Canberra Repertory Society, about to step into its 94th year, unveiled its 2026 season on Friday evening before subscribers, members and friends with everything from dangerous liaisons to an encounter with Dracula, reports HELEN MUSA. 

The new Rep season promises a mix of plays from Australia, the UK, the US and Ireland and they promise something to enjoy, something to make you think, something to intrigue, excite and something to make you laugh out loud.

The year begins with Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce, directed by regular visiting Sydney director Aarne Neeme, where we’ll sympathise and laugh at this popular playwright’s take on the chaos of family dynamics and the comic conflicts that arise both within and outside relationships.

Next comes Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses, adapted from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ scandalous 18th-century novel and directed by Lainie Hart – a disturbing game of passion, manipulation and seduction set amid the intrigue and luxury of the ancien régime. With fabulous costumes.

David Williamson’s Travelling North, directed by Cate Clelland, follows, offering a moving homage to age and the idealists who changed the course of Australian history. Frank and Frances find new life in a twilight love affair — much to the consternation of their conventional children.

Then comes Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, directed by well-known professional actor-director and a former Rep theatre scholar Ed Wightman — Williams’ enduring autobiographical masterpiece, a portrait of family, fragility and faded dreams.

Next up is Denise Deegan’s Daisy Pulls It Off, directed by Kate Blackhurst, in which Daisy Meredith, the first scholarship student at the elite Grangewood School for Young Ladies and her friend Trixie, Daisy dives into the mysteries of Grangewood with pluck, mischief and laughs.

Finally, things take a gothic turn with Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, directed by Alexandra Pelvin. When Mina falls ill with a mysterious blood-borne disease, her sister Lucy and fiancé Jonathan Harker enlist the help of famed female vampire hunter Dr Jean Van Helsing. The result? A send-up of Bram Stoker’s classic tale – and the perfect pre-Christmas entertainment.

At a glance

• Bedroom Farce – February 19-March 7
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses — April 23-May 9
• Travelling North — June 11-27
• The Glass Menagerie — July 23-August 8
• Daisy Pulls It Off – September 10-26
• Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors — November 19-December 5