Theatre, dance and circus highlights 2023: part one

Performing Arts Editor Richard Watts casts a critical eye over some of the most promising productions in the year ahead in Qld, NSW, the ACT and Tas.

Trying to predict 2023’s outstanding stage productions at the start of the year is, at best, an uncertain art.  

Here then, is part one of a state by state and territory by territory guide to some of the many upcoming productions across the performing arts this year – with the caveat that many significant companies across the country such as NORPA, Circa, Tasdance and Stompin (as well as venues such as The Street Theatre in Canberra) have yet to reveal their 2023 programs in full.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts