The Fortune Theatre is hoping fortune favours the bold, after the release of its ambitious 2012 season programme last night.
The season will feature two contemporary New Zealand stories, as the theatre delivered on its promise to produce more plays which are relevant to New Zealanders.
"We made a commitment to New Zealand work and we think it's going to be an eclectic, dynamic season - full of the best works available - with something for absolutely everyone," artistic director Lara Macgregor said at the launch last night.
"Ideally, I'd like to see New Zealand content as 60% of our programme."
The season opens on February 18 with Motor Camp, the sequel to last year's surprise Fortune hit The Tutor, by Wellington playwright Dave Armstrong.
"It's a big, fun post-Christmas show to start the year off. It's a lot of laughs," Macgregor said.
United States playwright John Logan's Tony Award-winning Red, about artist Mark Rothgo, opens on April 14.
"It's our intellectual fare for the year. It's a very gritty, verbose piece of theatre," Macgregor said.
Two Fish 'n' a Scoop, by Christchurch playwright Carl Nixon, is on stage from May 19, while a new play about the history of the vibrator, In The Next Room - Or the Vibrator Play, by Sarah Ruhl, will premiere during the International Science Festival in June.
Heroes, a comedy about three World War 1 veterans in a nursing home, by Gerald Sibleyras, opens on August 25.
The Otago Festival of the Arts will use the theatre for three productions in October.
The curtain falls on the season after Calendar Girls, by Tom Firth, which runs from November 10 to December 8.
The Fortune will also develop new works by playwrights Richard Huber, of Dunedin, and Paul Baker, of Oamaru, and hold a 10-week course for young playwrights this year.
