Second Coming | La Boite Theatre
Images: Stephen Henry
There is a rare kind of freedom that comes with seeing a world premiere, with no film adaptations or past stagings to measure it against. Presented by La Boite Theatre and Playlab Theatre, opening night of Kathryn Marquet’s Second Coming felt less like watching a well-known classic and more like unboxing something entirely unknown – and remarkably timely. Every laugh and plot twist was experienced raw, turning the entire room into a collective of first time discoverers. Set in 2065, with the backdrop of a dying Earth, the plot follows the crew of the ARK MARK II as they embark on a mission to preserve humanity’s final remnants for a ‘Second Eden’ on Mars. Driven by a ruthless mega-corporation, the play delivers a dark, satirical comedy about climate collapse, corporate greenwashing, and the absurdity of trying to save humanity from ourselves.
Walking into the Roundhouse Theatre, the first impression of Second Coming was striking, which carried a distinct kind of electricity. The stage design by Bill Haycock brilliantly transformed the space into a high tech spaceship interior, wrapped in stark, futuristic blue neon lines and glowing geometric frames, with sharp accents of industrial red. The set cleverly utilised multi-tiered levels, industrial scaffolding, and a sterile laboratory station complete with storage and test tubes to create a true sense of depth and scale. It instantly immersed me in a cold, corporate sci-fi world before a single line was even spoken. Complementing this, the costumes authentically portrayed the identity of the crew through utility tracksuits stamped with the company’s bold logo.
Images: Stephen Henry
The play itself was playful, witty, and leaned heavily into multimedia. As a regular theatre-goer, I recognised the cool dynamic screen feature from a previous La Boite production, and it was wonderful to see it incorporated here again - notably projecting calls from Evie’s mum, the crew’s financier and the crew’s livestreams back to Earth onto the screens. Featuring humorous commercials and character-introductory choreography, these video moments captured the crew’s journey to Mars through a series of highly entertaining clips. These snippets brilliantly fuelled the high-energy comedy, eliciting loud laughs, gasps, and cheers from the audience. Yet, what made Second Coming work so well for me was the balance. The production knew exactly when to pump the brakes, contrasting all that frantic comedy with a few quiet scenes set at the front of the stage. The moments where Evie shared her inner struggles with Alan, particularly pulled me right into her world.
Beneath the flashy tech, Second Coming dug into some proper dark moral grit. I could see how the play wrestled with common sci-fi tropes, like an overbearing shipboard AI threatening to usurp human control, while tackling messy ethical dilemmas including environmental collapse, cloning, and corporate greenwashing. Marquet laced her writing with biblical motifs. Even the title itself played a double game, referencing a resurrection, though the script swapped it out for a broader concept like ‘God has a plan’ to sell salvation through a slick marketing campaign. Drawn straight from ‘GENESIS’- the very first book of the Bible containing all creation, which mirrored the name of the mega corporation behind the enterprise- we got the promise of a ‘Second Eden’ and the urgent mission of saving animals, but instead of building an actual wooden ark, in Second Coming humanity needs to escape on a sterile spaceship, the ARK MARK II. That biblical thread ran through the characters, with Evie and Alan as a clear nod to Adam and Eve alongside Noah. Unexpected literary touches, like a sly Jane Austen reference, were slipped in amidst all of this, leaving the entire context of the play to challenge us on the true price of survival and what we choose to carry into the future.
Ultimately, Second Coming proves to be a brilliant, razor-sharp addition to the Brisbane stage, driven by its deeply original storytelling and a fiercely engaging cast and crew. It’s a sobering thought to take home from the Roundhouse: if we refuse to fix our mess down here, are we really building a new beginning among the stars, or just carrying our very own apocalypse with us?
Second Coming plays at the La Boite’s Roundhouse Theatre from 6-22 August 2026.
Images: Stephen Henry
