What’s on: Warm up with Guitars in Bars, Winterfest and Umbrella

It’s the start of Umbrella: Winter City Sounds, Winterfest at the Port and Guitars in Bars, and your last chance to see Matilda the Musical, Versus Rodin and Yidaki.

Jul 07, 2017, updated Jul 17, 2017

Guitars in Bars encompasses gigs in the city, suburbs and hills. Photo: supplied

Guitars in Bars

The Adelaide Festival Centre’s Guitars in Bars is a series of free and ticketed gigs in pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and exhibition spaces in the city, suburbs and hills. Running until July 30, it promises “an eclectic range of blues, country, jazz, pop, rock, soul, folk, swing, rockabilly, contemporary, covers and original tunes” from Adelaide acts including indie/folk singer Laura Hill, gypsy swing group Les Gitans Blancs, and acoustic and bass duo Mr Wolf. See the full list of events here.

Matilda the Musical – Festival Theatre

A delicious tale full of magic and mischief, Matilda the Musical brilliantly brings to life author Roald Dahl’s story about a gifted little girl whose spirit can’t be extinguished by her horrid parents or dastardly headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Full of “revolting children” and powered by Tim Minchin’s wonderful score, the Royal Shakespeare Company production is at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, until Sunday. Read our review here.

Umbrella: Winter City Sounds

An event at last year’s Umbrella: Winter City Sounds. Photo: Daniel Marks

The two-week Umbrella: Winter City Sounds music festival begins today, with more than 300 live music events across more than 100 different venues throughout Adelaide. It promises something for everyone, with genres ranging from jazz and folk to hip-hop, rap and psychedelic-rock. The free, family-friendly Aqua Beats event at Victoria Square tomorrow (Saturday) is a concert of local original music next to the water fountain, from 5.30-9.30pm. Umbrella continues until July 30.

A Doll’s House – Dunstan Playhouse

The State Theatre Company of SA’s new production of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is based on an adaptation by local playwright Elena Carapetis, who has moved the 19^th-century Norwegian drama about a fraught relationship to modern-day Australia. The multi-layered result, writes InDaily reviewer Alison Flett, is beautifully complex and endlessly mesmerising. Performances continue at the Dunstan Playhouse until July 22.

Winterfest – Port Adelaide

The CBD may be missing a winter festival hub this year, but there is plenty happening at Port Adelaide during its Winterfest at the historic Harts Mill. Along with a waterfront ice rink, there will be live music by artists including Kelly Menhennett and Glenn Skuthorpe, circus acts (including The Doogans, above), markets, children’s activities, cocktail-making workshops, food and drink (details here). Winterfest continues at the Port until July 23.

Bunna Lawrie’s Coloured Stone – The Gov

Bunna Lawrie’s Coloured Stone – known for their unique sound which combines rock, ska and reggae with traditional Aboriginal instruments and language – bring their 40th anniversary tour to The Governor Hindmarsh this Sunday. On Saturday at The Gov you can catch hip-hop act Horrorshow, and next Friday 12-piece The Motown Connection will pay tribute to the Motown, funk, soul and disco acts of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Yidaki – Didjeridu and The Sound of Australia – SA Museum

This landmark exhibition has been created in collaboration with the Yolngu people, cultural custodians of the yidaki (didjeridu). It explores the cultural and musical origins of the instrument, as well as its power and meaning in Yolngu life. Read more here. The exhibition continues at the SA Museum until Sunday.

Versus Rodin – Art Gallery of SA

Versus Rodin at the Art Gallery of SA. Photo: Nat Rogers

This weekend is the last chance to visit the Art Gallery of SA exhibition Versus Rodin: Bodies Across Time and Space, which brings together key pieces by Auguste Rodin with more than 200 works referencing the human body by other modern and contemporary artists. Click here for the list of closing weekend events, including a screening at midday on Sunday in the Radford Auditorium of the documentary film Divino Inferno : Rodin and the Gates of Hell.

ASO’s A Night in Vienna – Festival Theatre

The Adelaide Symphony will capture the essence of Viennese classical music with this concert showcasing works from the repertoire of the family of Johann Strauss, including his popular On the Beautiful Blue Danube. Conducted by Nicholas Carter and featuring soprano Jacqueline Porter, there will be two performances at the Festival Theatre on July 21 and 22. Details here. The following Saturday, July 29, the ASO will present the second concert in this year’s Great Classics series, Puppets & Pranksters, at the Adelaide Town Hall.

Australian String Quartet – Elder Hall

The ASQ will present a concert at Elder Hall next Tuesday (July 18) with a combined high school chamber orchestra and students from the Elder Conservatorium of Music. The culmination of the quartet’s work with local schools, mentoring and educating emerging young musicians, the performance will include works by Bartók, Britten, Sibelius, Grieg and Corelli. Tickets here.

Emil and the Detectives – Myer Centre

Slingsby theatre company’s latest show is an adaptation by SA playwright Nicki Bloom of German author Erich Kästner’s 1929 novella Emil and the Detectives. Described by Slingsby artistic director Andy Packer as “a really beautiful story about growing up”, it follows a child who is robbed during a train trip and ends up banding together with a group of young “detectives” to bring the thief to justice. The play is being presented at the old Dazzeland site, on level five of the Myer Centre, from July 19 until August 5.

Kokoda – Star Theatres

This new World War II drama by Adelaide writer Peter Maddern tells the story of a street-wise larrikin, Private Morris Powell (played by Todd Gray), and his mates who “helped do the impossible – stop the Japanese advancing in New Guinea and then send them packing”. Kokoda opens at Star Theatres, Sir Donald Brandman Drive, on July 19, with performances continuing until August 5. Details here.

Ramsay Art Prize – Art Gallery of SA

The work of the 21 national finalists in the inaugural Ramsay Art Prize is on show until August 27. The $100,000 prize, which is supported by philanthropist organisation the James & Diana Ramsay Foundation, is open to Australian artists under 40 working in any material or process, with finalists’ work including paintings, installations, ceramics, video and mixed media. It was won by Sydney-based artist Sarah Contos with a “colossal 20th-century quilt” (read more here).

Saturday Night Fever – Arts Theatre

Sebastian Cooper as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever.

Matt Byrne Media is presenting this production of Saturday Night Fever, with producer Byrne promising that Bee Gees songs such as “Stayin’ Alive”, “Night Fever” and “You Should Be Dancing” will have the audience on their feet. Featuring an LED dance floor, the musical is at the Arts Theatre until July 15. It will then have a season at Elizabeth’s Shedley Theatre from July 20-29. Details here.

The Golden Dragon – Bakehouse Theatre

Set in and around a busy Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai restaurant at street level of an apartment block, The Golden Dragon tells a number of different stories that gradually intersect and overlap. Directed by Joh Hartog, the production is playing at the Bakehouse Theatre until July 22.

The Summation of Force & a e i o u – Samstag Museum

SA photographers Trent Parke and Narelle Autio’s multi-channel video project The Summation of Force explores the world of cricket and was filmed almost entirely in the couple’s backyard with their two young sons. Also currently showing is Michelle Nikou: a e i o u, a survey of the work of the SA contemporary artist and Samstag Scholar. Both exhibitions run until September 1. Read InDaily‘s interview with Parke and Autio here.