In a city that’s never short on sunshine, it’s the shadows that sometimes hold the richest stories. Queensland Theatre’s DOOR 3 program is swinging open once again in 2025, inviting us to step into a world of vulnerability, wild creativity, and bold, unflinching storytelling.
After a triumphant inaugural season in 2024—earning two Matilda Awards and welcoming over 2,000 audience members—DOOR 3 has firmly established itself as the state’s most exciting incubator for independent theatre. It’s raw. It’s alive. And it’s a space where artists are trusted to take creative risks, with support rather than constraint.
A theatre of urgency and intimacy
This isn’t theatre that plays it safe. This is theatre that pulses. DOOR 3 is where the city’s most boundary-pushing makers come to experiment, expose, and explore. Whether through poetry, punk, or poignant silence, these works are stitched together by a shared urgency—a sense that these stories must be told.
Artistic Director Daniel Evans puts it beautifully: “Our state’s indie theatre makers are the best in the country—rock-n-roll, resourceful, and ready to tell stories that are bold, blistering and beyond belief.”
DOOR 3 offers these makers not just a stage, but infrastructure, mentorship, and belief. It’s an ecosystem in bloom.
The quiet rage and rowdy love of PRAMKICKER
First up in 2025 is PRAMKICKER by UK playwright Sadie Hasler (16 May–7 June). This is a love letter to women that doesn’t apologise for its mess or its mouth. Directed by local legends Amy Ingram and Nerida Matthaei and presented by MO Theatre, it’s a delicate storm of a play—witty, bruised, and brave. It’s about sisters. About womanhood. About rage that simmers and love that survives.
In a city sometimes too polite for its own good, PRAMKICKER dares to shout.
A kaleidoscope of truths in So Many Splintered Parts
In August (8–23), So Many Splintered Parts weaves together the voices of seven Brisbane writers, offering an evocative mosaic of personal truths. Each writer—Elaine Acworth, Shaun Charles, Robert Forster, Kathryn Marquet, Aidan Rowlingson, Sita Walker, and Grace Wilson—has just eight minutes to speak from the soul, while two actors bring their words to life.
The atmosphere is deepened by the live soundscape of Tyrone Noonan, who composes music in conversation with the stories. The result? Something intimate, electric, and entirely singular—like stumbling upon a gallery of living paintings.
Resilience across continents in SUPERHEROES
Closing the season is SUPERHEROES (7–22 November), a sweeping, sensitive drama by Mark Rogers, winner of both the Griffin Award and the Patrick White Award. Directed by Sanja Simic and presented by Bodysnatchers, it follows Emily and Jana—two women on opposite sides of the world, linked by struggle, transformation, and quiet triumph.
It’s a story of what it means to rise. Not in the explosive, cape-wearing sense, but in the quiet way people do every day. In its layered storytelling, SUPERHEROES offers something rare: hope grounded in truth.
The future lives behind this door
In just one year, DOOR 3 has already shifted the state’s theatrical landscape. It gave us Scenes from a Yellow Peril, which swept the 2024 Matilda Awards for Best Independent Production and Best Ensemble. As co-directors Chelsea August and Egan Sun-Bin put it:
“Being part of the DOOR 3 Program has given us the platform to be bold and courageous while also being supported as emerging artists coming into the fold.”
And that’s the real magic of DOOR 3. It’s not just a stage—it’s a threshold. A place where stories go from spark to spotlight, and where Queensland’s most daring artists are given permission to fly.
So walk through. Sit in the dark. Let yourself be moved.
🎟️ Explore the 2025 program and book your tickets at queenslandtheatre.com.au/door-3-2025
In her spare time, she likes long walks down the makeup aisle and performing in Brisbane theatre. You can follow her adventures on Instagram and TikTok @thebeautypalate.
