Lucky: A Brisbane Dinner Party Turns Ugly in Yeah Nah Theatre's Biggest Production Yet

It starts as a dinner between friends. By the end of Lucky, civility has cracked, blood has been shed and a storm has rolled in.

Lucky, a new Australian play by Queensland playwright Liam Lowth, is staged by Brisbane independent company Yeah Nah Theatre from 13 to 28 November at the Diane Cilento Studio, Queensland Theatre's intimate venue, as part of its DOOR 3 program.

Key art for Lucky. Image: Jas Prasser.

The setup is a dinner in an inner-city Brisbane apartment: two old university friends, Pitt and Brett, and their partners, Sabina and Katelynn. Over wine, the talk turns to politics and privilege, and beliefs the four have held for years begin to give way, with a recent event hanging over the table that none of them has put to rest.

Director Mikayla Hosking sums up the cast of characters this way: "What do a Liberal, a Greenie, a fence-sitter, and somebody about to go into labour have in common? This play."

Lowth says he wanted to "play with the familiar 'dinner table blow-up' genre and give it some Australian electricity", using a form audiences recognise to lull them into a false sense of security before taking them somewhere unexpected.

He was recently shortlisted for the 2026 Queensland Premier's Drama Award, the prize won this year by My Roman Empire, which Queensland Theatre will stage in its 2027 season. His previous play, Failure to Launch, was staged at the Moncrieff Entertainment Centre.

For Yeah Nah Theatre, which launched in 2024, it is the company's biggest production yet. The cast is Meg Bowden, Jack Mahoney, Siena D'Arienzo and David Chizedek Vaka. "DOOR 3 has given us the opportunity to bring Lucky to Queensland Theatre alongside an incredible team of local creatives," says producer Campbell Lindsay.

If you go

• What: Lucky, by Liam Lowth, presented by Yeah Nah Theatre
• When: 13 to 28 November, Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30pm. 90 minutes, no interval
• Where: Diane Cilento Studio, Queensland Theatre
• Tickets: $39 adult, $35 concession, through Queensland Theatre
• Night with the Artists: Wednesday 18 November, with a post-show Q&A
• Access: Auslan interpreted on Thursday 19 November at 7:30pm. Audio described on Friday 27 November at 7:30pm

Queensland Theatre advises that the production includes adult themes, among them references to suicide and abortion, along with depictions of violence, strong language, strobe lighting, haze, loud sound and blackouts. The full content warning is on its booking page.