InReview
SA arts and culture news in brief: Adelaide Festival’s 2021 economic impact, the return of a gravity-defying performance at Her Maj, unique contemporary artworks up for auction, local arts sector lists its ‘big-picture’ priorities, the Ern Malley affair brought to life, and Ida Sophia carries the weight of regret.
Adelaide Festival
As one of 20th-century music’s great anti-war statements, is the message of peace and understanding in Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time as relevant today as it was during World War II?
Dancers in insect bondage gear, others with heads joined by elastic-strapped hammocks: Garry Stewart blows our minds once again with an ambitious and innovative exploration of what the future might hold for humanity.
With its final weekend still to come, the 2021 Adelaide Festival has sold almost 61,000 tickets and achieved a box office income of more than $3.7 million, despite reduced venue capacity and other challenges posed by COVID-19.
A double bill of contemporary dance by locally grown, globally minded choreographer Lewis Major invites a meditation on the universal truths of our times through two contrasting, memorable performances.
The fragility of existence is laid bare in Sydney Dance Company’s Impermanence, a masterful display of music and movement held in perfect symbiosis.
Dance
Lewis Major’s contemporary dance career has taken him from a sheep farm in SA’s South-East to stages across the world. Now the young choreographer is presenting an ambitious new double bill at the 2021 Adelaide Festival.
Music
PHOTO GALLERY: Almost 19,000 people attended WOMADelaide’s series of four COVID-safe sunset concerts over the long weekend, with highlights including performances by Archie Roach, Midnight Oil, Lior, and Tash Sultana.
Adelaide Festival
This installation, constituting 1000 questions on the topic of race, creates a deeper intellectual and emotional resonance than could ever be achieved by an artwork purporting to have answers.
Adelaide Festival
The struggles of paramedics and the extraordinary power of belief – be it in Creation, ghosts or UFOs – were explored in two key sessions at Adelaide Writers’ Week.
Bursting with big vocals and soulful harmonies, Yve Blake’s exuberant debut musical celebrates the culture of fandom and gives audiences a heady taste of teen euphoria.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream sits squarely in the tradition of a comedy of errors. Benjamin Britten’s take on the play, directed by Neil Armfield, is likely to throw fresh challenges to aficionados of opera and Shakespeare alike.
A new exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia invites viewers to spend a day in the life of Clarice Beckett, a significant Australian painter who disappeared from the art history narrative for 35 years.
Slingsby takes Martin McKenna’s memoir The Boy Who Talked to Dogs back to County Limerick where it began, with a show featuring an Irish pub band, shadow dog puppets and a brilliant performance by Irish actor Bryan Burroughs.
Adelaide Festival
At the throbbing heart of The Pulse is the beauty of endless renewal, depicted as bodies and voices unite, retreat and reconnect in a monumental display of synchronicity and skill.
Adelaide Festival
The Plastic Bag Store, Robin Frohardt’s temporary supermarket with a powerful twist, has popped up in Rundle Place – and it might change your shopping habits forever.
Ahead of the opening of Writers’ Week, Jo Case recommends five sessions that promise to captivate and spark conversations about everything from pandemic fiction to politics.
The four artists exhibiting in the 2021 Adelaide//International all present different visions of the future through moving image, performance, sculpture and installation.
With the Adelaide summer festival season kicking into gear this week, we asked some of InReview’s contributing arts journalists and reviewers to share the Festival and Fringe shows they are most looking forward to – from visual arts to theatre, music and more.
Writer and composer Yve Blake believes pop idols, and the legions of young fans who love them, have been maligned and belittled for too long. With her musical Fangirls, Blake hopes to leave even the most hardened non-Belieber with no choice but to Stan.
Adelaide Festival
The story of Martin McKenna’s early life in Ireland goes to some dark places but it is the indomitable spirit of the boy who grew up to become known as the “dreadlocked dog man” that captivated Adelaide theatre-maker Andy Packer.
Adelaide Festival
Some of the most audacious and path-changing musical minds in modern times will be in the spotlight at UKARIA Cultural Centre for this year’s Adelaide Festival.
Adelaide Festival will present UK composer Benjamin Britten’s opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a highlight of its 2021 program, with four performances at the Festival Theatre plus big-screen streamed events in Elder Park and regional areas.
The Adelaide Festival will go ahead in 2021 but it will look very different, co-artistic director Rachel Healy tells InDaily, with changes including a new Festival hub, more South Australian and Australian shows, and increased outdoor experiences.
