The State Theatre Company of South Australia and Sydney Theatre Company production premiered at the Dunstan Playhouse in September 2023, three years after Pip Williams’ book was published at the start of the pandemic and became known as a “lockdown sensation” due to its extraordinary international success.
Its story is set at the height of the women’s suffrage movement and follows a young girl called Esme Nicoll who grows up among the lexicographers compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary in England and collects the words they have discarded that relate to women’s experiences.
The Dictionary of Lost Words was adapted for the stage by playwright Verity Laughton, with Jessica Arthur directing the original production and Adelaide actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman, Hotel Mumbai) playing Esme. In its premiere season it became State Theatre Company SA’s highest-selling show ever in the Dunstan Playhouse, and also attracted full houses when it was presented in Sydney and Melbourne.
“We decided to bring it back for those who didn’t get to see it, and those who want to see it again,” says State Theatre artistic director Mitchell Butel.
“We know from our waitlist at the end of that season that there’s still a lot of unmet demand.”
Actress Shannen Alyce Quan.
The production will return to the Dunstan Playhouse from April 3 to 17. It’s six-city national tour begins in Sydney in March and also takes in Geelong, Brisbane, Canberra and Wollongong.
Cobham-Hervey – who is part of the cast of SA director Sophie Hyde’s new film Jimpa and the TV series Apple Cider Vinegar, both currently in post-production – will not join the play for its return season, with young actress Shannen Alyce Quan stepping into the role of Esme. Several cast members will reprise their roles, including Rachel Burke, as Esme’s friend and maid Lizzie, and Ksenja Logos, as her godmother Ditte.
While the original production won accolades for the performances, critics also praised Jonathon Oxlade’s imaginative two-level set design, which re-created the Scriptorium where the dictionary was compiled as well as transporting audiences to other settings. Imagery projected on a screen behind the performers enhanced the storytelling.
Dictionary is the third show announced in recent weeks for State Theatre SA’s 2025 season. Last week the company revealed it will co-produce with Queensland Theatre the world-premiere production of Dear Son, based on author and activist Thomas Mayo’s book of the same name.
For Dear Son, Mayo invited 12 First Nations contributors – including Stan Grant, Troy Cassar-Daley and Blak Douglas – to write a letter to their son, father or nephew “about life, masculinity, love, culture and racism”. First Nations theatre-makers Isaac Drandic (At What Cost?) and John Harvey will adapt these letters into a theatre work encompassing story and music with a cast including Jimi Bani and Trevor Jamieson.
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Dear Son will play at Queensland’s Bille Brown Theatre from June 23 until July 19, then Adelaide’s Odeon Theatre in Norwood from July 25 until August 16.
Kimberly Akimbo, to play at Her Majesty’s Theatre from July 8-19 in 2025, is another State Theatre co-production, this time with Melbourne Theatre Company. Written by American David Lindsay-Abaire (whose nursing-home comedy Ripcord was presented in Adelaide in 2020), it is a multiple Tony-Award-winning Broadway musical described as “equal parts teen comedy, heist caper and unlikely love story”.
The new co-production of Kimberly Akimbo will star Australian performer Marina Prior in the title role and be directed by State Theatre’s outgoing artistic director Mitchell Butel.
The company’s full 2025 season is scheduled for release on October 31.
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