Dictionary of Lost Words play sells out season in State Theatre first
Limited extra seats have been released for The Dictionary of Lost Words after State Theatre Company’s entire season sold out.
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The entire Adelaide season of State Theatre Company’s premiere play The Dictionary of Lost Words, starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey, sold out before Wednesday’s opening night.
It is believed to be the first time this has happened with a production in the company’s 51-year history.
More than 12,500 tickets have been sold for the season, which runs at the Dunstan Playhouse until October 14.
“It’s been thrilling to see South Australian audiences throw their support behind this production and engage with it so deeply,” Cobham-Hervey said.
The adaptation of Adelaide Hills author Pip Williams’ best-selling novel is a co-production with Sydney Theatre Company and will go on to play at the Sydney Opera House from October 26 to December 16.
A limited number of extra seats with restricted views, from which part of the action on stage is obscured for a few minutes, have now been released for sale for the Adelaide season.
State Theatre artistic director Mitchell Butel said it was a huge achievement for the company.
“It shows that audiences crave local stories brought to theatrical life and the immense value of investment in this kind of work,” Butel said.
Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said it was exciting to have the work premiere in SA and have such strong demand for tickets.
“It speaks to the remarkable artistic and creative talent we have in our state when we have a sellout production created by a South Australian playwright based on a novel by a South Australian author,” Ms Michaels said.
Limited restricted view seats available at statetheatrecompany.com.au
Succession-style outback Netflix series Desert King coming to SA
A new six-part Netflix series described as a cross between Succession and Yellowstone has begun production in South Australia.
Going by the working title of Desert King, the neo-western drama series follows the Lawson family, who own the world’s largest cattle station – but is without a clear successor.
Generational clashes and various outback rivals threaten the family’s future in the six-episode TV show, which will be filmed around SA.
The cast has yet to be announced but the filmmaker behind Wolf Creek, Greg McLean, will direct the series, which will be produced by South Australian Paul Ranford (Stateless, True History of the Kelly Gang), and is supported by the state government and SA Film Corp.
Film websites have already described the series as a combination of Foxtel hit show Succession and Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone.
Desert King is expected to be the biggest Netflix production to be filmed in SA with 240 locals set to be employed as part of the cast and crew.
The series follows other recent SA-made Netflix productions including thriller Run
Rabbit Run starring Sarah Snook, drama series Stateless starring Cate Blanchett, and children’s series Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance.
Netflix Director of Content ANZ, Que Minh Luu, said the platform was excited to be bringing Desert King to SA and the Northern Territory.
“Desert King is the ultimate tale of big land, big money and all the high stakes drama
that comes with it,” she said.
“We’re working with some of Australia’s leading creators and crew to bring to life a version of this country we’re proud to show to our members, both here at home and around the world.”
Tilda on bringing smash-hit book to life
For women to have an empowered voice, they first need the words to describe their experience – words actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey says were originally left out of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Her character Esme sets about compiling those missing terms in State Theatre Company’s new stage adaptation of Adelaide Hills author Pip Williams’ best-selling novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words.
“If we don’t have words that articulate our experiences and relate to us, how are you meant to describe yourself, or understand yourself, or communicate?” Cobham-Hervey said.
The story spans from Esme’s childhood in 1886, through the suffrage movement to the beginning of World War One.
“My character is fictional, inspired by a lot of women that worked on the dictionary at that time period,” Cobham-Hervey, 29, said.
“There was so far to go in terms of even getting women into those spaces, to be a part of those conversations … until the Second World War, when all these women had to come in and take over men’s jobs.”
“There’s something so beautiful in this story about all these women coming together to create a narrative for the next generation to have more autonomy.”
The play, which begins previews at the Dunstan Playhouse on September 22, will then go in October to the Sydney Opera House, where a 12-year-old Tilda last performed with her mother Roz Hervey in a dance-theatre work titled The Age I’m In.
Cobham-Hervey has also been busy writing her own projects for Adelaide film company Closer Productions, and recently finished filming Young Woman and the Sea with UK actor Daisy Ridley for Disney.
Book at statetheatrecompany.com.au
State Opera appoints new artistic director
State Opera’s new artistic director will juggle the job with his roles at the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, the Xian Symphony in China – and impending fatherhood.
Brisbane born, Australian-Chinese conductor Dane Lam also wants the public to recognise and celebrate South Australia’s elite artists “like they follow a sports team”.
“It’s an interesting relationship to develop between Hawaii, China and South Australia – we share this region, which is different to Europe and the mainland US,” he said.
“I’m really interested to see what kind of artistic synergies and priorities we can discuss.”
Mr Lam, 38, only moved eight weeks ago to Honolulu, where as music director he led the Hawaii Symphony and other artists in a benefit concert which raised $US1m in the wake of the recent Maui wildfires.
He and his wife, US soprano Sofia Troncoso, are expecting the birth of their first child this weekend.
Mr Lam also helped build the Xian Symphony as its artistic director for nearly a decade, and led it in a UNICEF concert at the region’s famed Terracotta Warriors Museum.
He also wants to further his State Opera predecessor Stuart Maunder’s exploration of “lost” Australian operas.
“I want to continue to develop Australian opera … it’s quite hard to get a premiere, but to get a second or third performance is what’s unheard of.
“I’m also really interested in developing Australian stories … new South Australian works that speak to our experience of what modern Australia is.”
Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said Mr Lam’s appointment would cement State Opera’s new management team.
“Dane has a long and celebrated history that has taken him across the globe, working with some of the best in the business,” Ms Michaels said.
Australian Ballet brings Jewels to Adelaide in 2024
Emeralds, rubies and diamonds will sparkle in Adelaide next year when the Australian Ballet performs Jewels, a modern abstract masterpiece by famed US choreographer George Balanchine.
The distinctive movement and tone of three different eras of ballet is signified by a different precious stone, said Australian Ballet artistic director David Hallberg.
“Each jewel in this ballet has equal beauty and power: Emeralds, soft and mysterious; Rubies, sharp and stylised; Diamonds, brilliant and sparkling,” Hallberg said.
“It is a balletic feast for the eye.”
The Australian Ballet will only present Jewels in Adelaide in 2024, after a sold-out season at London’s Royal Opera House earlier this year.
The company’s 2024 Sydney and Melbourne seasons will instead feature English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s interpretation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
It will also perform Swan Lake at the Festival Theatre as part of this year’s program, from October 7 to 14.
Jewels is at the Festival Theatre from July 12 to 18. Book at australianballet.com.au
Miss Saigon musical returns to Adelaide in full flight
One of musical theatre’s biggest spectacles will touch down in Adelaide in January – in the form of Miss Saigon with its full-scale helicopter, which lands and takes off on stage.
Unlike the previous touring production in 2007-08, which used computer generated effects, this new version created by UK producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh features a mechanical chopper which takes flight, as well as a convertible car during the show’s big production number, The American Dream.
“Adelaide has never seen anything on this scale before,” Mackintosh said.
“The American Dream and the helicopter are both far more spectacular than we ever did on Broadway.”
Set during the Vietnam War, this production is also the first with an all-Australian cast, led by Abigail Adriano as Kim, who works in a bar run by the Engineer (Seann Miley Moore) and falls in love with a US Marine named Chris, played by Nigel Huckle.
Huckle said he has his own “Elphaba moment”, comparing the chopper’s takeoff to when the witch flies in fellow musical Wicked.
“It’s back and it’s big and it’s real and it’s loud – it’s a pretty true-to-life Huey helicopter,” Huckle said.
Adelaide-based producers GWB Entertainment have partnered with Mackintosh to bring Miss Saigon, which opened at the Sydney Opera House last month, to SA.
“Adelaide audiences are in for an absolute treat with the best production of this incredible show that I’ve ever seen,” said GWB director Torben Brookman.
Miss Saigon is at the Festival Theatre from January 2. Tickets go on sale at noon on Monday, September 11, from Ticketek.
Frida Kahlo exhibition extends hours for final week
An exhibition of works by legendary Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the SA Art Gallery has exceeded its $1.2 million box office target with more than a week left to run.
Frida & Diego: Love & Revolution, features 20 Kahlo paintings and drawings, works from her husband Rivera and others in the Mexican modernism movement.
The exhibition, which opened on June 26 and will run until next Sunday, has become the Art Gallery’s most popular since the pandemic, with a quarter of all visitation from interstate and overseas. Art Gallery director Rhana Devenport said the figures show Kahlo continues to be “revered as a feminist and a singular political and creative force”.
To cater for demand, the Gallery has extended its hours, now opening 9am between September 11 and 17, and closing its doors at 7pm on the September 8, 15, and 16. The exhibition includes portrait and documentary photographs, video installations and period clothing.
Tickets: agsa.sa.gov.au
Poets in the mix for Adelaide art biennial
Poets will take their place alongside visual artists for the first time in next year’s Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art exhibition, titled Inner Sanctum.
24 Australian artists and poets have been named to take part in the 2024 national survey show, which will be the visual art centrepiece of the Adelaide Festival, at the Art Gallery from March 1 to June 2.
Stolen generations and Yankunytjatjara poet Ali Cobby Eckermann and 87-year-old poet, author and diarist Kate Llewellyn are among the South Australians selected to take part through spoken word performances, artworks and published texts.
They will be featured alongside SA works by Coober Pedy painter and Umoona community leader George Cooley, and last year’s JamFactory Icon, internationally acclaimed glass artist Jessica Loughlin.
Biennial curator Jose Da Silva said Inner Sanctum would offer “a snapshot of contemporary Australia that is reflective and hopeful”.
“We see works that conjure expressions of time and atmosphere, relationships between ancestral knowledge and spiritual guidance, and a slower, less transactional, more sustainable engagement with the world,” Da Silva said.
The 18th Adelaide Biennial will also feature works by Victorian performance and video artist Tina Stefanou, NSW painter Clara Adolphs and Tonga born Queensland bark cloth artist Ruha Fifita.
The full list of selected artists and poets is: Clara Adolphs (NSW), James Barth (QLD), Christopher Bassi (QLD), Seth Birchall (NSW), Kaye Brown (NT), Jacobus Capone (WA), George Cooley (SA), Ali Cobby Eckermann (SA), Lawrence English (QLD), Ruha Fifita (QLD), Teelah George (VIC), Paul Knight (GER), Kate Llewellyn with Adelaide Chamber Singers (SA), Jessica Loughlin (SA), Peter Maloney (ACT), Jazz Money (NSW), Lillian O’Neil (VIC), Nik Pantazopolous (VIC), Khaled Sabsabi (NSW), Marikit Santiago (NSW), Vivienne Shark Lewitt (VIC), Tina Stefanou (VIC), Heather B. Swann (TAS), and Jasmin Togo-Brisby (QLD).
Her Majesty’s Theatre celebrates 110th birthday
Adelaide venue royalty Her Majesty’s Theatre turned 110 on September 5 – but it looks younger than ever, thanks to its recent facelift.
Beyond its restored facade, even its internal workings and facilities are now state-of-the-art, thanks to the $66m rebuild and expansion which was completed three years ago, after a fundraising campaign to mark its centenary.
Adelaide Festival Centre chief executive Douglas Gautier said 2023 has been a big year for milestone celebrations.
“In addition to Adelaide Festival Centre’s 50th anniversary we are thrilled to wish the iconic Her Majesty’s Theatre a very happy 110th birthday,” Mr Gautier said.
“With the theatre’s stunning redevelopment in 2020, we are confident that The Maj will continue to entertain audiences and shine bright for many more years to come.”
Her Majesty’s was originally planned to be called the Princess Theatre but became part of the national Tivoli circuit before it opened on September 5, 1913.
Since then, it has played host to artists ranging from opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, to actors Sir Ian McKellen and Angela Lansbury, comedians Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese, and even rock stars like Chris Isaak and Counting Crows.
It was also a favourite venue of the late Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage, who lent his name to the fundraising campaign and said his ghost would reside there.
To mark the anniversary, guided tours of the upgraded venue will resume from September 26 to October 30, and an exhibition titled Adelaide Theatres: Now and Then will be held in Her Majesty’s rooftop gallery from November 16 to mid-2024.
Tina Turner musical heads to Adelaide city limits
Nutbush will come to Adelaide’s city limits when smash stage production TINA – The Tina Turner Musical – opens at the Festival Theatre in April next year.
The show will go on a national tour after its Sydney season, which was extended by four months and will now end on New Year’s Eve.
It stars Ruva Ngwenya as Tina and Tim Omaji – better known as dancer and recording artist Timomatic – as her often abusive, musical svengali husband Ike Turner, the duo behind such hits as Proud Mary, River Deep – Mountain High, and Nutbush City Limits.
Ngwenya said she was excited to bring Tina’s comeback tale, which also includes such solo chart-toppers as What’s Love Got to Do With It, Private Dancer, We Don’t Need Another Hero and (Simply) The Best, to Adelaide.
“There’s a lot of triumph in the story … as much as it is a story with difficulty, it actually tells how it was overcome,” Ngwenya said.
Combining concert-style spectacle and iconic dance routines with often dark drama, the musical is built around the life story of US singer Turner, who died at her home in Switzerland on May 24, just one week after it opened in Sydney.
“People took it as a prompt to come and see and remember and celebrate Tina and her life,” Ngwenya says.
“The show that night became something very spiritual, very much like a send-off.”
TINA will be at the Festival Theatre from April 24. Pre-sale starts today, with tickets on sale September 5 at Ticketek.
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