The latest blockbuster production of Miss Saigon opens in Adelaide this January and one of its stars, former Adelaide performer Kerrie Anne Greenland, says the musical’s messages around war, loss and love remain as powerful and relevant as ever.
Theatre
A ‘wicked good’ comedy about a man who drops dead in a café leaving a lot of loose ends and the stranger who ends up on a bizarre odyssey to pull them together is being brought to the Adelaide stage in an immersive new show.
Music
Elder Conservatorium Music Theatre’s presentation of Shrek the Musical is a spectacular comedic performance, highlighting Adelaide’s up-and-coming triple threats.
In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of her memoir Welcome to Your New Life, Anna Goldsworthy has penned the script for a charmingly hectic stage play that captures the myriad emotions of first-time motherhood.
These ‘local lesbians’, as they call themselves, use humour, sensitivity and an iconic songbook to tell true stories of queer love from around the globe.
Thought-provoking and emotionally charged, ‘night, Mother explores the complexity of a mother/daughter relationship and the emotional ravages of suppressing family truth.
‘On the one hand, it looks like a very little story – a woman gives birth,’ Anna Goldsworthy says of her candid memoir Welcome to Your New Life, which is about to be brought to life on stage. ‘On the other hand, this is the biggest story of them all.’
SA arts & culture news in brief: Award-winning theatre-maker announced as new artistic director of Brink Productions, ACE farewells its AD, Clare Watson unveils her first season for Windmill Theatre, and postcard-sized artworks for sale in unique fundraising exhibition.
The irreplaceable beauty of live theatre is highlighted in this refreshing new take on British playwright Sarah Kane’s heart-wrenching exploration of mental illness and the yearning for human connection.
Life, death, religion and Harvey Norman – this one-man show combines comedy and chaos with moments of reflection on the nature of existence.
The world premiere adaptation of a revered Australian novel, a new work from playwriting royalty David Williamson, a high-camp Broadway musical hit, Justine Clarke as Julia Gillard, and a lockdown rom-com based on a true story all feature in the State Theatre Company’s 2024 season.
With thrift and wit and unnerving candour, Theatre Republic’s intriguing new play examines in microcosm the inescapable reality of discrepant worlds and insufficient good intentions.
Festivals
SA arts and culture news in brief: An epic anthology on progressive art in Adelaide is set to be launched, State Theatre’s adaptation of a local author’s bestselling novel sells out, line-ups for Good Music Month and Feast Festival are released, and bookings open for the Adelaide Festival Centre’s school holiday program.
Theatre
Adapted from the worldwide literary sensation, The Dictionary of Lost Words has hit the stage, giving new voice to the words of women.
Live audiences will get to view the world through the eyes of The Dictionary of Lost Words’ curious central character Esme when the stage adaption of local author Pip Williams’ bestselling historical novel premieres in Adelaide this month.
State Opera South Australia has appointed a new artistic director, in a change that points to greater international collaboration and a push to launch homegrown local talent to the world.
Verdi’s version of the dark tale of Macbeth is brought to Adelaide’s opera stage with a dynamic ensemble and some outstanding individual performances.
Vitalstatistix’s annual experimental art hothouse Adhocracy returns this week, with 13 projects that speak to both the new ideas and emergent forms of practice capturing Australia’s artistic minds.
Theatre
In this music theatre gem, the brilliant Zahra Newman and her band recapture and celebrate the vibrant life, loves, torments and timeless music of Billie Holiday.
Theatre
AACTA-award winning performer Zahra Newman separates artist from legend as she tells Billie Holiday’s story in the musical play Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.
Independent emerging theatre-makers are a vital part of South Australia’s arts scene, but with recent venue closures, little infrastructure and limited funding support, most are forced to rely largely on their own passion, commitment and innovation as they defy the odds to continue to produce bold new work.
At a time when far-right extremism is becoming more visible, Famous Last Words’ new play humanises a story behind it. Proud is brilliantly executed and deeply unsettling.
In a rare move, State Theatre Company SA is this month bringing back to the stage two sell-out shows: one an edge-of-the-seat single-hander starring Justine Clarke and the other a stellar play set in country South Australia that is also touring regionally.
Adelaide actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming stage adaptation of local author Pip Williams’ bestselling historical novel The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Wayne Anthoney’s decision to leave his science job and pursue a career as a clown and actor saw him become a household name and perform everywhere from the Australian outback to a Costa Rican jail. Samela Harris looks back over his journey and gives a taste of what to expect from his new memoir.
Theatre
Theatre Republic will this month present its second Future:Present – a quick-turnaround playwriting incubator that offers audiences four plays designed to speak not just to our era or our year, but to our moment.
Theatre
Beloved nanny Mary Poppins works her magic on Adelaide with this energetic production brimful of charm and nostalgic delight.
First Nations playwright Nathan Maynard’s provocative new work confronts uncomfortable questions about Aboriginal identity and cultural integrity.
Flying, walking up walls and tap dancing on the ceiling are all in a day’s work for the stars of Adelaide-bound Mary Poppins, who promise the new musical has all the magic ingredients of the original story – plus a few extra surprises.
I AM is a creative, heartwarming piece of interactive theatre presented in the Adelaide City Library that asks us to consider our purpose in this one precious life.
Audiences are transported to a faraway time in a not-so-faraway place in this experience which tells the story of Australian pre-history through the grandeur of full-scale puppetry.
Theatre
Holden Street Theatre Company brings one of Hollywood’s most outrageous divas to life, magically spinning a simple anecdote into a fascinating character portrait using razor-sharp wit, a brilliant script and captivating performances.
Theatre
When his mother attempts suicide, a seven-year-old boy starts to make a list of everything “brilliant” worth living for. This insightful, funny, increasingly complex play explores the pain and complexity of mental illness.
Adelaide theatre company Famous Last Words skilfully demonstrates how a 19th-century play with themes of class, inequality and desire can make its way into modern Australian life.
South Australians are donning sparkles and fishnets to do the Time Warp again with this vivacious and slick new 50th anniversary production of The Rocky Horror Show.
Holden Street Theatres is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary and the launch of a new home company with a play that will see founder and artistic director Martha Lott embody the iconic and often outrageous Hollywood star Tallulah Bankhead.
This uplifting musical about a small town that helped thousands of passengers left stranded by the 9/11 terrorist attacks apparently receives a standing ovation every time it is performed – and opening night at Her Majesty’s Theatre was no different.
InReview
September 11 is remembered as day of terror and destruction, but Broadway musical Come From Away tells the true story of an island in the Atlantic where thousands of people on diverted flights were welcomed amid the uncertainty.
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.
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.
Blisteringly anarchic and devilishly clever, Creepy Boys would like you to attend a birthday party for some very horny twin teenage brothers in a yurt. ★★★★★
Female-led venture Powersuit Productions takes a swing at a raft of weighty issues in this fast-paced and feisty story about the power of friendship when love turns toxic. ★★★★ ½
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.
Adelaide Festival
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.
Adelaide Fringe
The art of storytelling depends on two things that Tracy Crisp has nailed: entertainment and believability. ★★★★
Hanya Yanagihara’s harrowing story of trauma and friendship tests the boundaries of suffering in a four-hour epic performance of A Little Life.
In an immersive and inventive performance, Slingsby’s Flying Squad brings a tropical cyclone to the stage, skilfully melding the personal with the political in this astonishing story of survival.
Belarus Free Theatre strong-arms art and activism into this fiercely subversive and politically prescient spectacle.
Charming and skilful performer Kathryn Hall reveals the absurdity of institutional systems in this story of her teenage years, which she spent living in youth shelters while managing cerebral palsy. ★★★★
