The Secret River is coming: Adelaide Festival preview

A NEW Adelaide festival show will put the Anstey Hill Quarry back in the limelight.

WILD: Actors Ningali Lawford-Wolf and Nathaniel Dean at Anstey Hill. Picture: TOM HUNTLEY

• Last year’s Secret River on ABC TV

FOR the first time in nearly 30 years, the Adelaide Festival will return to Anstey Hill Quarry – the site of Peter Brook’s iconic 1988 production The Mahabharata – to mount a massive new outdoor theatre version of The Secret River.

In another festival highlight, British actress Miriam Margolyes – who famously played Professor Sprout in several Harry Potter movies - will return to perform Peter and the Wolf with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

“I’m thrilled to be coming back. You know, Adelaide is my favourite city in Australia. Every time I’ve been, I’ve had the most wonderful time,’’ she said.

Miriam Margolyes

The Secret River, written by Willunga playwright Andrew Bovell and based on the best-selling novel by Kate Grenville, was originally staged by Sydney Theatre Company in 2013, winning six Helpmann Awards, including best play.

Adelaide Festival’s new artistic co-director Neil Armfield, who directed The Secret River in Sydney, will create all-new staging for the quarry location in Anstey Hill Recreation Park at Tea Tree Gully.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34.828849,138.7302783,970m/data=!3m1!1e3

Neil Armfield

The play, which will be performed as the sun sets below the quarry cliffs from February 28 to March 19, tells the story of two families divided by culture and land – white colonial settlers face off against the indigenous Dharug people, whose existence depends on the natural environment.

“The Secret River addresses the contradiction at the heart of our society,’’ Armfield said. “It acknowledges truths that have been hidden for generations but have created the country that we live in today.’’

Actors Nathaniel Dean and WA’s Ningali Lawford-Wolf who is the play’s narrator.

WA actress Ningali Lawford-Wolf is the play’s narrator, embodying the spirit of its Hawkesbury River setting.

Nathaniel Dean, from TV’s Wild Boys and Bikie Wars, stars as convict William Thornhill who wants to make a fresh start farming the river’s banks.

“It’s going to be amazing,’’ Lawford-Wolf (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Bran Nue Dae and Last Cab to Darwin) said of the quarry location. “I can see Neil’s vision in doing that – he’s pretty crazy.’’

Dean, who also played Thornhill in the STC’s production, said his character comes from “awful, desperate circumstances’’.

“This site it is magical for a lot of reasons and it’s going to be such a unique place to see this production.’’

Margolyes will also perform in A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten with the ASO on March 11 and 12.

The full 2017 Adelaide Festival program will be released on October 27. Tickets for both shows go on sale at 8am today from BASS or adelaidefestival.com.au