State Opera South Australia. Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 30 Aug 2025
At last night’s performance by State Opera South Australia (SOSA) of Mozart’s much loved and much performed The Magic Flute, Dan Lam addressed the audience. Whether it’s grand opera or a grunge band, pre-show announcements from centre stage can be terrifying. They usually signal some disaster has befallen the event, such as a principal actor or singer is indisposed and won’t be performing and there will be an understudy. (Mind you, this reviewer prayed for that very thing to happen at a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard earlier this year in the Sydney Opera House, but, dammit, Sarah Brightman soldiered on despite the fierce headwind of damning reviews.) As Lam paused for breath, we were all wondering whether he was going to announce that Sofia Troncoso (who plays the important role of Princess Tamina) was still indisposed. (Troncoso was replaced on opening night by Stacey Alleaume who was flown in at very short notice to fill in.) Or worse still, had someone else in the cast succumbed to ‘the dreaded lurgy’? Lam, announced that young Ethan Zhang, one of the child performers, was suffering from a winter illness and although he would take to the stage and act his heart out, his vocal line would be sung by a member of the State Opera Chorus from the wings. Phew!!
The Opera gods were smiling.
Lam, who is SOSA’s new Artistic Director (and the conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for this production), also asked members of the audience to raise their hands if they were at their very first opera or production by SOSA. He was taken aback that so many hands went up in the air! This bodes well for the future, but it’s also a ringing endorsement of Lam’s plans for SOSA. This is the first season he’s programmed for SOSA, and it embodies his vision of “opera without borders” and a return to the not-so-distant past when SOSA was known and celebrated internationally for its many ‘firsts’. (State Government – please take note! SOSA deservedly merits the support you provide it, and more!). This production of The Magic Flute is the first collaboration between an Australian opera company and leading Chinese partners, namely Opera Hong Kong, the Beijing Musical Festival, and China National Opera House. It is also supported by Australia’s National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.
This production, which premiered recently in Hong Kong, and travels to China later in the year, is directed by Chinese theatre, film and opera director Shuang Zou, and it is stunningly brilliant in every respect.
Zou reimagines The Magic Flute into a world and time far removed from its original. It couldn’t be any further. There is always a risk in doing this, especially with an opera that is one of the mainstays of the repertoire. There have been some classic faux pas in modernising operas – setting Strauss’ Salome in a slaughterhouse, and Verdi’s Otello on an aircraft carrier very quickly come to mind – and Zou’s setting of The Magic Flute in a busy Hong Kong subway might seem the recipe for a fall, but nothing could be further from the truth. It works. Its conception is intelligent, and almost every aspect of the original story line – the adventure, the pantomime and melodrama, and the allegory – remain evident, alive, and believable (in a strange sort of way!).
As the overture plays, an animé scene plays out on a gigantic projection screen that forms the upstage wall of the set. (Zou brings her training in film to the fore.) We see a young man waking up and going through his morning routine as he prepares for the day. We even observe him on his ‘porcelain throne’ which is greeted by howls of laughter from the large Her Majesty’s Theatre audience. Suddenly they know they are in for an operatic experience of an entirely different kind, and they are not disappointed. The young man eventually enters a busy subway, and the curtain rises to reveal just that: throngs of people getting on and off trains that whizz past on the screen. A young man (perhaps it could be the same one as in the animé clip) is seen in heated discussion with a young woman, who abruptly leaves him and gets on a train. It looks like they are breaking up and he is so distressed that he imagines the next train morphs into a terrifying dragon, and he collapses on the station platform. An impassioned mind can play tricks. From this point on we are in a fantasy and in the milieu of Mozart’s opera, with a prince, a princess, a wicked Queen, scheming ladies in waiting, strange animals, high and not so high priests, guards, musical instruments with magical powers. It’s a wild ride.
Zou essentially acknowledges that the original story line of The Magic Flute either needs to be played out ‘as written’ and as intended by librettist Emanuel Schikaneder, one of Mozart’s collaborators and an entrepreneur specialising in ‘low art’ entertainment for the masses, or it needs to be interpreted in a way that retains the integrity of the story but speaks to a modern audience. As Lam puts it in his program notes, Zou’s reimagination “…helps us listen more intently – to beauty, to each other, to deeper truths”, and he’s right. Zou’s brilliant interpretation removes the need to suspend disbelief so much that it hurts, squarely faces up to the fantastical fairy tale that the opera really is, and finds a way to expose the underlying themes without being ‘preachy’.
So, the scenic design is inspired and fits Zou’s vision like a well-crafted glove. Dan Potra is the set and costume designer, and it’s just dazzling without resorting to unnecessary gimmicks. Glen D’Haenens lighting design emphasises and immerses us in fantasy when necessary, and snaps us out of it when the story line is best suited to the listener having a clear mind. It’s so thoughtfully designed.
Dane Lam has the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra sounding exquisite. Mozart’s gorgeous score is in good hands. (The flute and (uncredited) percussion that create the sounds of the “magic flute” and “magic bells” could have been amplified a little – they get a bit lost in the pit.)
Anthony Hunt’s command of the State Opera Chorus has never been better. They sounded superb and sang with superb balance.
The cast of principals are world class. This can be a dangerous thing to say – it is easy to get caught up in the moment and direct a spray of superlatives at them – but is deserved. Australian tenor Nicholas Jones, who is currently a principal artist with the Paris Opera, sings Tamino, and the tessitura of Tamino’s arias fits Jones’ voice beautifully. He’s sung on the SOSA stage before, but this performance eclipses all before it.
Sofia Troncoso makes a brilliant Pamina: she gives the role sass, sadness as well as unbridled joy. Her soprano voice is truly a fine instrument, with evenness and musicality across the range.
David Greco sings the comic bird catcher role of Papageno and rightly stops short of making the character ridiculous. Refreshingly, Greco plays the character almost straight, which makes it all the funnier. He has timing, and his tenor voice is strong and true. His difficult duet with Jessica Dean in the cameo role of Papagena, his newly found sweetheart, is tight and very entertaining. The precision of Mozart’s challenging music and Schikaneder’s tongue-twisting text are superbly navigated by both, with the ever-watchful Lam in the pit keeping finely balanced control.
New Yorker Danielle Bavli plays the menacing Queen of the Night. Her costume is striking, and she uses it to style menace as well as grace. Although a little quiet, she sings beautifully and her signature aria Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen is a high point of the opera. It's a bit cliché, but this is the ‘pot boiler’ aria that everyone looks forward to in The Magic Flute, and Bavli sings it strikingly.
Teddy Tahu Rhodes sings the role of Sarastro and imbues him with wisdom and benevolence. Rhodes' bass voice is truly world class, with clarity and musicalness across even the lowest notes. His costume is an eye opener, and the symbolism built into its construction is not missed. He inhabits the costume; he doesn’t merely wear it.
Sopranos Helena Dix, Catriona Barr and Fiona McArdle play First, Second and Third ladies respectively – they are servants of the Queen – and they initially take to the stage by magically coming to life as they emerge from a giant airline company poster in the subway. Zou’s directorial concepts are just so imaginative! Their trios are just so much fun. Dix has a gloriously strong voice, and she makes First Lady larger than life, and lusty! Barr and McArdle build on Dix’s vamping humour, and the trio of ladies is an absolute hoot. McArdle continues to rapidly develop into a fine artist.
Mark Oates sings the evil Monostatos with a comfortably surety. His costume deliberately distracts from the garb that is traditionally worn by the character, who, in the original script is described as a ‘blackamoor’. Like Rhodes, Oates uses his costume as an extension of his character and manages to have the audience laugh heartily at him as he struts his stuff as a would-be seducer of women (but he is quite delusional!).
Pelham Andrews sings the role of Speaker, and his fine bass voice is well suited to this opera. He sings with evenness of tone and imparts humility to the role. A fine performance.
Rounding out the cast are Phillip Cheng, Ethan Zhang and Celine Yuan as the three children. They are just fabulous. They begin as triplets in a children’s pram, then become young men, then older men and finally very old men who take an almost unhealthy interest in the final romantic outcome between Tamino and Pamina. This is another of Zou’s directorial coups! The ageing of the children serves to illustrate that the The Magic Flute is as much about life’s journey as it is about the ultimate triumph of good over bad, love over hate, and compassion over animosity. Chorus members Callum McGing, Jamie Moffatt, Andrew Turner, and Nick Cannon play minor roles but do it with conviction. McGing, in particular, demonstrated the depth of musical talent that is alive in the State Opera Chorus.
So, there it is. State Opera South Australia’s production of The Magic Flute, under the farsighted eyes and musical baton of Dane Lam, produced in collaboration with international partners, and directed by young visionary director Shuang Zou, is a revelation. It has all the sumptuousness of grand opera and all the easy appeal of a lighter musical. It is a joy to watch, and to listen to, and there are two more performances left. It is a perfect introduction to the world of opera, that most magnificent and mysterious of all artforms. This is a show for everyone.
Kym Clayton
When: 28 Aug to 6 Sep
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
Flinders University Drama Centre. Matthew Flinders Theatre. 6 Aug 2025
This writer’s creative history is deeply embedded in the 12 excerpts of major theatre works and writers of the last 64 or so years. Works Adelaide championed as a national leader of theatre culture and history in Australia and form the body of this anthology production.
The Shock of The New is one the most unique innovations in theatre production in Adelaide. It is memoir, history book, creative challenge, and road map for the future, from a rich past of success and pitfalls.
Starting with Patrick White’s 1962 Season of Sarsparilllia by University of Adelaide Theatre Guild and concluding with Mathew Whittet’s 2014 Girl Asleep by Windmill Theatre Company and Adelaide Festival of The Arts, this work charts theatre daring to expose, challenge and celebrate Australia as it actually is. Expose and demystify taboos. Offer alternatives to how we can live and be instead of suffering under the hammer of regressive forces. Reimagining theatre form itself.
Director Chris Drummond and cast certainly have their work cut out for them. Creating a scene-to-scene narrative that builds an over arcing story. Giving life to the essence each play sought to express in a single scene. Dress it in a manner allowing smooth transitions.
Such challenge is brilliantly met.
Designer Kathryn Sproul and Lighting Designer Mark Pennington keep it simple and effective. Basic set furniture and props. Basic back wash lighting and focus spots. Transition from scene to scene, world view to world view, it is so swift you have to catch your breath. Thankfully, Drummond and cast has added inter scene dialogue setting the social and political reality of the times between blocs of scenes.
Drummond’s cast, Flinders Drama Centre Graduating Actors, work and achieve almost the impossible in getting to the core of each play’s truth in a two-act structure. Plays in most cases they were too young to have seen or known. Plays with roles played by actors—at the time—at the top of their game and made forever memorable. Expect to see more out there in the world from Eliza Barnes, Rohan Becker Ariel Dzino, Liam Hennessy, Alexander Karytinos, Isiah Macaspac, Abigail McDougall, Hannah McGrath, and Shardae Santos.
All nine actors offered work of the highest standard. Jumping from one world view to another in mere seconds and minutes. Juggling equally fast costume changes. Offering an intensity of focus in performance without loosing a single beat or line. Holding their audience with absolute authority and assuring the conceptual edge of each piece hit home. Knowing how to play the drama and humour with subtlety demanded by each text.
This writer’s memory was totally jogged. Was gifted a sense of lived theatre history affirming anew why they are part of the arts. Offered a new angle on considering where the future might lie.
Whatever life background anyone in the audience may have, they were blessed with a powerful work offering questions still relevant today from each scene’s different emphasis, An experience with unquestionably loving heart to it.
It would be greatly pleasing to see this remounted. More need to see it. It’s too unique to retire to a place in history yet.
David O’Brien
When: 6 to 9 August
Where: Matthew Flinders Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Scotch College. Queen’s Theatre. 8 Aug 2025
In the catalogue of theatre for young people, Mary Poppins is one of those evergreens that never fails to pull an audience. That attraction is assisted of course by the iconic film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke; even in this day and age of Roblox and the like it still holds a fascination with young viewers. The Australian born P.L. Travers’ book series is sadly perhaps, not so well known, but it provides the material that fuels the film and various stage versions.
The stage production has many parents; the music and lyrics were provided by Robert and Richard Sherman, utilising some songs from the film. New songs were added by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe while Julian Fellowes also wrote a book based on, well, a bit of everything.
Its popularity is not to say that it’s an easy production to stage; it’s complex and text heavy, and the musical numbers in the stage production outweigh those in the film. It also requires a large cast to stage effectively, and where better to find them but in a school production? Scotch College have done just this, and have so many contenders that they managed to put on two casts of principals in staggered performances.
The Queen’s Theatre is an odd beast, but its very unstructured nature means that it can be directed to almost any purpose; in this instance a very traditional proscenium arch meant the viewing was sometimes a bit awkward for younger ones on the unraked floor. Behind a side curtain the small orchestra played incognito, the conductor (and Music Director, Martin Cheney) cunningly televised on a small screen high above the audience, ready to cue the performers on stage.
This night Cast 2 took centre stage, opening with Asher Gordon as chimney sweep Bert, aka narrator. From the opening scene, the pace did not let up on this production. Through some 22 songs (plus reprises), the performers displayed an energy and enthusiasm that kept the audience entranced for over two and a half hours.
The story of Mary Poppins has always been a bit magical, a bit fantastical, a bit homespun and this production played up to all of that. Megan Venhoek’s well realised set design was very versatile, with a mezzanine floor that added to the illusion of the London skyline, complete with back projections of chimney pots. The projections changed through the scenes (lovely flights of birds during Feed the Birds, a beautiful rendition from Isabella Buley); a most effective design device (Lighting and Video Design by Stephanie Thompson). And yes, we got to see Mary fly!
Grace Pannel and Harry Geary as Mr and Mrs Banks anchor the story well, reflecting the long suffering parents struggling to acknowledge the changing mores of Victorian England, particularly in terms of women’s growing independence and the changing role of men in the family. Zoe Windle and Poppy Warren (Jane and Michael Banks) are an absolute delight, bringing everything that is at once most appalling and lovable in young children.
And then of course there’s Mary, played on this night by Lucy Stirling. It’s a wonderful character and sometimes difficult to keep in check as she veers from kind to stern, from vain to self-effacing, from private nanny to socialist. Stirling handles this difficult role with aplomb, moving from skilled solo songs to rousing ensemble choruses with ease.
The ensemble itself is to be lauded. Far too many to name check, at times the stage looked like the crowd scene from Ben Hur. The production is elevated by the inclusion of two senior dance troupes, taking the ensemble scenes to a new height. The precision in both singing and dancing, backed by a tightly led orchestra, was remarkable in a cast so young; there are performers here that we will hopefully see and hear again in their more mature years.
The vocal performances were uniformly impressive, a few wobbles here and there and a couple of range issues, but across the board one couldn’t pick a weak link. There were a few sound issues on this night, but to the credit of the performers, they didn’t miss a beat. As noted, 22 songs is no mean feat and the ensemble really stepped up with some of the most rollicking numbers, which of course included Step in Time - the stage literally bouncing with the enthusiasm of the large cast - and of course, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, which I only managed to spell here by singing the song!
A special mention must go to Costume Designer Kellie Jones. From maids to sparkling stars, bankers to Greek statues, ragged old ladies to Queen Victoria, the costumes were one delight after another. Just superb.
These productions are often filled out by parents and friends, which is wonderful, but performances of this calibre really should be seen by a wider audience. Get in early for the next production!
Arna Eyers-White
When 8 to 10 Aug
Where: Queen’s Theatre
Bookings: Sold Out
Holden Street Theatre Inc. 7 Aug 2025
Peter Goers’ production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a powerhouse three act domestic drama. It seems like an allegory for the end of the world and humanities deepest inner hopes expressed in a marriage going super nova.
Tempered with ever so soft humour one wonders at how it’s even possible wicked laughs are very successfully summoned from the psychologically savage games ruling the marriage of middle-aged academic Associate Professor of History George (Brant Eustice) and wife Martha (Martha Lott.)
George and Martha stagger home from a college party with too many under the belt, baiting each other. Until Martha announces at the late hour of two am they have guests arriving soon.
The young, newly appointed College academic, Nick, and his wife who Martha’s Father, President of the College, has suggested they be nice to.
George and Martha initially clean up their act—so much as they can—when Nick (Chris Asimos) and Honey (Jessica Corrie) finally arrive.
Doesn’t last long. They have set themselves to a switch and bait on each other, spiralling into a night long nightmarish emotional bender. Seeking to control, dominate, conquer and vanquish each other.
When that doesn’t quite work out, in the way each seeks, Nick and Honey are new targets. Unwitting pawns in a gripping, shocking all out vicious domestic. Let’s all have another drink as games of political history, science, social politics and sex play out until dawn.
What is it all about, this nasty shit fight between a sotted, educated couple who probably should be divorced? Whose whiplash tongues, rich in barbarity, cultured awareness, emotional heat and heightened cunning, seem to have no end game in the play between them?
The personal is absolutely the political this night. Saving position. Taking a stand. Stealing another. Beating down to dominate a marriage. There’s more.
Albee’s writing is dense, rich in violent histrionics, and sharp symbolism. His characters stand at the extremes of modern life as experienced by the very young and suspiciously hopeful as much the aged, jaded and cynical in a status driven world. One in which emotional honesty is a distinct disadvantage. True life is dangerous. Better the illusions. Illusions are also very, very dangerous. Because of the truth they may obfuscate?
Goers has ensured this cast have totally mastered every beat of the text. Emotional timing and text delivery is richly, exquisitely electrifyingly in gripping the audience by its throat. Brant Eustice and Martha Lott deploy breath taking powers of controlled, rage, passion, vulnerability and contempt in bringing Martha and George’s regal, yet depleted relationship to life. Chris Asimos and Jessica Corrie partner them in a display of meekness attempting greatness, or in Honey’s case, absolute capitulation to forces they cannot master.
Here is a messy, gritty psychological drama still relevant as ever over 50 years later in the
hands of artists who understand how true its simple (hidden) pain and broader scope is right now.
David O’Brien
When: 5 to 16 Aug
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com
University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 3 Aug 2025
For all the Jane Austen films, plays, television series and adaptation/homages around (we’ll include Clueless, Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies here), you’d think she was one of the more prolific writers in literary history. There are in fact, just the six extant novels, which have been in continuous print since 1833. Along with the bangers like Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice (now possibly as famous for that Colin Firth wet shirt scene as for the text itself!), there are letters (subject of a current television series) and shorter writings, and now there is The Watsons (1804). Along with Sanditon (1817, the plot of which has more than a passing resemblance to Bridgerton), it’s an unfinished work, hence not so well known outside the scholarly and literary worlds.
The Watsons unfolds in accepted Austenian style. Emma Watson (Imogen Deller-Evans), the cash-strapped heroine, returns to the family home after having spent years with a wealthy relative. There she finds her elder sister Elizabeth tending to their ill clergyman father, while sisters Penelope and Margaret tend to themselves. There’s nothing for it but to find a husband, with a good living of course. In this she must compete with sisters Margaret and Penelope, who require husbands of their own.
There are a few possibilities; Lord Osborne (Maxwell Whigham) is the most obvious choice as he has both wealth and title; Mr Howard (Tom Tassone), the local vicar and Tom Musgrave (Thomas Midena), the local cad. They all come together at the local ball and the next day, well, then it goes all rather awry as the original eighty pages come to an end.
Playwright Laura Wade has taken a left turn in writing this ‘completion’ of the original manuscript. The fourth wall breaks, and the playwright is now a character. Played brilliantly by Emma Kemp, the playwright inadvertently reveals herself when a plot line goes wrong; before long all the characters are aware of her presence, and the frustration and mayhems spills over from play to reality, from past to future.
Director Matthew Chapman has worked his large cast and the set with a deft hand. Such are the twists and turns in this production, it could easily have lost its way and descended into confusion (the Napoleon scene did have a bit of a wobble) but the ensemble work was to be lauded here. Occasionally, the Regency characterisations are a little forced and forceful and not really suited to the ‘manners’ of the time, but that is a minor quibble.
Through the playwright’s conversations, Wade acknowledges that she was influenced by Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and in exploring this device, she also brings the Enlightenment philosophers into the frame—John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are all discussed—as the characters search for identity. In this it appears Wade also wants to position Austen and acknowledge some of the thinkers that would have influenced her writings. Added to this is Mary Wollstonecroft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) and it is clear that Wade wants to place Austen firmly beyond the ‘bonnet drama’, exploring the intellectual and feminist underpinning of her works.
The transition of the characters from Austen to Wade is embraced by the cast; Deller-Evans infuses her Emma with both righteous anger and despair, Lindy LeCornu’s Lady Osborne is a sapphic delight and Maxwell Whigham manages to keep his Lord Osborne on an even keel with the most delightful expressions.
Frederick Pincombe’s Charles Howard is a bit of a scene stealer; his despair at finding out that he will be forever ten years old is palpable. Rebecca Kemp (disguised as Servant) is a wonderful playwright, swinging between wanting to remain true to Austen, true to herself as writer, or to allow the characters to become what they believe they should be. And there, my friends is the ending that Austen was unable to finish. Which ending? Now, that would be telling…
Arna Eyers-White
When: 1 to 10 Aug
Where: Adelaide University Theatre Guild
Bookings. trybooking.com