Director of the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre Jordan Best has something to crow about.

Her in-house company, Echo Theatre, is bumping in Yasmina Reza’s play God of Carnage to Wagga Wagga ahead of a tour to places as far flung as Gosford, Coffs Harbour and Glen Street in Sydney.

But before then, this weekend, the revival of Echo’s 2022 hit will play at The Q, now partly recast with Jenna Roberts and Arran McKenna joining the cast alongside Jim Adamik and Lainie Hart.

“New actors bring news ideas,” Best says.

In her view, such touring makes an important statement about the quality of theatre in Queanbeyan and the ACT, is also pleased to say that they’ve secured a deal for a tour of their 2023 show Bombshells, with the likelihood of also touring the boutique musical Ruthless in 2027.

They’ve been hosted by Arts on Tour, which takes care of venue bookings and other logistics, but Echo also received funding from Create NSW for production costs, including professional fees for the actors, who are paid proper MEAA rates, mostly rehearsing on nights and weekends.

It’s been a big project for a small company, so Best is proud to see Echo standing alongside companies like Belvoir, Sydney Dance Company, The Ensemble Theatre and Monkey Baa as a touring production house.

“A tour like this doesn’t happen overnight,” she says, and the idea was pitched to her in 2023. She praises Arts on Tour’s flexibility, and its understanding that as many performers such as Roberts and McKenna in this case, have children and careers and need a reasonable lead-time to set dates aside for touring.

Luckily, the demountable set had already been designed by Best herself for the 2022 production, using second hand recycled timber.

“We made sure it would fit any venue, whatever the capacity. Design it well and you can re-use it,” she says.

As for contingencies, Best herself can act as the swing, the person responsible for covering parts if actors get sick.

“God of Carnage seemed to be a perfect play to take on tour,” she says. “It’s a comedy. It’s a sitcom… and it’s not particularly highbrow, it’s about two couples put into an appalling situation.”

That situation, for those not in the know, sees two sets of parents meeting to discuss a fight between their sons, where one boy has hit the other with a stick, knocking out two of his teeth. The evening begins quite amicably buts rapidly descends into insults, name-calling, and the total breakdown of civility – the carnage of the title.

The premise of the play is not unlike that in Christos Tsiolkas’ novel and TV series, The Slap, in bringing to light marital tensions and competitive parenting as they vie to prove which is the better couple.

“The mother of the victim wants something, but keeps moving the bar,” Best says, “one couple sees themselves as classier than the other, the lawyer character takes a dig at people like the other couple who are in retail, and the mother of the victim thinks she’s arty and cultured.

“It’s extremely accessible, people get drunk and say hurtful, over-the-top things then can’t take them back, so the situation snowballs.”

Partly because of this universal familiarity, Best has re-imagined the Parisian location of the original play, setting it in Canberra.

“You will know all these people,” she says.

God of Carnage, at The Q, Queanbeyan, August 29-31. Recommended for ages 15+