Hodge said that he loved Round the Twist growing up because it was funny and weird but also a heartfelt story of a family and its “slightly peculiar home”.

“I think that’s why it means a lot to me having this musical premiere in my home, in the place I grew up watching it, in Brisbane,” he said.

Queensland Theatre’s 2024 season kicks off with Lewis directing a new version of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 thriller Gaslight.

The 1944 Ingrid Bergman film based on the play is the source of the term ‘gaslighting’, meaning a form of psychological manipulation.

“It starts in a really devastating space about mental health and becomes this great revenge thriller,” Lewis said.

A new comedy, 37, from Trawlwoolway pakana playwright Nathan Maynard, takes place in 2015 at the time of Adam Goodes’ famous war cry and concerns an underperforming country AFL team that drafts in Aboriginal cousins to help improve their ranking.

The director, Noongar man Isaac Drandic, is also directing Dear Brother by Lenny Donahue and Tibian Wyles.

Presented with BlakDance as part of Brisbane Festival, the show is a play staged with two dancers.

“It’s an exploration of Aboriginal masculinity and a hopeful vision of what it is to be a young Aboriginal male in this country,” Lewis said.

The 2400-year-old Greek tragedy Medea is getting a revision by Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks. Its story of a mother’s murderous revenge on her unfaithful husband will be told through the eyes of her two children.

“What’s exceptional about it is that it trusts young actors to be the extraordinary creators that they are. There’s a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old on stage the whole night,” Lewis said.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning American play, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, opens in June in a co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company. The cast includes wheelchair user Kate Hood and an actor with cerebral palsy.

“It’s an incredibly unsentimental play about living with disability, with beautiful and tough characters,” Lewis said.

Also from America is the farce POTUS, Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive, by Selina Fillinger, which Lewis will also direct.

“Selina is a young woman writing in response to Donald Trump’s comments about grabbing women.”

LEE LEWIS

“But actually it’s not about Trump at all, it’s about the presidency and the pressure America puts on smart women to behave in certain ways,” Lewis said.

Queensland Theatre 2024 season tickets are on sale now.

Queensland Theatre 2024 season

Gaslight
20 Feb-3 Mar
Playhouse, QPAC

37
11 Apr-4 May
Bille Brown Theatre

Medea
11 May-8 Jun
Bille Brown Theatre

Cost of Living
15 Jun-13 Jul
Bille Brown Theatre

POTUS, Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive
27 Jul-24 Aug
Bille Brown Theatre

Dear Brother
7–28 Sep
Bille Brown Theatre

Round The Twist The Musical
12 Nov–1 Dec
Playhouse, QPAC