Queensland Theatre has opened its 2023 season with David Williamson’s Family Values, a family drama unfolding around the table at a 70th birthday party, directed again by Queensland Theatre Artistic Director Lee Lewis, who premiered the work as Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company in 2020.

Family Values opens in a spacious Queenslander in Ashgrove, where retired Federal Court judge Roger Collins and his wife Sue await the arrival of their three adult children to celebrate Roger’s birthday.

All three are divorced: Lisa has poured herself into volunteer work with an organisation assisting refugees; Michael has found purpose and belonging as a born-again Christian, and Emily has joined Border Force and found a new love with Noeline, her commanding officer, now-fiancée.

Once the kids arrived, bickering quickly escalates into full-blown argument, but there is more at stake than hurt feelings as the family decide what to do with Saba Nazari, an Iranian refugee fleeing Border Force and now standing in their living room.

Queensland Theatre Family Values. Photo © Brett Boardman

Williamson was inspired to write Family Values by the 2018 deportation of the Murugappan family, Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka...