Black Swan’s 2026 season takes flight with daring stories, fresh voices and visionary collaborations

Black Swan State Theatre Company has announced its 2026 season, a dynamic year that offers a mix of “daring stories, fresh voices and visionary collaborations.”

Showcasing bold new Australian works alongside reimagined classics and international gems, the program reflects Black Swan’s commitment to delivering theatre that celebrates our diversity and highlights the unique voices within it.

Black Swan kicks the year off with the talents of multi-award-winning Meow Meow (pictured above) and her unique brand of subversive and hypnotising storytelling in Meow Meow’s Red Shoes. From fauns to swans to dazzling showgirls, Meow Meow leads us through a riotous journey of music, movement, and meaning. In Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, a girl is cursed to dance forever—yet Meow Meow wonders: what if she could never start dancing at all? Directed by Kate Champion, co-produced with Belvoir St Theatre and Malthouse Theatre and presented in association with Perth Festival, Meow Meow’s Red Shoes is showing at His Majesty’s Theatre from Thursday, February 26, to Sunday, March 1.

Back by popular demand, Australian legend Heather Mitchell returns in her award-winning performance as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in RBG: Of Many, One. Written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Suzie Miller and directed by Priscilla Jackman, this intimate theatrical portrait of one woman who changed history returns to the Heath Ledger Theatre from Thursday, March 19, to Saturday, April 4.

Commissioned by Black Swan and premiering at Heath Ledger Theatre from Saturday, May 9, to Sunday, May 31, is the powerful reimagining of Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut. Released in 2018, the novel tells the story of fifteen-year-old Jaxie Clackton, angry and alone, who flees across WA’s salt lands. Instead of freedom, he finds Fintan MacGillis, a disgraced priest exiled to a crumbling hut at the edge of the world. As the unlikely pair form a fragile bond, buried secrets rise, forcing both to reckon with their pasts and confront life-changing choices. Directed by Matt Edgerton and starring George Shevtsov, The Shepherd’s Hut is a raw and poetic exploration of masculinity, isolation and the violence of hope.

Who decides where care stops and control begins? This age-old question is explored in The Almighty Sometimes at Subiaco Arts Centre, from Friday, June 19, to Sunday, July 5. Anna has been medicated for as long as she can remember. At 18, she wonders who she is without all that: could she fall in love, go to uni, or even just feel like herself? Her mother, Renée, clings to the fragile calm they’ve fought to keep—but Anna’s choices are no longer hers to make. Written by Kendall Feaver and directed by Emily McLean, The Almighty Sometimes is a gripping portrait of a mother and daughter wrestling with love, risk and identity.

From the pen of well-known West Australian writer and artist Will O’Mahony comes the world premiere of Day (After Day) In The Life Of The Useless. Pete’s wedding is off. Dumped and branded “a robot”, he turns to AI for guidance. Its advice? “Live well.” Easier said than done. What follows is a freefall of outrageous encounters, comic disasters and spectacularly bad luck. When life boots you off the bus of life, can you ever climb back on—and is AI already driving? Directed by Adam Mitchell, Day (After Day) In the Life Of The Useless is at Heath Ledger Theatre from Saturday, August 29, to Sunday, September 20.

Associate Artistic Director Naomi Pigram-Mitchell leads a stellar cast of Broome’s finest musicians, vocalists, dancers and performers in a concert that pays homage to the legendary artists who came before and amplifies the voices shaping the future. Following a sold-out 2025 Perth season, Raised in Big Spirit Country is heading home to Broome to the Goolarri Amphitheatre from Thursday, September 3, to Saturday, September 5.

The second half of 2026 brings together two of WA’s leading theatre companies, Black Swan and Yirra Yaakin, for a bold new co-production that is as confronting as it is hilarious and as personal as it is political. Jacky is a biting new play about family, work, culture and the compromises we make to survive. With wit, grit and a wicked sense of humour, Declan Furber Gillick shines a light on the cost of navigating identity in contemporary Australia through Jacky, a smart and enterprising young Aboriginal man making a life for himself in the city. Directed by Kate Champion and Maitland Schnaars, Jacky is at Subiaco Arts Centre from Friday, October 23, to Sunday, November 8.

Concluding the 2026 season is the ever-popular The Pool, ready to make a splash in regional WA, including Port Hedland, Karratha, Newman and Wagin, before a special return season at a new aquatic centre in Perth. Written by Steve Rodgers and directed by Kate Champion, audiences are invited poolside to share, via personal headsets, a glimpse into the lives of people who call their local pool their second home.

Black Swan State Theatre Company has announced its 2026 season. Tickets are on sale Wednesday, October 14, from blackswantheatre.com.au