the Australian premiere of Finnish composer Olli Mustonen’s String Quartet No.2, Sibelius’ Voces Intimae, and Australian composer Holly Harrison’s contemporary piece, Swoop.

In May, Voices Between Worlds is a collaboration with Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr artist Eric Avery, whose through-composed work blends violin, song, and dance to explore resilience, identity, and the natural world. Violinist Elizabeth Sellars said: ‘When we first heard Eric perform, we were profoundly moved by the soulful nature of his musical voice. Working with him reminds us that music’s true power lies in connection and healing.’ The program also features Ricochet by Melbourne based composer Nicole Brady and Ravel’s String Quartet in F major.

FQ’s season closes with New Light, a celebration of innovation and tradition. Anchored by Beethoven’s Op.127, his first great “late” quartet, the program also features Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No.3, following the quartet’s previous success with her piano quintet. Completing the season is the world premiere of a new work by Australian composer Naomi Dodd, commissioned with support from Anthony Adair and Karen McLeod Adair. Viola player Helen Ireland said: ‘It’s wonderful to champion composers like Naomi, who bring such musical intelligence and an instinctive understanding of quartet writing.’

Flinders Quartet’s 2026 subscription season concert tickets are on sale now.

West Australian Symphony Orchestra

West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO), the largest employer of performing artists in Western Australia, launched its 2026 season on 23 October. With redevelopment of Perth Concert Hall underway, and not expected to be concluded until 2027, the season presents its core programming streams across multiple Perth venues, including Winthrop Hall at The University of Western Australia, which hosts the MACA Symphonic Series; the Matinee Symphony Series of one hour daytime concerts at Heath Ledger Theatre; the Baroque Series at His Majesty’s Theatre, and the intimate Chamber Series – curated from selections by WASO’s musicians – is presented at Government House Ballroom and Fremantle’s historic Town Hall.

Featuring a program of contemporary orchestral works, the Underground Series (the first concert of which is presented with Perth Festival while the second features the world premiere of a new work by Australian composer Vanessa Perica commissioned by WASO, as well as two Australian premieres), will be staged at State Theatre Centre WA. Other world premiere WASO commissions in 2026 include James Ledger’s Clarinet Concerto, Holly Harrison’s Concerto for Classical Accordion, and Aaron Wyatt’s New Work for String Orchestra, which will be performed in November at one of the Chamber Music concerts at Government House.

In his 13^th year as WASO’s Principal Conductor, Asher Fisch leads a series of major concerts including Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Mahler’s Symphony No.9 and Beethoven’s Symphony No.7. Several distinguished international conductors make their WASO debuts throughout the season; special events include a concert production of Wagner’s opera The Flying Dutchman,conducted by Fisch with a cast of international and Australian soloists, live-to-film performances of Jurassic World and How to Train Your Dragon, and a night of show tunes with West End stars Amy Manford and Josh Piterman.

WASO’s 2026 season extends far beyond the city, with concerts in Albany, Mandurah and Bunbury, including a rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony performed by the orchestra en masse in Mandurah and Bunbury in September. A range of education and incursion programs are also presented by WASO in 2026.

Visit West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s website for full season details.

Melbourne Theatre Company

Featuring 12 productions, 10 of them by Australian playwrights – including seven world premieres – season 2026 at Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC), ‘speaks to the complexities of our time – delivering audiences a mix of joy and rage and love and hope,’ according to Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks.

‘This season is about connecting – across generations, cultures and ideas. It’s about reflecting our world back to ourselves and inviting audiences to experience both the familiar and worlds they may never have traversed before … stories about who we are, and who we might become,’ Sarks added.

Highlights include six new works developed through MTC’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, including new plays by Jean Tong (Hungry Ghosts), Marieke Hardy (television’s Heartbreak High and live art event Better Off Said: Eulogies for the Living and Dead), Tom Holloway (Double Indemnity, Storm Boy), Badtjala/Butchulla/Jagera theatre maker Kamarra Bell-Wykes (A Nightime Travesty), and a significant new play by Dennis McIntosh about the 1970 collapse of the under-construction West Gate Bridge, which claimed 35 lives and injured 18 more.

The season also includes a major Australian premiere from London’s West End in Ryan Calais Cameron’s ‘exceptional Sidney Poitier drama’ Retrograde, directed by Bert LaBonté and starring newcomer Donné Ngabo (Last Days), and two stage classics, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, which hasn’t been staged by MTC for two decades, starring Alison Whyte, and Chekhov’s masterful Uncle Vanya, re-examined by the celebrated playwright Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by Sarks herself. The encore season of critically acclaimed musical and box office smash musical, My Brilliant Career, as previously reported by ArtsHub, has also been programmed.

Behind the scenes, MTC continues a raft of programs, including supporting First Nations theatre makers through Deadly Creatives, and investing in new pathways for early-career artists through Future Creatives and the MinterEllison Future Directors initiative.

‘We are more than the stories we stage – we are a company investing in the future of theatre in this country. That means building opportunities for artists, nurturing emerging voices and connecting people through the experience of live theatre,’ said Sarks.

Visit the MTC website for ticket and subscription details.

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

With the theme ‘Feel More’, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s (TSO) 2026 season sees the Orchestra playing a range of concerts in Hobart – indeed, across Lutruwita with next year’s iteration of the ongoing Live Sessions program. The season includes a return to Launceston’s redeveloped Albert Hall in February with Gaming Music 2.0 (conducted and hosted by Nicholas Buc and featuring music from The Witcher, Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, The Last of Us, Final Fantasy and more), which will also be performed in Hobart.

‘We’re proud to launch an incredibly rich and full year of musical experiences, which will take place right across the island,’ said TSO CEO Caroline Sharpen.

Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Eivind Aadland opens the Federation Concert Hall Series on 18 March with Mahler’s Symphony No 1, calling it an ‘enormous work’ in which ‘Mahler redefines what a symphony is. He says a symphony should be like the world, it should embrace everything.’  

In August, Aadland conducts the TSO in dialogue with the Australian premiere of Over Seas, a cinematic project featuring work by Finnish video artist Elina Brotherus set to music by Dowland, Missy Mazzoli, Holly Harrison and Arvo Pärt; Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and the world premiere of a new work by Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad are also programmed. Then in November, Aadland and the TSO tackle Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No 10 in E minor, Op 93, in a program which also features a new work by composer Sally Beamish for TSO Principal Clarinet, Andrew Seymour.

‘We have a very exciting program that I think our audiences will enjoy. I strongly believe in the power of music to be uplifting and life-affirming. A live concert can take us away from our everyday worries,’ Aadland said.

The TSO’s 2026 season also features a range of international guests, some making their debut with the Orchestra, opportunities for TSO musicians to perform as soloists, and the return of chamber music concerts in Hobart with Music at The Hedberg. Tickets go on sale 21 November 2025. Visit the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s website to learn more.

West Australian Opera

In its 59^th year, West Australian Opera (WAO) presents three mainstage productions at Perth’s His Majesty’s Theatre, including the return of Sarah Giles’ critically acclaimed production of Verdi’s La Traviata (a 2022 co-production with Opera Queensland and State Opera South Australia) in March. Wesfarmers Arts Young Artist alumnus Jessica Blunt will make her role debut as Violetta in the production.

WAO Artistic Director Chris van Tuinen described the 2026 season as ‘ambitious, deepening our connection to community and reaffirming opera as a unifying artform.’

As well as mainstage productions of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in August (directed by Cameron Menzies, the Australian Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Opera) and

Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in October (a collaboration between West Australian Opera, State Opera South Australia and Irish National Opera directed by Rodula Gaitanou), the company will also stage its site-specific Secret Opera in February for Perth Festival, while for regional audience, the recently commissioned The Song Catchers (directed by Matt Reuben James Ward, composed by Jarred Wall and examining identity, belonging and the healing power of music) will be presented in Albany in October.

Demonstrating WAO’s commitment to supporting and nurturing local talent, British/Australian soprano Samantha Clarke (who made her WAO debut as Violetta in the company’s 2022 production of La Traviata and returned in 2023 to play The Baker’s Wife in the Cameron Menzies-directed Into The Woods), joins the company next year as the 2026 Artist in Residence. In the role, Clarke will perform as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, and Juleitte in Roméo et Juliette; she will also lead masterclasses and provide mentorship and support to WAO’s emerging artists.

West Australian Opera’s Executive Director, Carolyn Chard AM said: ‘What makes the art form of opera so magical is how it threads together singing, music and storytelling while unlocking audiences’ imaginations. Opera allows us to connect deeply; with each other, with stories that resonate across time, and with music that stirs something in us all.’

Visit West Australian Opera’s website to learn more about the 2026 season.

Read: Perth Festival 2026 makes the most of its city’s cultural infrastructure shortage

Malthouse Theatre

Launched on 14 October, Malthouse Theatre’s 2026 season (programmed by Executive Producer and Co-CEO Vivia Hickman with the assistance of Malthouse staff members Annie Bourke, Jessica Arthur and Keziah Warner; newly appointed Artistic Director Dean Bryant commences later this month) includes six new Australian works, including three Malthouse commissions, and five world premieres.

Hickman described the 2026 season as ‘a testament to the extraordinary ambition, creativity, and diversity of artists working today … Through their work, we are opening our doors to stories that not only inspire and entertain but also speak with urgency to our audiences and to the complex times we live in.’

February’s season opener is Black Light, a new play by Larrakia, Yanyuwa, Bardi and Wardaman person Jada Alberts exploring the complexities of intergenerational wisdom, trauma and survival in a colonial world. Sisters Rachael and Lisa Maza (Rachael Maza recently spoke with ArtsHub about her desire to return to acting once she finishes up at ILBIJERRI at the end of the year) star in the production, which Alberts also directs.

Other highlights include the mainstage debut of local independent company Bloomshed with their critically acclaimed contemporary adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (‘a very smart piece of theatre … modern, tough and funny’, according to our 5-star review) in May; the world premiere of Stephanie Lake Company’s new dance production Vista in late July (Lake’s choreography was most recently showcased in The Australian Ballet’s triple bill Prism, in a work that ‘plays with established patterns of time, rhythm and movement to create something unique’, according to our reviewer); and Dean Bryant directing Ivo van Hove’s stage adaptation of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic American film All About Eve in November – December. Christie Whelan Browne will perform the dual roles of aging Broadway star Margo Channing and ingénue Eve Harrington in the production.

‘To direct my first production as Artistic Director of Malthouse with this fierce, stylish and unsettling work feels both terrifying and exhilarating. Christie Whelan Browne and I have made ambitious theatre pieces together, but this one really raises the bar. Having her take on the iconic roles of Margo and Eve, often playing scenes with herself, will be a theatrical event unlike anything we’ve seen,’ Bryant said.

The Malthouse Comedy program – featuring a return season of Garry Star: Classic Penguins (which ArtsHub awarded 5 coveted stars to and described as ‘Hilarious, in-your-face and flawless’; the production went on to win Most Outstanding Show at the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival), new shows from Hannah Gadsby and Lou Wall, and British comedian Elf Lyons’ Swan, a critically acclaimed, one-woman punk reimagining of Swan Lake – was launched on 5 December 2025.

Tickets for Malthouse Theatre’s 2026 season are now on sale; visit the company’s website for details.

Queensland Theatre Company

Rebranding as Queensland Theatre Company (QTC) after several years as Queensland Theatre (QT), the Company’s 2026 season is the first to be programmed by QTC’s Artistic Director Daniel Evans, who took the creative helm in November 2024. Evans, a Queenslander who grew up in and helped shape the state’s theatre culture, has emphasised Queensland’s theatre-making community in QTC’s 2026 season, which features directorial roles for past Artistic Directors such Quandamooka man Wesley Enoch; plays such as Torch the Place by Queensland-raised writer Benjamin Law; collaborations with local companies Shake & Stir Theatre Co (season opener The Great Gatsby) and Counterpilot (Small Mouth Sounds) and significant roles for established Queensland actors including Andrew Buchanan and Christen O’Leary (who will appear together in the Queensland premiere of Patricia Cornelius’ award-winning play, Do Not Go Gentle in August).

Other 2026 highlights include the return of Pride and Prejudice, the 2025 season of which was truncated because of Cyclone Alfred; a revival of feel-good First Nations hit The Sapphires, based on the real-life story of four Yorta Yorta women who sang for Australian troops during the Vietnam War and directed by Wesley Enoch; and the world premiere of Strong is the New Pretty, a new play by Olivier Award-winning Australian playwright Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) about the behind-the-scenes struggle that willed the AFLW competition into existence.

‘I am deeply proud to present my first season as Artistic Director, with a season that’s conceived as a declaration and offered a gift. Featuring large casts and top-tier theatre makers, every work is programmed as an event in its own right. The kind of productions where you have to be there, the kind that remind us why theatre matters – nights that crackle, spark conversation, and stay with you long after the lights go down,’ Evans said.

QTC Chief Executive Criena Gehrke added: ‘We have the incredible privilege and pleasure to amplify voices that span generations and cultures, to welcome seasoned performers and emerging artists, and to tap into the creative minds who work behind the scenes to bring magic to our stages … From an innovative and audio-immersive production with Counterpilot and a lavishly reimagined classic with Shake & Stir Theatre Company to a powerful premiere presentation with Brisbane Festival and an epic musical with Opera Queensland and Queensland Symphony Orchestra, this is a celebration of local talent that sets a new benchmark of scale.’

In addition to its mainstage program, QTC’s First Nations Theatre hub in Gimuy (Cairns) will develop two new productions in 2026, the company will produce a Queensland-wide regional tour of 2025 favourite Calamity Jane, and QTC expands its Young Company initiative to include students interested in technical and production skills, culminating in a production of Matthew Whittet’s School Dance, which will be performed, produced, and directed by the Young Company.

QTC Season Ticket packages are now on sale, with tickets to three-play packages and individual performances on sale Monday 13 October 2025. Learn more at Queensland Theatre Company’s website.

State Theatre Company South Australia

The debut season of Artistic Director Petra Kalive, whose appointment at State Theatre Company South Australia (STCSA) was announced last November, is a collection of world premieres, modern Australian masterworks and new takes on classics from the Western canon.

‘This season celebrates the richness of voices shaping our stages today, the clarity of early-career writers breaking through with bold new perspectives, the craft of Australia’s most celebrated performers, the tender, necessary stories of South Australian artists weaving culture and memory into the present and the thrill of international works that bring the world to our doorstep,’ Kalive said.

STCSA’s 2026 season opens with young Australian playwright Emmanuelle Mattana’s critically acclaimed Trophy Boys, a takedown of toxic masculinity performed by a female and non-binary cast in drag, and closes with the late Aidan Fennessy’s The Heartbreak Choir, a celebration of kindness, courage and the humble community choir. Highlights include the world premieres of Kaurna and Narungga theatre-maker Jacob Boehme’s Logan St, about an unlikely friendship between Goolie, an Afghan cameleer and mosque caretaker, and Dulcie, a young Aboriginal woman; Commentary, a dark comedy from Helpmann Award-nominated playwright Ash Flanders; and emerging South Australian playwright’s Anthony Nocera’s queer comedy Log Boy.

Kalive has also programmed a radically imagined new production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, starring an entirely South Australian cast, which she will also direct; the Adelaide premiere of Sydney Theatre Company’s smash hit RBG: Of Many, One, about the late US Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and the internationally award-winning play ART by Yasmina Reza, starring Richard Roxburgh (Rake), Adelaidean actor Damon Herriman (Better Man, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Ryan Corr (Kangaroo, Holding the Man), which Kalive describes as ‘witty, savage, and painfully recognisable – the kind of play that leaves you laughing and wincing at the same time.’

The 2026 season will also kick-start new initiative Blak State, a long-term commitment to First Nations theatre-making supported by Create SA, which will begin with a statewide period of listening and consultation led by First Nations artists, Elders and cultural leaders, who will define stories, structures and ways of working that reflect sovereignty, cultural futures and community priorities.

Kalive said she is excited to present her inaugural season and get to know South Australian audiences. ‘What excites me most [are] the opportunities for SA artists in this season and the range of works: from the intimate to the epic, the classical to the radical, the joyful to the tragic. Each work asks us to gather, to think, to laugh, to be moved, and to walk back into the world seeing it just a little differently.’

Subscriptions to State Theatre Company South Australia’s 2026 season are on sale now.

Victorian Opera

The company’s 21^st anniversary season features pirates, ghosts, Australian classics and a world premiere, with Artistic Director Stuart Maunder AM describing it as, ‘a toast to our past, a bold embrace of the present, and a leap into the future. We revisit a treasured past production, premiere a brand-new Australian opera, reimagine a neglected gem of music theatre and, for the first time, explore the sparkling world of operetta.’

Maunder continued: ‘Our stages will be graced by extraordinary Australian singers who shine both nationally and internationally. We do more than admire their success – we give them a voice, literally, here at home.’

Victorian Opera’s 2026 season opens with Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Pirates of Penzance at St Kilda’s Palais Theatre from 31 January to 6 February, and closes with the world premiere adaptation of Helen Garner’s novel The Spare Room, adapted by composer Jane Hammond and librettist Therèsa Borg,at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse from 7 to 10 October. The Spare Room tells the story of Helen, who lovingly prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola as she navigates alternative treatment for cancer; sopranos Natalie Jones and Antoinette Halloran star as Helen and Nicola respectively, with director Sarah Goodes making her operatic debut as the production’s director; Phoebe Briggs conducts.

Other highlights include revivals of Reg Livermore’s Ned Kelly: The Musical, which was originally produced in the late 1970s and will be staged at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat for one night only on Saturday 28 March (directed by Maunder and conducted by Simon Holt; Reg Livermore will appear in the performance in a special cameo), and Victorian Opera’s original production, The Magic Pudding: The Opera, based on Norman Lindsay’s children’s classic(the production will tour metropolitan venues from 15 to 30 May 2026 with performances at The Round, Darebin Arts Centre and Bunjil Place).

Productions of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea and Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw will also be staged by the company in 2026. Visit Victorian Opera’s website for ticketing and subscription details.

Black Swan State Theatre Company

Kate Champion, Black Swan’s Artistic Director, calls the West Australian company’s newly-announced 2026 season, ‘a vibrant mix of powerhouse performances, uncompromising original commissions, lauded emerging voices and inspiring collaborations’.

Highlights include two world premieres: in May, the Black Swan-commissioned adaptation of West Australian novelist Tim Winton’s novel The Shepherd’s Hut, which Champion says, ‘takes us into the probing isolation of nature in search of personal redemption and release’ (written for the stage by playwright Tim McGarry (Boy Swallows Universe), directed by Matt Edgerton, and exploring themes of masculinity, isolation and the violence of hope); and in August-September, West Australian writer Will O’Mahony’s Day (After Day) In The Life Of The Useless, directed by Adam Mitchell and described by Champion as ‘a deftly woven, giddy portrayal of a character who, with best intentions to rise above, descends ever lower into own goals and unfortunate circumstances’.

Read: ‘It gets harder’: Tim Winton on writing

Also programmed in 2026 are season opener Meow Meow’s Red Shoes (co-produced with Belvoir and Malthouse Theatre Companies), the acclaimed cabaret artiste’s latest subversion of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale; a return season of Olivier Award-winning Australian playwright Suzie Miller’s RBG: Of Many, One, a Black Swan box office record-breaker when it was staged in 2024; the local premiere of Declan Furber Gillick’s critically acclaimed Jacky, a co-production with local First Nations theatre company Yirra Yaakin; and encore seasons for two previously staged Black Swan works.

Following a sold-out 2025 Perth season, the concert production Raised in Big Spirit Country – created by Black Swan’s newly appointed Associate Artistic Director, Naomi Pigram-Mitchell – heads home to Broome to the Goolarri Amphitheatre in September. Similarly, the site specific work The Pool (praised as ‘technically innovative and inspiring’ in ArtsHub’s 5-star review)tours regional WA, including Port Hedland, Karratha, Newman and Wagin before returning to Perth to play a new aquatic centre. ‘Celebrating each local community who gravitate towards these venerated public spaces, we look forward to sharing the delight this production brings to pool lovers of every age and aquatic ability,’ Champion said.

Black Swan State Theatre Company’s 2026 season is on sale to Friends of Black Swan on 7 October and to the general public on 14 October: visit Black Swan’s website for details.     

Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) invites audiences to ‘Feel Every Note’ in its 2026 season, which opens with QSO Favourites in February – featuring some of the most loved pieces in the classical canon, as chosen by the Orchestra’s audience. The season concludes in late November with Don Juan & Manfred, the 10^th in QSO’s Maestro concert series for 2026 and featuring the world premiere of Australian-Ukrainian composer Catherine Likhuta’s Visions of Grandeur alongside works by Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss.

QSO Chief Executive Michael Sterzinger said the 2026 season presented an abundance of opportunities to spotlight the orchestra’s musicians and to highlight new and emerging talent. ‘Two special Portraits recitals over the Valentine’s Day weekend are built around the brilliance of QSO’s Principal Flute, Alison Mitchell, and the expressiveness of QSO’s Principal Harp, Emily Granger,’ he said. Sterzinger also recommended October’s Old Worlds, New Sounds – one of QSO’s Music on Sundays concerts – where the Orchestra will begin with an overture by First Nations composer Christopher Sainsbury before guest violinist Catherina Lee performs Bruch’s Violin Concerto.

QSO Chief Conductor Maestro Umberto Clerici offers up a ‘degustation menu of Italy’s musical traditions’ including the music of Rossini, Rota, Verdi and Vivaldi in The Italian Gala in May; the season also includes tributes to video game music, the film scores of John Williams, and the QSO performing the scores of Gladiator and How to Train Your Dragon as live accompaniments to screenings of the films at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Read: From gamers to lovers, this symphony orchestra has something for every ear

QSO will tour across Queensland to Gladstone, Bundaberg, the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Chinchilla, Miles, Roma and Tara next year, with QSO Director – Artistic Planning Matthew Wood saying the 2026 touring schedule reflects the Orchestra’s commitment to representing all Queensland.

‘The sheer physical size of Queensland is something which always staggers me and while some may see a regional touring program of this scale as a challenge, QSO sees it as a wonderful opportunity to explore our diverse state, connect with audiences of all ages, and unite communities in a shared love of music,’ Wood said.

‘QSO also continues its impressive outreach and education programs, which are equally important to everyone at the orchestra as any of our main season fare,’ he added.

QSO’s regional, education and mainstage programs merge in 2026 when 17-year-old Atherton resident Jonathan Platz, a participant in the 2025 QSO Compose Program, becomes the youngest composer to be commissioned by QSO. His new, as-yet-untitled work makes its world premiere at an open-air concert at Muro Martin Parkland in Cairns, and as part of the Music On Sundays’ Symphonic Stories concert at QPAC’s Concert Hall in August.

QSO subscriptions for 2026 go on sale from 7 October 2025, with single tickets available from 17 November: visit Queensland Symphony Orchestra for details.

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) celebrates its 90^th anniversary in 2026; its newly announced season provides a significant opportunity to acknowledge the Orchestra’s impact on the wider community in South Australia and beyond, according to ASO Chief Executive Colin Cornish AM.

‘Our 90th anniversary season is an invitation to every South Australian to join the ASO and participate in live musical experiences that inspire, soothe and excite audiences of all ages. The program has been created to celebrate the enormous sense of pride the musicians and the community share for the orchestra,’ Cornish said.

While much of the 2026 season takes place in and around Adelaide (including the UKARIA Cultural Centre in the Adelaide Hills; details of the ASO’s upcoming 2026 regional tour will be announced early next year), one regional event of note is the November performance of Origins of the Universe, of Life, of Species, of Humanity, a major new oratorio by New York-based Australian composer Nicholas Buc. Conceived by evolutionary geneticist Jenny Graves, who co-wrote the libretto with poet Leigh Hay, Origins… explores the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the emergence of humanity and its recent impact upon the planet, and is presented in association with Big Sing McLaren Vale. Anyone who can learn the music and commit to the rehearsal and performance schedule, is invited to register for the concert’s Big Sing Chorus.

The ASO’s 90^th anniversary will be commemorated with a number of special concerts, including The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure in May, featuring musical highlights from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (now commonly known as The Ring Cycle) in a nod to the ASO’s pioneering role in helping stage an Australian Ring Cycle in 1998; and The Planets in November, featuring Welsh Baritone Sir Bryn Terfel with the program including Holst’s The Planets and John Williams’ Star Wars: Suite.

Other 2026 ASO highlights include the first performances of three new works curated by the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music and Soundstream New Music: Waltjapiti Tjungu– Together, One Family in October; ASO Principal Clarinettist Dean Newcomb premiering a new work by Joe Chindamo; a World Premiere ASO commission from Australian composer Holly Harrison performed by renowned classical accordionist James Crabb; and a special program showcasing the work of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

The latter, according to Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth, will be ‘an unmissable opportunity to appreciate more deeply one of the greatest composers of the 20^th century and also acknowledge the ASO’s history with the composer.’ Visit the ASO website for season and subscription details.

September updates

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s  2026 season consists of six live concerts to be performed at Sydney’s City Recital Hall and Melbourne Recital Centre. One of the season’s undoubted highlights will be October’s world premiere of a newly unearthed classical concerto by Austrian composer Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (1757 – 1831), previously lost to time, alongside the Australian premiere of a Sinfonia by Italian composer Antonio Salieri. Slightly earlier in the year, in August, acclaimed American violinist Augusta McKay Lodge makes her Australian debut, and will shine a light on one of Baroque music’s most overlooked figures – Anna Maria della Pietà, an orphaned Venetian prodigy who was arguably ‘the greatest violinist of the 18th century‘.

‘Since our very first concert, we’ve been driven by a belief in the power of live performance to move, uplift, and connect. It is a celebration of creativity, shared experience, and the moments that linger long after the final note. In 2026, we invite you to experience a season that brings this vision to life with fresh energy and unforgettable artistry,’ said the Brandenburg’s Co-Founder and Artistic Director Paul Dyer.

Co-Founder and Managing Director Bruce Applebaum added: ‘This is a season shaped by bold contrasts and remarkable voices. You’ll be drawn into the drama of the Italian Baroque through the commanding presence of Renato Dolcini, and later experience our orchestra and choir in music that ranges from the radiant joy of Bach to the sparkling invention of Telemann. It all builds to a final chorus that promises to lift your spirits. From the shimmer of solo brilliance to the sweep of the orchestra in full flight, every concert offers its own universe of sound.’

The 2026 season opens in February with Baroque Masters, a tribute to the composers who rest at the centre of the Brandenburg’s musical identity: George Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Pachelbel and Antonio Vivaldi.

In April, the Brandenburg Choir and Orchestra join forces for Choral Splendour, featuring Bach’s celebrated cantatas; and in June, Italian baritone Renato Dolcini returns to the Brandenburg stage for a journey through the heart of Baroque Italy in Italian Serenatas, a programhighlighting the music of each Italian city and its artistry. Closing the year is the Brandenburg’s now traditional annual favourite, Noël! Noël!, a Christmas concert of centuries-old carols and festive gems. 

Learn more about Australian Brandenburg Orchestra subscriptions and the 2026 season.

Hayes Theatre Co

The joint Artistic Directors of Hayes Theatre Co, Richard Carroll and Victoria Falconer, have described their 2026 season as one ‘that embraces the power of music theatre to surprise, to provoke and to bring people together in joyful, meaningful ways’.

Carroll and Falconer add: ‘One of our favourite things about Hayes’ audiences is that they combine a love of music theatre’s rich traditions with a constant curiosity about where it could go next. That’s why we prioritise bringing fresh eyes to beloved shows, offering a spotlight to emerging talent, and making space for our most exciting artists to create bold, inventive work.’

Next year’s season includes the world premiere of BARBRA: The Greatest Star, a concert event honouring Barbra Streisand and directed by Brittanie Shipway; the Australian premiere of recent Broadway production Gutenberg! The Musical!,literallya madcap two-hander about following your dreams (even if you have to sell your house to do so); another two-hander, the pop-rock cheerleading thriller We Are The Tigers; and the world premiere of Silver Tongue, a musical reimagining of Treasure Island created by Australian talents Miranda Middleton, Jacob Parker and Alec Steedman, and directed by Carroll with musical direction by Falconer.

Many regular Hayes events also return in 2026, including two new Neglected Musicals (A Man of No Importance in March, a celebration of the redemptive power of theatre, love, and friendship set in conservative 1960s Dublin, and The Rink in September, a Kander and Ebb classic set in a Coney Island of the mind), the Festival of New Work, the Winter Cabaret season and Carols by Cabaret.

Visit Hayes Theatre Co for full season details. 

West Australian Ballet

‘Season 2026 celebrates some of our most loved works from West Australian Ballet’s history, while opening the stage to bold new creations. This season reflects who we are.  A company proud of its past, ambitious for its future, and deeply connected to our audiences,’ West Australian Ballet’s incoming Artistic Director, Leanne Stojmenov said of the company’s recently revealed new season.

The 2026 program – programmed by Guest Artistic Director David McAllister AC – opens with perennial favourite Ballet at the Quarry, this year entitled Incandesence and featuring four world premieres created especially for the Quarry Amphitheatre (which celebrates its 40^th anniversary as an outdoor performance venue in late 2026). Alongside works by internationally acclaimed choreographers Tim Harbour and Ihsan Rustem are the mainstage choreographic debuts of West Australian Ballet’s Chihiro Nomura and Polly Hilton.

Additional new choreographic works by Company members can also be seen in winter in Genesis, a program that began as a creative incubator for the West Australian Ballet’s dancers to increase their skills and choreograph works on their peers, and which has now become one of the most popular seasons in the Company’s calendar.

Earlier in the year, in April, Dracula rises yet again, a production originally commissioned by the company for its 2018 season and which ArtsHub called ‘a triumph’ at the time. Having consequently been revived in 2020 and 2021, next year’s production of Dracula (choreographed by Poland’s Krzysztof Pastor and featuring the music of fellow Pole, Wojciech Kilar, from the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula) marks its fourth appearance in a West Australian Ballet season. Dracula will also reach new audiences when West Australian Ballet takes Bram Stoker’s tale to Adelaide. 

‘Next year is also a landmark year as we take the company interstate for the first time in more than a decade. We’re so excited to share this powerful and seductive story with new audiences,’ Stojmenov said. 

The Company’s rather safe – but doubtless fiscally prudent – 2026 season concludes with the festive favourite The Nutcracker, leaving one hoping for more ambitious fare from Stojmenov in 2027, once she has properly taken hold of the West Australian Ballet’s creative reins.

A fifth production, still under wraps at the time of writing, will be announced on Wednesday 8 October. Visit the West Australian Ballet for details.

Sydney Theatre Company

Mitchell Butel, who joined Sydney Theatre Company (STC) as Artistic Director last November, has unveiled his first season for the company, with the tentpole production being Jack Yabsley’s Whispering Jack: The John Farnham Musical. Co-produced by Farnham’s manager, Gaynor Wheatley, and Michael Cassel, who brought STC’s The Picture of Dorian Gray to the West End and Broadway, the production focuses on Farnham’s reinvention after a decade of struggle, culminating in the release of his best-selling 1985 album, Whispering Jack. The musical is expected to tour in the future.

Michael Cassel said: ‘This is more than a new musical – it’s a celebration of an artist who defined generations and a moment in time that changed Australian music forever and formed part of the DNA of this country.

‘Whispering Jack is a story of resilience, creativity, and finding your voice, themes that feel as urgent and universal today as they did in 1986. To be working alongside someone as passionate as Gaynor Wheatley, and to be premiering this production as a development production allows us the rare chance to refine the work in front of an audience before it reaches its next stage … We hope this is just the beginning of something very special.’

The STC’s 2026 season also includes the world premieres of Bennelong in London by Jane Harrison (Stolen, The Visitors), about the Aboriginal man abducted by Governor Phillip and taken to London in 1792, and Strong is the New Pretty, a new play by Suzie Miller (Prima Facie, RBG: Of Many, One) about the birth of the AFLW.

Other 2026 highlights include the Sydney premiere of MTC’s musical theatre production My Brilliant Career, as previously announced by ArtsHub; the return of Australian stars David Wenham, Miranda Otto and Sam Worthington to the stage; and the Australian premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose, a ‘funny, deep, and provocative work’ exploring ‘the gaping divide between shiny public personas and shadowy private realities’ (New York Theatre Guide), and which won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play, the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the 2025 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award.

‘Theatre has the power to touch hearts, challenge beliefs, invite empathy, delight, provoke, inspire, enlighten and, importantly, entertain. I am honoured to have the great privilege of inviting artists and playwrights I respect and admire to bring brilliant, entertaining theatre to the people of Sydney,’ said STC AD Mitchell Butel.

‘In programming this season, some of the themes that have emerged in the works are around change and difference. Experiencing live storytelling in a theatre together allows us to hold space for different and competing views, to foster empathy and perhaps even change our perspective.

‘The stories in our 2026 Season look back at significant moments in history, celebrate those who have fought to make change and explore how telling stories can help us to understand the present and ourselves,’ he said.

Learn more about Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 season.

The Australian Ballet

The Australian Ballet’s recently announced 2026 season includes the centrepiece production, Flora, billed as the Company’s ‘most significant collaboration to date’. A co-production between The Australian Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre, the production is billed as ‘an urgent, poetic conversation on ecology and identity’ and explores Australia’s native flora through a profound cultural, environmental and spiritual lens. Choreographed by Mirning woman Frances Rings, Bangarra’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO, Flora will feature an ensemble of over 35 dancers drawn from both companies, and an original score composed by Kalkadungu man, yidaki player and internationally renowned composer, William Barton.

The company’s presentation of Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck’s Copland Dance Episodes marks the first time the work has been staged outside New York City, and will be performed in both Melbourne and Sydney; in Melbourne; an exclusive Melbourne season of Marcia Haydée’s The Sleeping Beauty, performed by The Stuttgart Ballet, is sure to be another highlight for balletomanes.

‘The 2026 season reflects our commitment to presenting ballet in its expressive depth for life-long devotees, newcomers and everyone in between. With five classical and contemporary works, some timeless and others ground-breaking, this season is dedicated to our audiences and celebrates the many ways ballet inspires, moves and connects us all. Season 2026 is about creating moments of wonder and connection that resonate long after the curtain falls,’ said The Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director David Hallberd.

‘Season 2026 promises to reignite cherished memories and create vivid new ones. It is a season of collaboration and cultural dialogue, most notably through Flora, our groundbreaking partnership with Bangarra Dance Theatre. By bringing together diverse voices and perspectives, we honour ballet’s rich heritage while shaping a future that is vibrant, relevant and inclusive for all who experience it. I’m incredibly proud to present this season to our audiences. We made it with you all in mind,’ he added.

The season opens with Signature Works at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, a yet-to-be-announced selection of highlights from the Company’s repertoire, and also includes the return of John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The year’s final production is Sir Peter Wright’s production of The Nutcracker, returning to the Sydney Opera House following its sold-out 2024 season.

In addition to its mainstage seasons, The Australian Ballet will present a range of community engagement initiatives throughout 2026. The National Tour will travel to Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory, and the Company’s education program brings performances and workshops to schools across the country. 

Learn about The Australian Ballet’s 2026 season.  

Belvoir

Belvoir’s 2026 season features six adaptations of literary works, including the debut play of author Vivian Pham, based on her own book The Coconut Children, about growing up in Cabramatta in the 1990s; Malthouse Theatre’s acclaimed 2025 production of Daphne du Maurier’s short story The Birds; new adaptations of E.M. Forster’s A Room with A View and Craig Silvey’s children’s book, Runt; and the Queensland Theatre and State Theatre Company South Australia co-production Dear Son, based on the book by Thomas Mayo and praised by ArtsHub as ‘a powerful 75-minute work that tears open many preconceived ideas such as “men don’t talk” by offering stories that show distinctive traits of male vulnerability, courage and strength’.

‘The shows we’re offering this year come from artists asking, what can we make possible? Can we make a place in this country for Black men to be both strong and vulnerable in public? Can we rouse the ghost of Chrissy Amphlett? Can art outwit the authority of the state? Can the dead speak of war? Can animals make justice? Can we figure out how to survive the overthrow of nature? Can we overthrow the patriarchy? Can a dog perform at Belvoir St? Can the proud Black spirit of Redfern live on?’ Belvoir’s Artistic Director, Eamon Flack, asked rhetorically.

‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, why not, hopefully, yes, yes, yes!’ he added.

Nine mainstage works have been programmed for 2026 in total, in addition to two special late-night shows – sex clown Betty Grumble’s Grumblism and writer/performer Hannah Reilly’s Role Play. The season also includes an encore season of The Jungle and the Sea, from the team behind Counting and Cracking and revisiting some of that epic plays’ themes; Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, adapted from Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘eco-feminist-anti-authoritarian whodunnit,’ as Flack, who adapted and will direct the play, describes the book; and British playwright Sam Howcroft’s A Mirror, which Flack said is, ‘like Pirandello and Kafka meet Tom Stoppard, it’s carefully put together, it knows what it’s saying, and it’s very entertaining. There’s a sting in the tail, too.’

The 2025 event Redfern Renaissance, a celebration of the storytellers and trailblazers who built the foundations of Black theatre in Australia and coordinated by Wiradjuri Yuin actor Angeline Penrith, has an encore season as part of the 2026 Sydney Festival’s BlakOut program.

Learn more about Belvoir’s 2026 season here.

Griffin Theatre Company

Until Griffin’s Kings Cross home the SBW Stables Theatre is rebuilt and reopens in 2027, the company remains artistically homeless. (So far this year, Griffin has staged productions at The Old Fitz, the Seymour Centre and Belvoir; its two remaining 2026 productions will be presented at Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 1 and Wharf 2 theatres.) Consequently, Griffin’s five 2026 mainstage productions (as well as two productions presented as part of its artist development program, Griffin Lookout) will be staged at Belvoir’s downstairs theatre in neighbouring Surry Hills.

‘In our final season before we return to the Stables we’re returning to what makes Griffin… well, Griffin. Compelling new plays, Incredible actors, all so close you can feel the heat of the stage lights,’ said Griffin’s Artistic Director, Declan Greene.

‘This year we are zooming in on moments of heartbreak, catastrophe, joy. In 2026 that means Zahra Newman, Simon Burke, Miranda Tapsell alongside blazing next generation talent in plays that swing from the global scale of international aid to the intimate crisis of new motherhood.

‘This is Griffin, up close and personal. Come squeeze in for our final year before we return home,’ Greene said.

The company’s 2026 season of all-Australian plays features the revival of Steve J. Spears’ 1976 one-man play The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin, starring Simon Burke in a role originated by Gordon Chater; the mainstage debut of Iolanthe’s SISTREN, a celebration of young Gen-Z women which debuted earlier this year at The Old Fitz; Happy Feraren’s debut play SAVIOR, a satire of corporate humanitarianism inspired by the playwright’s experience of working for NGOs in the Philippines; the return of Declan Greene and Zahra Newman’s critically acclaimed reimagining of Wake in Fright (the original Sydney season of which was halted by COVID after just four performances); and a brand-new comedy, Mum Club by Budawang/Yuin woman Jorjia Gillis.

The 2026 Griffin Lookout season features two new works: Afterglow by up-and-comers Sheanna Parker Russon and Lillian M. Hearne, billed as ‘a touching musical rom-com’ set in the world of barbershop quartets, and Iacuna by emerging Chinese Australian playwright Eric Jiang, described as ‘an epic underworld dive into family, forgetting and the dire consequences of commodifying the divine’.

Learn more at Griffin’s website.

Bell Shakespeare

Bell Shakespeare’s newly launched 2026 season features three productions: a national tour of the company’s ‘grim but gripping‘ (Australlian Financial Review) Macbeth from 2023, the world premiere of Mackenzie, a new play by Fangirls creator Yve Blake, and a new production of Julius Caesar. 

‘Welcome to season 2026, a season of ambition, guilt and idealised murder. First up is Julius Caesar, one of the most famous political plays of all time, centred on the most famous murder in western history. After Coriolanus this year, I’m fascinated to produce Julius Caesar again, another of Shakespeare’s history-based Roman plays, and see how one informs the other,’ said the company’s Artistic Director Peter Evans.

‘Our national tour sees the return of our highly successful production of Macbeth with a new cast to take our séance-inspired nightmare world around the country. And excitingly, we have a brand new play Mackenzie by Yve Blake. Yve is one of the most exciting and hilarious writers in Australia, and when she sent us her new play about an ambitious teenage TV star and her relentless stage mother we were delighted; horrified and delighted. We can’t wait to welcome audiences to the theatre next year.’ 

Evans will direct Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s exploration of the cost of ambition, loyalty and power; the cast includes Leon Ford (Elvis, Hamlet) as Cassius and Brigid Zengeni (Coriolanus, The Artful Dodger) as Brutus. Julius Caesar has returned from battle triumphant and is repeatedly offered the crown. Brutus and Cassius conspire against Caesar, fearful of his growing influence, triggering shocking acts of violence and devastating consequences. Opening in Sydney in March, the production will subsequently tour to Canberra and Melbourne. 

Fresh off a stint touring her ‘fresh and original’ hit musical Fangirls in London, award-winning creator Yve Blake premieres her new work, Mackenzie – a twisted, comic and deeply camp reimagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. What if Macbeth was a 13-year-old child star in the heights of early 2000s TV stardom and Lady Macbeth was her ruthlessly ambitious stage mum? Directed by actor Virginia Gay, the Artistic Director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival, and featuring Blake’s original music, Mackenzie will open in Sydney in June before touring to Melbourne. 

For the company’s annual national tour, Evans’ ‘utterly compelling’ (Sydney Morning Herald) 2023 take on Macbeth will tour to over 20 venues across the country. Anthony Taufa (Coriolanus, Jailbaby) stars in the titular role alongside Matilda Ridgway (Coriolanus, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Bump) as Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare’s supernatural thriller follows the story of Macbeth, a Scottish genera, famed for his exploits on the battlefield. Set in the moody 1920s, post-World War I, the production portrays moral collapse and an intense and compelling journey into the dark heart of humanity. 

Alongside its mainstage programming, Bell Shakespeare continues its extensive national outreach and education program in schools, communities and Juvenile Justice centres across Australia throughout 2026. A range of ancillary events, including panel discussions, lectures and the script reading series Play In A Day, are also programmed next year.

Visit Bell Shakespeare’s website for full program details.

Selby & Friends

Chamber music ensemble Selby & Friends, founded by pianist Kathryn Selby AM in 2007, celebrates its 20th season in 2026. Five concert tours to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and the NSW Southern Highlands have been programmed for the new year, including works by Brahms, Mozart, Schubert, Milhaud, Arensky and Dvořák, as well as several living Australian composers.

Highlights include Tour 2: From Romance to Reckoning, which features a composite piece by eight Australian women composers exploring the very real drama associated with bushfires, as well as works by Schumann and Mendelssohn. Entitled Fire Dances Suite and instigated by composer Natalie Williams, the project was commissioned through the support of a Fresh Start Grant, funded by ABC Classic in 2020, following the ferocious and destructive Black Summer of 2019-2020. Fire Dances Suite includes creative voices from every Australian state and territory.  

A more pastoral version of the Australian bush features in Tour 3: Bush, Borscht & Bonn, thanks to the inclusion of Ross Edwards’ Piano Trio for Piano, Violin and Violoncello (1998) alongside pieces by Beethoven and Arensky. The fifth and final program for 2026, Creation of the World, focuses on fostering the talents and experiences of the next generations of Australian artists and features newcomers Louise Turnbull (violin) and Ariel Postmus (viola), alongside Selby and guest artists performing works by Dvořák, Milhaud and Mozart.

Many of Selby & Friends’ 2026 guests hold principal positions in Australia’s major orchestras, such as SSO Concertmaster Andrew Haveron and Associate Concertmaster Alexandra Osborne, MSO Concertmaster Natalie Chee and ACO Principal Cellist Timo-Veikko Valve. Several return home to Australia from their international activities overseas: violinist Susie Park and award-winning cellists Richard Narroway and Clancy Newman.

Visit Selby & Friends for details on concert subscriptions and single tickets.

2026 season announcements in August

Australian Chamber Orchestra

The Australian Chamber Orchestra‘s 2026 National Concert Season includes the world premiere of an ACO commission from Academy and Golden Globe-winning Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir; her new work will be performed in the mid-year concert From Winter’s Stillness alongside a 2008 Sigur Rós track ‘Fljótavík’ arranged for trumpet and strings. The same program also features the acclaimed Trio Mediæval, comprising vocalists Anna Maria Friman, Ditte Marie Bræin and Jorunn Lovise Husan.

Another ACO commission having its world premiere next year is Pulitzer Prize-winning US composer John Luther Adams’ Horizon, while works receiving their Australian premieres include American Ellen Reid’s West Coast Sky Eternal and Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnytė’s De Profundis. Other season highlights include the special concert Mozart’s Last Symphonies in September, for which the 17-strong ACO will significantly expand to perform Mozart’s final three symphonies, and the December performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, performed in partnership with The Song Company.

‘Music has always been a way to hold onto time, or at least to touch it differently. This season, we travel through music that doesn’t simply mark time, it questions it. Pieces that remind us of what music has always done best: to hold a moment just long enough to feel outside of time,’ said ACO Artistic Director Richard Tognetti.

Ticket and subscription details for all concerts in the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s 2026 National Concert Season can be found at the ACO’s website.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra

Five orchestral programs at Melbourne Recital Centre, a three-concert chamber music series, the return of the popular A Feast of Music festival in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, and three world premieres by Australian composers are featured in the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s 2026 season.

The season opens in February with Flexible Sky, featuring guitar virtuoso Slava Grigoryan and a world premiere by the exceptional jazz pianist Joe Chindamo OAM, and concludes in November with Drifting Currents,featuring the world premiere of Alice Humphries’ Cello Concerto, written especially for MCO cellist Blair Harris. Other highlights include May’s Overgrown Paths concert, featuring Vivaldi’s beloved music and his less familiar poetry as performed by the ACO with violinist Sophie Rowell and actor and narrator Helen Morse, and in October, the world premiere of composer Miriama Young’s DuskLit Meditations, created from field recordings by young people in climate-affected communities.

Founded in 1997, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra is Victoria’s preeminent professional chamber orchestra. Visit the MCO’s website for season and subscription details.

Melbourne Recital Centre

Melbourne Recital Centre’s 2026 season is the first to be overseen by the venue’s recently appointed Director of Programming, Iain Grandage AM, with additional artistic contributions from guest curator Matthew Hoy. The season also builds on the work done by the Centre’s former director, Marshall McGuire.

‘This program is a thrilling mix of the known and the new, featuring artists of the highest quality from around the globe. As I begin my journey at the Melbourne Recital Centre, I’m inviting everyone to continue theirs by joining us for this season,’ Grandage said.

Program highlights include the Brodsky Quartet joining forces with yidaki maestro William Barton in February 2026 for a cross-cultural performance responding to the bushfire crisis in Australia; a pop culture meets chamber music concert in September when Bryce Dessner of The National pairs with musicians from Sydney Symphony Orchestra to further expand the definition of ‘classical’ music; and in October, the MRC debut of acclaimed British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, a bright new star in the classical music firmament following her successful concerto debut at the BBC Proms in 2023.

Visit Melbourne Recital Centre for full season details.

Musica Viva

Musica Viva Australia’s 2026 concert program features seven national tours, six premieres and 49 concerts across six states and territories, performed by local and international artists including London-based powerhouse the Doric String Quartet, much-loved Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, superstar British pianist Paul Lewis, French-American lutenist Thomas Dunford, and the Latvian Radio Choir with ARIA award-winning recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey.

Highlights include Beethoven’s Ghost in May, featuring three Australian artists – pianist, storyteller and FutureMaker, Auro Go, Finnish-Australian cellist Timo-Veikko Valve, and violin virtuoso Kristian Winter – performing Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ Piano Trio in D, in a concert that also features a new commission by Australian composer Melody Eötvös. In June, London’s Doric String Quartet together with Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff perform Thomas Adès’ Alchymia for clarinet quintet, a piece The Guardian called, ‘one of the best chamber music compositions of our time’, and in October, the Latvian Radio Choir – one of Europe’s most in-demand chamber choirs – perform works by Caroline Shaw, Mendelssohn and Pēteris Vasks as well as new commissions from Ēriks Ešenvalds, and creative collaborators Hollis Taylor and Jon Rose.

Musica Viva Australia Artistic Director, Paul Kildea said, ‘I’m delighted to share a 2026 concert season full of verve, beauty and optimism. Chamber music has such a special ability to uplift, to provoke meaning and to provide a profound sense of connection, all things which I feel are ever more important. 

‘I’m especially proud to offer performances that are at once familiar and unexpected – such as the debut of lutenist Thomas Dunford with Nicolas Altstaedt, which will be extraordinary – and tours which combine international and homegrown artists – such as Doric String Quartet with magnificent clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff –  and internationally-acclaimed creations such as A Winter’s Journey, which bring a uniquely Australian point of view to much-loved masterpieces.’

Visit Musica Viva’s website for 2026 season details, including the Sydney Morning Masters daytime concert series.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2026 season celebrates the Orchestra’s 120^th year with a program spanning centuries and genres, featuring canonical masterworks alongside brand new compositions, and showcasing celebrated Australian and international artists.

‘I am thrilled to be performing in Melbourne with our wonderful Orchestra and our recently appointed Concertmaster Natalie Chee,’ said Chief Conductor Jaime Martín. ‘Our distinguished international guests include French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel, UK cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, American pianist Kirill Gerstein, soprano Danielle de Niese and Spanish violinist María Dueñas.’

The MSO reinforces its commitment to sharing orchestral music as widely as possible in 2026, with additional no-to low-cost concerts embedding the Orchestra within a range of communities across Victoria, including Frankston, Geelong, Ringwood, Sale, Castlemaine and Cowes as well as the Melbourne CBD.

Season highlights include a Brahms Festival in November, featuring six concerts across two weeks led by Martín and featuring such guests as internationally acclaimed Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin and Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel; and an ongoing celebration of extraordinary women in music, including the Australian premiere of Melbourne composer Melody Eötvös The Deciding Machine, honouring women’s suffrage and Ada Lovelace’s pioneering computer work in a program for International Women’s Day.

Season 2026 also features 29 new works commissioned by the MSO, further contributing to a body of new and modern orchestral music by living composers. Visit the MSO website for concert details and subscriptions.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

‘In our modern world, everything seems fleeting and impermanent,’ said Chief Conductor Simone Young.

‘Which is why music – and especially live performance – remains so vital to the human condition … nothing compares to the emotional journey music takes you on, inspiring feelings you didn’t even know you had.’

Young called the SSO’s 2026 season, which opens with Mahler’s Song of the Earth, a meditation on life, beauty and impermanence, and concludes with Wagner’s cataclysmic Götterdämmerung: Twilight of the Gods, ‘a season of tremendous richness, performed by an orchestra the equal of any in the world’.

The SSO’s end of year performance of Götterdämmerung marks the culmination of the Orchestra’s landmark multi-year presentation of the complete Ring Cycle. The project has been a centrepiece of Simone Young’s tenure and its dramatic conclusion follows her historic appearances at the Bayreuth Festival, where in 2024 she became the first woman and first Australian to conduct the full cycle, reprising the feat in 2025.

Other SSO highlights in 2026 include appearance by the next generation of international orchestral stars and fast-rising young soloists, with María Dueñas, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Ivan Karizna and Anastasia Kobekina making their Sydney Symphony debuts; the Australian premieres of major concertos by Max Richter and Bryce Dessner, performed by the soloists for whom they were written; the world premieres of new works by Australian composers Lisa Illean, Nigel Westlake (written for the SSO’s Principal Percussion Rebecca Lagos) and Ella Macens; and for one night only, an exploration and celebration of the music of William Barton, who composes for voice, yidaki and orchestra, including his works Birdsong at Dusk and Journey to the Edge of the Horizon.

Visit the Sydney Symphony for subscription and ticket details.

2026 season guides already announced

Some companies have already launched their 2026 seasons, with corresponding coverage provided by ArtsHub.

Ensemble Theatre

Ten productions have been programmed for Ensemble Theatre’s 2026 season, including four new Australian productions, one of them by David Williamson AO. William’s new satire, The Social Ladder, which is described as a dissection of ‘the fragile performance of status – and the outrageous lengths we’ll go to just to be seen’. Learn more in ArtsHub’s stand-alone story about Ensemble Theatre’s 2026 season. 

ArtsHub: My Brilliant Career: MTC announces encore season of original musical in 2026

Opera Australia

Australia’s national opera company launched its 2026 season on 6 August, at which time the company was still without an Artistic Director and a CEO, following the well-documented turmoil of 2024. Opera Australia’s 2026 season includes an astute balance of crowd-pleasing musicals, new and recent works including a new opera, The Drover’s Wife and a remount of Watershed: The Death of Doctor Duncan, as well as old favourites. Thankfully, Opera Australia filled three of its key leadership positions – Chair, CEO and Music Director – a few weeks after the new season was launched. The remaining leadership role, the Head of Opera, is expected to be filled shortly, after which it is hoped Opera Australia’s artistic output, not its internal ructions, will be the main focus of headlines thereafter.

This article was first published on 3 September. It has been updated multiple times after publication to include additional season announcements, most recently on 10 December at 3:50pm. The entries for Red Stitch and Malthouse Theatre were updated on 5 December, to include newly received interstate tour details for The Doll Trilogy and the Malthouse Comedy program respectively.

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