Experience the first full reading of The Queer Kingdom by Tom Ballard, winner of the 2024 QPAS Award. Be part of the development process towards presenting a premiere production in 2026, meet the artists and share your feedback.
In 2004, a group of radical queer activists boarded a seaplane they’d christened The Gayflower, flew 200 nautical miles off the coast of Queensland and landed on a tiny patch of sand and grass in the middle of the ocean. It was here that Emperor Dale Parker Anderson I would plant his rainbow flag and officially declare the claiming of “The Gay & Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands” – a gay nation independent of homophobic Australia, where there was marriage equality for all, the currency was the pink dollar and the national anthem was Gloria Gaynor’s I Am What I Am.
Playwright, Tom Ballard says: “I want to write a funny, joyous play that tells the story of this fascinating queer protest – its history, its characters and its politics – and interrogates what it means for Australian queers today. Would we all just be better off escaping to our own separate queer paradise?”