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.  

We’ve all seen productions in which the mysterious alchemy of collaboration goes awry despite the best participating talents and intentions. Conversely, the year is also guaranteed to surprise and delight us with small gems staged on the smell of an oily rag that have seemingly come out of nowhere, during festivals such as Anywhere and Darwin Fringe.   

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's 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 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts