The Wilkins Trilogy – Part 1 | Adelaide Fringe 2022 review

Stephen Schofield is superb as a young Bert Wilkins, an extraordinary South Australian.

The Wilkins Trilogy – Part 1.

The Wilkins Trilogy – Part 1

Theatre and Physical Theatre

Rating: *****

Main Theatre at Goodwood Theatre and Studios

Until March 6

In a one man tour de force, Stephen Schofield is superb as a young Bert Wilkins in the first dramatisation of the early extraordinary life of a remarkable South Australian.

Seen last year in Bumming With Jane, Schofield is compelling as the pioneering polar explorer, photographer and cinematographer, born into poverty on the desolate badlands north of Burra.

Using his own photos and footage this brilliant production reproduces Sir Hubert’s astonishing death-defying exploits in the Balkan Wars (1912), Polar expeditions (1913) and on the Western Front (1917-18), under direction from legendary war correspondent Charles Bean.

In his seventh consecutive Fringe offering, writer and director Peter Maddern (Kokoda & The Loneliest Woman) has crafted a poetic, thrilling gem of a play.

It concludes when Wilkins has only just turned 30 and, while Maddern is yet to write parts II and III of the boy’s-own adventures, hopefully a deserved sellout season will ensure that he does.

For those with a yearning for more, Maddern’s documentary The Eye of Wilkins plays at the Capri Theatre Goodwood on March 13.