International flavour returns to 2023 Adelaide Festival as program released
A Canadian dance company, US music ensemble and Dutch theatre hit – and more – are headed here for the 2023 Adelaide Festival, after two years affected by Covid. See the program.
Adelaide Festival
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Return visits by multiple international arts companies and a sequel to one of this year’s biggest theatre hits are among highlights of the 2023 Adelaide Festival program.
Belgian director Ivo van Hove’s Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, Canadian dance company Kidd Pivot and US music ensemble Kronos Quartet will each return with new works for the Festival, which runs from March 3 to 19.
Belarus Free Theatre, whose performers now live in political exile, will perform Dogs of Europe, which is described as “an anarchic eruption of mordant black humour and cartoonish violence” set in a future where Russia has taken over several countries.
After the smash success of The Picture of Dorian Gray this year, Sydney Theatre Company will present the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the second of director Kip Williams’ “cine-theatre” shows blending live performance with multiple video screens, at Her Majesty’s Theatre for 10 nights.
The program also features the exclusive Australian debut of 800-year-old Spanish boys’ choir Escolania de Montserrat, the oldest and ranked among the finest of its kind, at Adelaide Town Hall from March 3 to 5.
In all, the Festival will present 52 events including 11 world premieres, eight Australian premieres and 17 that are exclusive to Adelaide, including Writers’ Week, the UKARIA Chamber Landscapes and WOMADelaide.
New artistic director Ruth Mackenzie, who will program the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Adelaide Festivals, said the 2023 event was partly put together by her predecessors, Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy.
“I see my role as an enthusiastic spruiker for the program initiated by Neil and Rachel,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“The international quality of their festivals more than doubled audiences over the past six years and it leaves our new team well placed to continue their legacy.”
Van Hove’s company, which performed the epic Shakespeare trilogies Roman Tragedies in 2014 and Kings of War in 2018, returns with a four-hour adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s best-selling novel A Little Life, at the Entertainment Centre Theatre from March 3 to 8.
Kidd Pivot, which presented the deeply moving Betroffenheit in 2017, returns with another dance-theatre work by choreographer Crystal Pite and writer-actor Jonathon Young called Revisor, which reinvents Nikolai Gogol’s classic Russian farce The Government Inspector, at Her Majesty’s from March 17 to 19.
Making its fifth Festival appearance, Kronos Quartet will mark its 50th year with a set which features signature works alongside the world premiere of a piece by Australian artists Jon Rose and Hollis Taylor, at the Festival Theatre on March 13.
The program also features opening event Spinifex Gum with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and new works by Adelaide’s Slingsby company and Australian Dance Theatre.
Other previously announced acts include the Zurich Ballett’s opera production of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, a concert by New Zealand pop star Lorde, and Windmill Theatre’s new show Hans & Gret.
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Full program and tickets at adelaidefestival.com.au
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