Bille Brown's The School of Arts - A Celebration, A Comedy and A Whodunit, 13 July - 1 August

A tribute to an extraordinary time in Queensland’s cultural history, Bille Brown’s new play The School of Arts follows a band of travelling actors to Biloela where their gun-toting version of Hamlet creates comic mayhem.

Presented by Queensland Theatre Company and QPAC as part of the State’s Q150 celebrations, The School of Arts is a mix of farce and whodunit drama, set against the Arts backdrop of the 1967 referendum to include Aboriginals in the national census.

When star of the show Byron Savage decides to “modernise” Hamlet with guns, he accidentally gets shot with a real bullet, but the show must go on. Tensions run high, both on and off stage, as decades of family secrets and simmering feuds are revealed.

Says Bille, “I’ve drawn from my personal history as well as Queensland’s – growing up in Biloela, seeing a travelling troupe of actors that included my friend and fellow actor Geoffrey Rush, who toured with Bryan Nason around the State. I thought a comic yarn about those days is the best way to celebrate the company I've kept and the state I am in.”

“So this play is dedicated to the golden amateurs, the poets and players, lovers and loons who toured the bush in rattling trains and red trucks with Shakespeare and stuff that my dreams were made on,” he added.

Starring playwright Bille Brown, the show is set to have a Gala Charity Tour across Queensland after its Brisbane season, going to Blackwater, Rockhampton, Chinchilla, Mundubbera, Warwick and Biloela - Bille’s home town, with sales benefiting local charities.

The School of Arts has a mix of veteran and emerging artists including Christine Amor, Bille Brown, Leon Cain, Sophia Emberson-Bain, Andrew Legg, Peter Marshall, Sally McKenzie, Joss McWilliam, Paula Nazarski, Christopher Sommers and Ian Stenlake.

A free accompanying exhibition Making the Play, which traces the creative development and social context of the work, will be on at the Tony Gould Gallery, QPAC from 19 May - 12 September.