The live adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Love Stories, a seductively sassy rock musical, and a free outdoor spectacle that will see 1000 dancers converge on Elder Park are among highlights of the 2025 Adelaide Festival program launched today.
Adelaide Festival
Acclaimed director Simon Stone’s opera Innocence – which sees the intertwined stories of a wedding and a school shooting in Helsinki unfold via a multi-level rotating set – is one of the first three shows announced for the 2025 Adelaide Festival.
Visual Art
Whimsical creations by ceramicist Bruce Nuske displayed in an exhibition space designed by the late Khai Liew are being shown alongside a meditative presentation by visual artist Dana Awartani in this captivating showcase at Samstag Museum of Art.
Akram Khan’s latest collaboration brings Rudyard Kipling’s 19th-century classic into contemporary relevance, its post-apocalyptic setting, reimagined characters and flawless, multi-layered production transforming the beloved children’s tale into an urgent call to action.
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson placed his stamp all over Bach’s Goldberg Variations with stunning artistry. An extraordinary show of compassion towards one audience member made it all the more memorable.
The performers from STREB EXTREME ACTION provoke gasps from the audience in a show that impresses with its mix of elegance, brute strength and playfulness.
Leaving behind St Peter’s Cathedral as their usual venue during festival time, Adelaide Chamber Singers took to the Town Hall with exuberance – plus myriad birdcalls.
Adelaide Festival
In a work brimming with vulnerability and vitality, the artists at Australian Dance Theatre ask us to pause and look inwards to our nation’s heart.
Adelaide Festival
The Festival Theatre turned into a party dance floor when Angélique Kidjo lit it up with an exuberant performance that brought the audience to their feet.
Festivals
PHOTO GALLERY: With a more traditional line-up of rhythm and dance artists, the 2024 WOMADelaide drew nearly 98,000 festival-goers over four days and carried a sweeping message of peace in the shadow of controversy.
Adelaide Festival
In his compelling monologue, Édouard Louis meticulously describes a childhood ruined by poverty, abuse, and alienation. He blames his father but comes to realise there are also much larger social and structural cruelties in play.
New York-based artist Elizabeth Streb has been challenging the notion of being ‘right way up’ since the 1970s. In an Australian premiere, performers will fling and fly their way around her ‘action machines’ in a spectacle of awe, danger and discipline.
The work of 20 mid-career South Australian artists is on display in a fascinating exhibition at Adelaide Railway Station that, in its second iteration, is positioning itself as an important part of the Adelaide Festival program.
Astrid Pill & Collaborators’ unconventional and highly original monologue reflects on mortality, grief and the relationships we have with lovers after they are gone.
In Barrie Kosky’s new version, The Threepenny Opera has had a haircut and a makeover but the satire is still in there, along with Kurt Weill’s splendid music.
Laurie Anderson’s exhibition – which includes a re-write of the Bible and text generated by an AI-simulacrum of her late husband Lou Reed – is far more interesting in concept than reality.
Adelaide Festival
If performance art is now, then the intensely thought-provoking, multi-artist production from the Marina Abramović Institute, Takeover, has made its thick presence known.
Adelaide Fringe
Murder-mystery enthusiasts are invited to craft their own murder case in this chaotic, often hilarious improv show which puts the actors at the mercy of their audience. ★★★★
The delightful Grand Theft Theatre manages to capture the joy and significance of theatre while also eschewing the pretension that sometimes surrounds it.
Miraculous in its originality, The Nightingale and Other Fables wins both the heart and mind in the exquisiteness of its storytelling.
This cinematic opera combines aspects of traditional dance and song with modern visuals in projections and puppetry for an unforgettably reverent deep dive into the ocean of Narungga creation stories.
Restless Dance Theatre’s exploration of sex, love and intimacy is gentle, playful and moving.
Festivals
WOMADelaide is the place to make new music discoveries, and ahead of this year’s event Annette Tripodi shares tips for some must-see acts spanning Ukrainian folk, Balkans ska-rock, West African funk and more.
Adelaide Festival
The latest work from Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre aims to help people see through the smoke and mirrors of our national discussions about race to find the core of who we are.
Twenty-four leading contemporary artists present their take on the concept of Inner Sanctum through works ranging from paintings and poetry to video installations and music in curator José Da Silva’s 2024 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art.
Described as a visual meditation on mourning, Goodbye, Lindita eloquently, and sometimes convulsively, expresses feeling and wonder about the mystery of death – without uttering a single word.
Baleen Moondjan is an epic Ngugi/Nunukul/Moondjan story of great beauty, sorrow and dignity told under darkening sky and measured out by the timeless beat of waves on the sands of Pathawilyangga in this unforgettable performance.
She’s the pocket rocket from Benin in West Africa who became a world music superstar and now Angelique Kidjo is touring Australia with a message about climate change.
This intense monologue by a debut writer is an oceanic exploration of big themes – love, loss, mental illness and hope – but faces some choppy waters as it fights its way to the surface.
Adelaide Festival
As readers prepare to converge on the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, our Diary of a Book Addict columnist recommends five must-see Writers’ Week sessions – as well as a string of other local and international authors worth seeking out.
Adelaide Fringe
Prinnie Stevens’ vocals send shivers down the spine in this intimate ode to powerful female singers who changed the music industry forever. ★★★★½
As the 2024 summer festival season kicks off, we asked eight of our writers and reviewers to share tips for must-see shows and events across the Adelaide Fringe and Festival programs. Their recommendations offer something for every taste.
Trust and collaboration were essential in the creation of I Hide in Bathrooms – a theatre work that cracks open different perspectives on the entangled experiences of grief and love.
Audience members will be invited to play the role of voyeur in Private View, an Adelaide Festival show highlighting diverse and often hidden experiences of sex, love, romance and desire.
The schedule for the 2024 Adelaide Writers’ Week has been released, with director Louise Adler promising ‘illuminating, inspiring and intriguing conversations’ featuring 194 writers including Booker and Pulitzer prize winners as well as numerous other bestselling authors.
Adelaide Festival
Presenting his first major commission since concluding his culture-defining stint at Bangarra Dance Theatre, Stephen Page will open the 2024 Adelaide Festival with a hypnotically beautiful work that reflects both his own career stage and Australia’s public conversation.
Festivals
Nigerian singer and saxophonist Seun Kuti is one of the final four international artists announced for this year’s WOMADelaide and is promising to present a powerful show with the band originally formed by his Afrobeat pioneer father Fela Kuti.
The 2024 Adelaide Festival will feature returning favourites such as Barrie Kosky, Laurie Anderson, Angélique Kidjo, Stephen Page and Akram Khan, as well as introducing a new generation of rising stars from Australia and around the world.
An orchestra pit transformed into a lake and puppeteers who double as acrobats are among the inventive elements of director Robert Lepage’s The Nightingale and Other Fables – announced as the centrepiece of the 2024 Adelaide Festival.
If you’ve never seen Canadian dance theatre company Kidd Pivot, you’ve never seen anything like Revisor. This is the type of ground-breaking work that only happens once in a generation.
Art, nature and history converge in South Australian artist Catherine Truman’s fascinating exhibition of discovery and encounter at Carrick Hill.
With just a couple of days left to make the most of the summer festivals frenzy, here are some InReview recommendations from both the Adelaide Festival and Fringe programs – including dance, comedy, music and theatre shows.
Adelaide Festival
Kiwi pop star Lorde made a long-awaited return to Adelaide, performing to a vocal audience including many fans who seemed to have grown up with her.
Adelaide Festival
The Sheep Song is a morality tale reminiscent of Aesop’s fables, depicting how a sheep’s ambition to become human sets it on a troubled journey. This charged quest is boldly presented with highly visual stagecraft.
Alex Frayne and Paul Grabowsky present an innovative approach to art exhibition through the meeting of improvisational music and visual art.
The reliable combination of colour and movement is the key to Air Play, which focuses on skilled miming duo the Acrobuffos and their use of fascinating props.
Jonny Hawkins’ ode to, and example of, well-crafted storytelling brings together little moments from across some well-lived lives to form a beautifully layered and intimate larger picture.
PHOTO GALLERY: More than 110,000 WOMADelaide revellers converged on Botanic Park over the long weekend, with headline acts including Florence + The Machine, Sampa the Great and Bon Iver rocking out the main stage – but crowd congestion and long toilet queues also provoked a backlash from some festival-goers.
Adelaide Festival
In what could well be the last time we see them, Kronos Quartet gave an astonishing account of the group’s music spanning five decades before signing off with an impassioned plea for women in Iran.
Festivals
Two South Australian acts, Alexander Flood and Sons Of Zöku, stood right alongside the top international artists at this year’s WOMADelaide with their own unique and genre-challenging fusion of ethnic influences.
Australian Dance Theatre’s Tracker is a powerful evocation of the life of artistic director Daniel Riley’s great-great uncle, Alec “Tracker’ Riley, through an ambitious blend of contemporary dance, theatre, and ceremony.
An immense, joyful fresco – that’s how Gratte Ciel director Stéphane Girard describes the French company’s feather-fuelled aerial show unfurling across the night skies over Botanic Park during this weekend’s WOMADelaide.
The north-eastern concourse at Adelaide Railway Station is the unusual ‘gallery’ space for a pair of immersive screen-based works – one of which draws inspiration from an unrecognised principality on a platform in the middle of the North Sea.
Two formidable women – former Australian of the Year Grace Tame and the queen of Australian noir fiction Jane Harper – captivated audiences with insights into their work on the final day of Adelaide Writers’ Week.
Adelaide Festival
Christian Spuck’s imaginative and memorable take on Verdi’s Requiem was enthusiastically received by the opening night audience, with his choreography with Ballett Zürich reinforcing the work’s power.
Adelaide Festival
Nearing the end of his life, DH Lawrence poured a vision of radical tenderness into Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the ‘scandalous’ novel which UK writer Alison MacLeod says essentially led to a woman’s sexuality being put on trial.
Adelaide Festival
The rise of the Teals heralded a return to community representation at a pivotal moment in ‘post-truth’ history – and also the rediscovery of the lost art of door knocking – according to speakers at Adelaide Writers’ Week.
Adelaide Festival
The Palestinian author who sparked controversy and the withdrawal of three writers from Adelaide Writers’ Week clarifies her support for the Ukrainian people, while a traumatised child from Elizabeth North finds salvation through reading.
Eminent UK playwright, screenwriter and director Sir David Hare has had his share of box-office failures, but says a playwright’s job is to keep ahead of accepted wisdom.
One man’s determination not to let injustice go unchallenged is at the heart of this extraordinary Adelaide Festival world premiere.
An old fairy story is revisited with a new kind of witch, a futuristic dystopia obsessed with staying young, and Gret, not Hans, as the prime investigator.
A Palestinian poet whose inclusion in Adelaide Writers’ Week helped spark a heated free-speech debate said he had first tried to gain international sympathy for Palestinian dispossession: now he is angry.
