Overview
It's 2065, the Earth is burning, and time is running out. Oopsy!
La Boite Theatre and Playlab Theatre presented the World Premiere of Second Coming at the Roundhouse Theatre (6 to 22 August 2026).
The play follows renowned geneticist Evie and the crew of the spacecraft ARK II, as they head to 'Second Eden' (Mars), in a race to rescue every species they can - two by two.
Funding the mission is GENESIS, a corporate superpower selling #salvation through slick marketing campaigns that spruik the virtues of Lesser Prairie Chickens, Javan Warty Pigs, and all those creatures, great and small, bound for purpose-built biomes on Second Eden. Everything unravels when Evie discovers she is pregnant, and a shocking truth forces the crew to question everything they thought they knew. Second Coming turns one of the biggest questions of our time into courageous, heartfelt theatre: What does the future look like?
Written by award-winning playwright Kathryn Marquet (The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek, Pale Blue Dot) and award-winning director/dramaturg and Playlab Theatre Artistic Director/CEO, Ian Lawson (Blue Bones, Horizon), this darkly comic new Australian play explores climate crisis, corporate power and human nature, asking whether a second chance is possible when we haven't learned from our first.
Credits
- Playwright Kathryn Marquet
- Director/Dramaturg Ian Lawson
- Cast Ashlee Lollback, Merlynn Tong, Gideon Mzembe, Anthony Standish
- Digital Cast Darren Gilshenan, Elise Greig, Helen Howard
- Costume & Set Designer Bill Haycock
- Lighting Designer Geoff Squires
- Composer & Sound Designer Wil Hughes
- AV Designer Nevin Howell
- Stage Manager Teddy Waddingham
- Assistant Stage Manager Intern Yi-Chien Hsieh
- Set Builders Andrew Mills, Lee Stretton
- Lighting Programmer Riley Silk
- Lighting Operator George Pitt
- Director Associate Lizzy Stanfield Flores
- Directing Intern Jai Bofinger
- Graphic Design Seán Dowling
- Make Up (Digital) Amelia Bennet
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