What just happened? This was the only question to ask at the close of Adelaide Writers’ Week 2021, where for six days the Canberra scandal kept intruding and COVID kept the big international stars away.
Brace yourself for a series of perilous predicaments as High Performance Packing Tape throws away the safety guidelines and tests the limits of the contents of your local hardware store.
From a childhood spent immersed in Yolngu culture, to celebrity, dining with the Queen and time in prison, David Gulpilil has lived the extremes. In a new documentary, the actor’s extraordinary life is offered as a final gift from this significant national storyteller.
Day four of Adelaide Writers’ Week saw former politician Christopher Pyne addressing the rape allegations rocking Canberra, while another session tackled the changing nature of political power in the Australian media.
After wowing audiences with their Adelaide Festival spectacular The Pulse, local company Gravity & Other Myths has announced a surprise ‘renegade’ Fringe season of another new show featuring eight acrobats and a five-piece jazz band.
WOMADelaide holds a special place in the hearts of Vika and Linda Bull. And as they return to the festival after releasing a chart-topping anthology album and going viral during lockdown, the sisters are set to begin a new chapter.
In Australian Dance Theatre’s Adelaide Festival work Supernature, outgoing artistic director Garry Stewart continues his quest to understand the inextricable place of human society within nature.
Cabaret duo Sophie Smyth and Ryan Smedley draw on their own life experiences in an irreverent, award-winning Fringe show that seeks to debunk some of the myths about people with Asperger’s syndrome – including that they’re not funny.
Slingsby takes Martin McKenna’s memoir The Boy Who Talked to Dogs back to County Limerick where it began, with a show featuring an Irish pub band, shadow dog puppets and a brilliant performance by Irish actor Bryan Burroughs.
Bursting with big vocals and soulful harmonies, Yve Blake’s exuberant debut musical celebrates the culture of fandom and gives audiences a heady taste of teen euphoria.
Some of the most audacious and path-changing musical minds in modern times will be in the spotlight at UKARIA Cultural Centre for this year’s Adelaide Festival.
Andi Snelling tells how the greatest ‘accident’ of her life turned her world upside down and inspired a Fringe show that blends storytelling, clowning and roller skates.
Drenched in jokes delivered at breakneck speed and peppered with philosophical pondering, this ABC journalist turned comedian’s unconventional genesis story is worth a listen. ★★★ ½
Fans of Nick Cave, get ready to trade in the piano for some ukuleles as Come Sail Your Ships… Again hits the Grace Emily. ★★★★
The struggles of paramedics and the extraordinary power of belief – be it in Creation, ghosts or UFOs – were explored in two key sessions at Adelaide Writers’ Week.
An all-female comedy gala featuring fresh stand-up material from some of the nation’s best comedians provides an hour of sheer fun. ★★★★ ½
Arj Barker Comes Clean is the dark, provocative and hilarious inspirational speech you didn’t know you needed. ★★★★
The Plastic Bag Store, Robin Frohardt’s temporary supermarket with a powerful twist, has popped up in Rundle Place – and it might change your shopping habits forever.
Having once aspired to a career as a singer, Adelaide writer Poppy Nwosu is now the author of two young-adult novels and will speak on the subject of Little Quirks and Grand Passions at Writers’ Week. Michael Bollen recounts her storybook beginning.
Mary Angley is supreme in this work of surreal fan fiction, conspiracy theories, biting satire and powerpoint. ★★★★ ½