BRISBANE Comes to Ad Astra in March

Brisbane is coming to Ad Astra this year. Performances run March 19 - April 11, 2026.

It’s 1942 and Danny Fisher is fourteen in Brisbane, a small country town that has recently been invaded by the American Armed Forces, under the command of General Macarthur,  who has vowed to protect the Australian people.

Danny faces “two obstacles on a daily basis.  One: Entire countries that want to kill me.  And two: The Cricket Boys on Mulvany Street.”  He and his Best Friend Patty go through their adolescent trials with school yard bullying and sexual awakening in a city coming of age.  His RAAF pilot brother, Frank, is killed in the bombing of Darwin and his family is torn apart.  Then Danny meets an American pilot who seems identical to his dead brother and encourages his passion for flying.  Then Danny hatches a dangerous plan.

Monash, Curtin, Macarthur, Australian soldiers, dance halls, riots and grief all make an appearance in this authentic Australian story.

In the forward to the current edition of Brisbane, renamed Danny Fisher, Iain Sinclair writes: "As I sat in the Playhouse at QPAC watching the opening night surrounded by Brisbanites, I knew that Ryan had written a remarkable love letter to his hometown, one that spoke in the special language of its people, to their humour and to their understanding of themselves.   A letter that revealed the fault lines of their own history and challenged them to take the next necessary steps into a more courageous adulthood."