Murder, magic and a riot of colour: Sydney Festival 2025 unveiled

In 1954, Shirley Beiger shot and killed her unfaithful lover Arthur Griffith outside a city-centre nightclub. The case scandalised and titillated Sydney, especially since Beiger, a glamorous model, was acquitted of the killing. Now the notorious tale is to be one of the flagship events of next year’s Sydney Festival.

Beiger’s story, A Model Murder, will be told by playwright Melanie Tait and staged at the Darlinghurst Courthouse, the venue for the original trial, which is conveniently in recess during January.

For festival director Olivia Ansell, the production - and its location - epitomise her passion for leading audiences to rediscover different parts of Sydney.

Model Shirley Beiger was acquitted of murder.Credit: Fairfax Archvive.

“We want to attract Sydneysiders and visitors to this incredible city to see it through a fresh lens through thought-provoking public art or live performance in a location you’ve never heard of or known about,” she said.

This is just one of the highlights of Ansell’s fourth and final Sydney Festival, unveiling an ambitious program featuring some familiar venues and themes alongside plenty of novel elements.

Ansell, who was appointed director of the annual event in 2022, said she believed she was leaving Sydney Festival in good shape after a tenure that was initially overshadowed by the COVID pandemic.

Olivia Ansell in Darlinghurst Courthouse, which will be the venue for a new play as part of Sydney Festival.Credit: Louie Douvis

“All of us have worked together collaboratively to recover the performing arts sector from the pandemic,” she said. “We’ve aimed to see through that recovery process and restore artists’ livelihoods, to get behind new Australian work and help get that work seen by as many people as possible.”

Sydney Town Hall will once again be the venue for a piece of immersive theatre, after the success of Sun and Sea (2023) and Sunshine Super Girl (2021). Next year, the production will be Dark Noon from Danish director Tue Biering. With a South African cast, the play promises to “flip the script on the Wild West, envisioning US history as absurd, horrifying and deeply profound”.

Meanwhile, the Walsh Bay arts precinct will fire up for a second time as the festival hub under the temporary moniker The Thirsty Mile. There will be a diverse offering of free music gigs, exhibitions and theatres, all against the backdrop of Western Sydney artist Telly Tuita’s idiosyncratic and wildly colourful “tongpop” installations. Another highlight, previously announced, will be Siegfried and Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, telling the extraordinary story of the legendary Las Vegas performers.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Ansell had been appointed artistic director of Toronto’s Luminato Festival. She will relocate to Canada after the Sydney Festival closes on January 26. Her 2026 replacement will be Canadian Kris Nelson.

Reflecting on her achievements in Sydney, Ansell said she always aimed to give locals and visitors an experience to move or change them, “or a story about Sydney that they didn’t know”.

“I hope that we’ve been able to do a little bit of that for audiences these past four years.”

Sydney Festival runs from January 4 to 26. Full details of the 2025 program at sydneyfestival.org.au