These classic stories are finding audiences as young women today continue to grapple with ideas around feminism and choice: from trad wives to the myth of “having it all”, she says.<\/p>\n
“These characters have other passions, other obsessions and an inner world that exists far beyond the need of a husband,” Marquet says.<\/p>\n
“We’re told we can have a job, children, this and this, but the reality is it’s profoundly difficult.”<\/p>\n
The playwright is excited to explore these ideas through Jo, a character with whom she’s always identified.<\/p>\n
“Jo feels very out of place in the world she inhabits,” Marquet says. “She struggles with her anger because she wants so much more than is being offered to her.<\/p>\n
“I think a lot of young women have that experience and aren’t sure where they fit in the world.”<\/p>\n
Marquet sees Jo’s fiery temper as resonating with today, when, she explains, “female rage isn’t an acceptable sin”.<\/p>\n
“We’re encouraged to be sweet and kind and together, so what do you do with your rage?”<\/p>\n
A cozy world<\/p>\n
On the flip side of rage, Marquet and her co-writer, fellow Brisbane playwright Maxine Mellor, have been grappling with the question of how to be a good person in a time of crisis, like Jo March.<\/p>\n
QTC’s 2027 seasonAn Iliad by Homer; adapted by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’HareRomeo + Juliet by William Shakespeare; adapted by Isaac Drandic and Kamarra Bell-WykesMiss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: Death by Deckchair by Deb CoxStereophonic by David AdjmiCounting and Cracking by S ShakthidharanSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Hugh Wheeler (book)My Roman Empire by Alberto Di TroiaLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott; adapted by Kathryn Marquet and Maxine Mellor<\/p>\n
In Little Women, she tries to figure out how to help as her father serves in the Union Army in the American Civil War. That also has parallels with today.<\/p>\n
“All these terrible things are happening overseas and we want to help, but we don’t quite know what to do,” she says.<\/p>\n
“The challenges of being a good person in a complex world are still as relevant today as they were when Louisa May Alcott first wrote Little Women.”<\/p>\n
While there are contemporary resonances to Little Women, part of the appeal for Marquet of adapting a book that is so well-known and loved is in offering a kind of balm to an audience.<\/p>\n
“We want to create this beautiful, cozy world where people can go into the theatre and have a moment of escape and feel safe and feel all the good things about the human condition,” she says.<\/p>\n
For QTC artistic director Daniel Evans, commissioning a new Little Women was about getting together a group of artists he admires. Not just Marquet and Mellor, but Brisbane director Bridget Boyle and Brisbane actor and playwright Courtney Cavallaro, who will play Jo.<\/p>\n
It reflects Evans’s appreciation of the local independent scene in which he developed as a writer and director.<\/p>\n
“I grew up and came of age surrounded by amazing women, particularly in the independent sector,” he says.<\/p>\n
“I’m only here because of them, so it’s a bit of a gift or a love letter or acknowledgement of these incredible makers of enormous heart and enormous talent.”Difficulties facing drama in Queensland<\/p>\n
Little Women is one of two new adaptations by artists from Queensland in QTC’s season, alongside a new Romeo + Juliet from First Nations theatre-makers Isaac Drandic and Kamarra Bell-Wykes.<\/p>\n
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Romeo + Juliet will be the story of how two lovers are divided by a broken songline in the earth. (Supplied: QTC)<\/p>\n
The idea for an all-Indigenous Romeo + Juliet came from Drandic, the company’s Head of First Nations Theatre.<\/p>\n
Evans is excited to see a First Nations dramaturgical lens applied to one of the world’s most famous plays.<\/p>\n
“You can’t understand through a Western European dramaturgical lens the way a First Nations culture experiences time, love, fraternity and connection,” Evans explains.<\/p>\n
“That wrestle is where the bravery and excitement of that project is for me.”<\/p>\n
Making space for local theatre-makers, like Marquet, Mellor and Drandic, is important to Evans.<\/p>\n
“I’m constantly in dialogue with everyone, going, ‘How do we put Queensland front and centre?'” he says.<\/p>\n
“I spend a lot of my job advocating for Queensland and for Queensland artists, while trying to punch up into that national conversation as well.”<\/p>\n
He’s heartened by the depth of talent and skill throughout the Queensland arts community, but aware of the constraints facing the industry.<\/p>\n
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An Iliad, starring Brisbane local David Wenham, transfers to Queensland Theatre Company in 2027. (Supplied: STC\/Daniel Boud)<\/p>\n
Evans points to the dwindling of theatre and technical production courses across the country, including Queensland University of Technology cutting the state’s only degree in technical production.<\/p>\n
It’s one of 48 creative arts degrees across Australia that were discontinued between 2018 and 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Young school leavers being able to enter the industry, to study a technical trade or design course, is difficult,” Evans says. “That’s something that weighs on my mind.”<\/p>\n At the same time, across the country, enrolments in high school drama courses fell by 39 per cent in the eight years to 2023.<\/p>\n In Queensland, the number of schools offering drama fell by 22 per cent, from 323 to 253 between 2020 and 2025, with enrolments falling 39 per cent<\/a>, from 3,576 in 2020 to 2,194 in 2025.<\/p>\n Those statistics emphasise the importance of QTC education programs such as The Scene Project<\/a>, in which the company commissions a new short play that is then workshopped and performed by high school students from 130 schools across Queensland.<\/p>\n “Things like The Scene Project and our Young Company [an ensemble of performers in years 9 to 12] have to continue,” Evans says.<\/p>\n “When things do tighten, those are the things we have to keep on the table, otherwise we’re not going to have a future generation of makers.”<\/p>\n Dreaming bigger<\/p>\n It’s all part of the answer to the central question for Evans when planning QTC’s 2027 season, his second since becoming artistic director: What does the industry need?<\/p>\n “Right now, we need to dream a bit bigger,” he says.<\/p>\n “The best thing I can do for Queensland artists, technicians and audiences is just to punch and swing big.”<\/p>\n Those big swings include the Brisbane premiere of An Iliad, starring David Wenham, after its sell-out season in Sydney this year; producing a musical, Sweeney Todd, at a time when some commercial theatre productions are cutting runs of major musicals short; and bringing S Shakthidharan<\/a>‘s three-hour epic Counting and Cracking<\/a> to Queensland for the first time.<\/p>\n Counting and Cracking will also have a free outdoor season in New York in 2027. (Supplied: Belvoir)<\/p>\n “The cast sizes are big, the worlds are really epic, and all the stories are quite high stakes, or the characters are at an emotional crucible,” Evans says.<\/p>\n The season also includes a new Australian play, the just-announced winner of the $30,000 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award: My Roman Empire by Alberto Di Troia.<\/p>\n It’s the story of a queer man travelling to his ancestral home in rural Italy and finding it’s not “the Eat Pray Love, La Dolce Vita [he] thought it would be”. Instead, his long-lost family are neo-fascists.<\/p>\n Sandro Colarelli and Will Bartolo will star in My Roman Empire at QTC. (Supplied: QTC)<\/p>\n Evans’s sense of ambition also extends to co-productions with other companies: Stereophonic with Melbourne Theatre Company<\/a> and Belvoir St Theatre<\/a> in Sydney; and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: Death by Deckchair with Sydney Theatre Company<\/a>. Evans will direct both.<\/p>\n “These big works we’re all staging together [like Stereophonic] are our way of going: ‘We want to bring the best theatre in the world to you,'” he says.<\/p>\n At the same time, those collaborations meet Evans’s aim of creating pathways for local artists.<\/p>\n “We get to send and showcase some of our amazing Queensland actors and creators to southern states, and that’s worth a lot,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Kathryn Marquet was 18, she wasn’t interested in anything but making art. “If anyone had told me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,12740,488356,134,488357,488355,488359,488358,488354,488352,488353,315209],"class_list":["post-920429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dan-evans","tag-daniel-evans","tag-entertainment","tag-kathryn-marquet","tag-little-women","tag-little-women-play","tag-maxine-mellor","tag-qtc","tag-queensland-theatre","tag-queensland-theatre-company","tag-whats-on-brisbane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/d1cdedeadf71567df6e40825e9ac4cbe.jpeg\")
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