The number 13 is generally considered unlucky. But the program manager of the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, Stephen Pike, says he is "quietly confident" 2020 will be a lucky 13^th year for the Q.

This year, he says "started off with a bang" -The Sapphires and some individual shows had good houses.

But some productions were cancelled, others did not do as well as hoped, and things tapered off towards the end of the year, partly a result of the economy, Pike says.

In the 2020 season, Pike says, "There's a lot of variety: something for everybody."

The year begins with Lisa Budin Price's Remembering the Carpenters, a tribute to the brother and sister duo whose hits included Close to You, and ends with a Billy Joel tribute show.

In between are many varied offerings. Pike says.

" I'm looking forward to seeing Hell Ship," he says.

He describes it as being in a similar vein to this year's Belfast Girls.

In 1852, a passenger ship, the Ticonderoga, arrived in Port Phillip Bay. There was an outbreak of typhus aboard the overcrowded and unsanitary ship and many of the passengers had died. The ship was forced to remain moored in quarantine and there were more deaths before those who were treated and survived were allowed to disembark.

Michael Veitch, who co-wrote the script with Peter Houghton, will perform the one-man show based on a true story. There's a personal element to the story for Veitch.

"Michael's great-great grandfather was a doctor on board the ship who managed to save people."

On a lighter note is the Hayes Theatre Co. production of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta HMS Pinafore.

"It's modernised and gender-bending," Pike says.

Also on the comedic side is Mother & Son, Geoffrey Atherton's stage adapation of his longrunning sitcom. It stars Julie McGregor and Christopher Truswell who were both in another longrunning sitcom, Hey Dad..!

A verbatim theatre production, Grace Under Pressure, tells the stories of health professionals in their own words, based on extensive interviews with doctors and nurses. The pressures, the fatigue, the long hours, the bullying and the moments of humour and heartbreak are all represented.

One experience Pike is really looking forward to is New Zealand company A Slightly Isolated Dog's immersive comedy productions of Don Juan and Jekyll & Hyde, in the vein of the sitcom 'Allo 'Allo. Don't expect traditional presentations of the works.

"It's one of the things we're hoping will be a big hit," Pike says of the company.

"They're very, very funny."

Canberra companies are represented, too. Echo Theatre will return with a production of Hilary Bell's Wolf Lullaby, in which a nine-year-old girl is suspected of murdering another child. And Everyman Theatre is presenting its version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

There are more plays: Peta Murray's Wallflowering, about the troubled marriage of former ballroom champions and Joanna Murray-Smith's American Song, a one-man play about gun culture in the US.

As well as all this, there is Asian queer comedy, a Gene Pitney/Roy Orbison tribute show, and more to explore.