State Opera South Australia. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 22 Aug 2026
There is something particularly fitting about State Opera South Australia's (SOSA) choice of Into the Woods for its Jubilee Season. Dane Lamb, Artistic Director of SOSA, introduced the production by celebrating a cast of Australian performers who have grown up, trained or now live in Adelaide. It is a welcome showcase of local talent, brought together on the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre in one of musical theatre's most demanding scores.
Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods is a deceptively demanding musical. Beneath its familiar fairy-tale characters and irresistible melodies lies a work about desire, consequence, loss and the uncomfortable realisation that happily ever after is rarely the end of the story. SOSA's production, directed by Constantine Costi with associate director Shannon Burns, assembles a technically accomplished cast and an excellent Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO), yet for all its considerable musical strengths, this production doesn’t quite make the journey from fairy tale to human drama.
There is much to admire. Anthony Hunt conducts the ASO with impressive clarity and energy, and the cast handles Sondheim's famously intricate vocal writing with assurance. There are no weak links technically. Jessica Dean brings an appealing emotional intelligence to Cinderella, finding the person beneath the fairy-tale character. Rosie Hosking gives The Witch the powerhouse treatment the role demands, while Hugh Sheridan and Johanna Allen make a convincing and warmly matched Baker and Baker's Wife.
Nicholas Cannon and Andrew Crispe make a wonderfully entertaining pair of Princes, their chemistry and comic timing matched by stunning duets. Eleanor Brasted and Michaela Burger bring an immediate lift whenever Lucinda and Florinda appear, while Jessica Mills's vocal trills as Rapunzel are immaculate. Joey Haenen gives Jack plenty of comic energy, while Catherine Campbell is vocally assured as Jack's Mother. Nicholas Lester carries the dual roles of Narrator and Mysterious Man with authority.
Eliza Brill Reed's Little Red Riding Hood, Mark Oates's Cinderella's Father, Millicent Brake's Snow White, Gianna Guttilla's Sleeping Beauty, Rod Schultz's Steward and Cherie Boogaart's Stepmother, Granny and Giant complete a solid, vocally accomplished ensemble.
The comic performances are excellent on their own terms. It is, however, the production's success with comedy that ultimately creates one of its greatest difficulties.
The characters are frequently played with broad, heightened comic characterisation; Jack’s foolishness is overemphasised, the Steward and Stepmother/Granny are deployed largely for comic relief, and the Princes revel in their absurdity. These choices are entirely defensible within the first act, where the production frequently finds the humour in Sondheim and Lapine's fairy-tale constructions. But cumulatively, they begin to erode the emotional connection the second act requires.
Everyone can sing. Everyone can execute Sondheim's extraordinarily difficult material. The orchestra is excellent. The cast can deliver the comedy. But Into the Woods eventually asks us to stop watching fairy-tale characters and start caring about human beings.
This is particularly problematic because the second act deliberately abandons the security of the fairy tale. The characters have got what they wanted, and now they must deal with the consequences. It is darker, more reflective and considerably less forgiving. Yet the emotional weight of these developments struggles to register because the production has spent so much time establishing its characters as comic constructions. The result is a curious distance: technically impressive performances without ultimately giving us emotionally compelling characters.
There is another challenge, and this one belongs to the work itself. Into the Woods is long. Very long. Sondheim's dense, recitative-like writing demands considerable concentration, and the production's commitment to the original material brings the evening close to three hours including interval. Dramatically, the first half feels so complete that the second has a considerable mountain to climb to maintain momentum, and three hours of Sondheim's densely verbal writing can become numbing when the production does not continually renew its visual and emotional energy.
Jonathon Oxlade's set is a fascinating example of this tension. Two opposing revolves are used with great ingenuity, carrying performers into and out of scenes and giving the production an impressive fluidity. Functionally, it is superb. A cluster of towering, childlike tree cut-outs establishes the woods, but the aesthetic is less convincing. The deliberately simplified forest never quite matches the sophistication of the staging mechanism, and the repetition of the device eventually contributes to a sense of sameness. Jamie Mensforth's sound design and Bernie Tan-Hayes's lighting are both effectively executed.
A few of the production's more playful visual choices, including performers appearing as an oversized golden egg and harp and the unconventional dolls used for Rapunzel's babies, provide moments of whimsy but feel more like opportunities for an easy laugh than additions to the storytelling.
The technical execution was impressive, although opening night was not without its blemishes. The ASO occasionally overwhelmed the singers, making Sondheim's complex lyrics difficult to follow, and there were a few instances where microphones were activated fractionally too late. A projection intended to create the Giant's eye on a suspended circular disc failed during the first Giant sequence, leaving the disc initially perplexing; when the projection worked for the Giant's second entrance, the visual idea became considerably clearer.
This is a production of considerable technical accomplishment that might benefit from a little editing and a deeper emotional excavation. The performers are unquestionably capable. The musicianship is excellent. The staging is often clever. And there are genuine moments of theatrical pleasure.
But Into the Woods ultimately asks more of its performers than technical mastery. It asks us to believe that these people have lived, loved, wanted, lost and changed.
The musical demands that the laughter eventually give way to consequence. This production finds the laughter with ease. It is the consequence that never quite lands with the same force.
Paul Rodda
When: 22 to 29 Aug
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: premier.ticketek.com.au
Come Back Festival Week 1. Goodwood Theatre and Studios. Wilde & Darling Productions // Alix Kuijpers. 15 Aug 2026
Come Back Festival is a simple, but wonderfully engaging idea. Reprise the best of the best short works Goodwood Theatre and Studios have hosted over the years, present them over three weeks. Pair them creating an evening of disparate themes, forms and experiences, with a dinner break.
Goddess Era by Wilde & Darling Productions, along with I Know The End by Alix Kuijpers first appeared at Goodwood Theatre Studios during Adelaide Fringe 2023.
Both are two handlers. Both have all female casts.
One is a story and song-structured dive into Greek female mythology, in which the terrors lived by four Greek Goddesses are dovetailed into experiences lived by four female characters in modern times. The other is a sci-fi spiced contemporary dance piece dealing with ideas of ‘alien’ identity.
Sarah Kwong and Shannon Beckett’s Goddess Era offers a modern take on Goddesses Artemis, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia, along with Medusa, all who suffered for being who they were. Their self control, pride and beauteous excellence saw them shamed and punished.
Kwong and Beckett’s production is an extraordinarily warm, gentle story handling the most disturbing issues women face today; coercive control, sexual abuse, workplace oppression, childhood oppression.
This pair of artists keep it simple and direct, creating new characters and recognisable contemporary lives within the guise of each Goddess. Women living among us now.
Stories blended with Beckett’s original songs on guitar and ukulele gracefully flow in and out of each other with deceptive ease and beguiling harmonies. Yet the hard reality of what these women experience is not spared. It’s contrasted starkly with the sense of their ideal divinity, if that’s their reality, because being turned into a monster, or a chair in the starry heavens isn’t exactly winning at divine life, is it?
A wife is coerced into being smaller than she is. A child follows it up by being incapable of standing up for herself. A proud successful career woman’s choices seem to condemn her in the eyes of others.
Goddess Era doesn’t shy away from the brutality the work addresses. It confronts it with a warm humour and hope in spite of all that. It doesn’t rage against darkness. It offers hope, glimmers of sunlight, pathways out.
Confrontation achieves little without such things on the horizon.
I Know The End is the most delightfully absorbing sci-fi themed contemporary dance work, operating on so many levels.
Choreographer/set designer/sound designer Alix Kuijpers understands the power of using simple means to create a big impact. White sheets cover the floor and over a thin double bed mattress. Upstage backdrop is also white sheets. Dancers Caroline De Wan and Fern Mines approach each other and the central bed from the wings. They speak a sentence in unison, a tale of a man, of an alien, of the other side. On the bed they fall.
This simple, enchanting, engrossing opening moment is the hook drawing all into a thrilling, momentous journey, greatly abetted by a thrilling B grade sci-fi film sound score of utter perfection.
De Wan and Mines create worlds filled with allusions to space, space flight, and esoteric beings. Kuijpers’ choreography brings them together and apart in a manner alluding to unknown beings forming themselves and creating a construct between them.
The great thematic unifying moment is the double bed mattress being lifted to reveal it has as an alien poster on it declaring ‘I want to believe’.
Kuijpers dancers embody the universal attraction of cosmic bodies in its own chosen ‘alien’ form.
I Know The End is a tremendous work, sprawling in its pop culture ambitions underneath which lies at the heart of all great science fiction, a desire to give expression and explore the unknown, the misunderstood, the forbidden.
David O’Brien
Where: Goodwood Theatre and studios
When: 13 to 30 Aug
Bookings: goodwoodtheatreandstudios.com.au
Pelican Productions. Arts Theatre. Matinee, 15 Aug 2026. Cast 1
Hard to believe, but The Little Mermaid has been loved by children for nigh on 200 years, although these days many of them aren’t aware of the original tragic ending of the lovelorn creature.
It wasn’t until the animated feature made by Disney in the 1980s that she became known as Ariel and gets to marry the man of her dreams rather than dying in a spludge of sea foam.
It’s this nicely sanitised Disney version that was developed into the musical that has since played around the world and has now been brought to the local stage by Pelican Productions.
This is the Junior version of the production and from the get-go, it is obvious that no effort has been spared in mounting this show. Prince Eric (Joel Howis) stands atop the bridge of a ship, looking out to sea. The rear projection screen immediately has us moving on the waves – the screen is used throughout, morphing into the underwater world and back to land seamlessly.
Eric is following the song of Ariel (Maree Fong), who falls in love when she rescues him from the inevitable shipwreck. Fong has a powerful voice and uses it to great effect in Part Of Your World. The Sea Witch, Ursula (Keira Wubbolts) is also quite a belter – amazing to hear these voices in such a youthful setting.
Immediately winning hearts was Alejandro Jiminez as Sebastian (aka Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian) – his Spanish/Trinidad accented wonderfully camp utterances were delightful.
The ensemble all work hard at bringing Director/Choreographer Bec Schimbri’s vision to life, with some very cute performances from some of the younger cast. There are far too many excellent performances to mention, but the Gulls (Eva Astachnowicz, Hanna Gray, Abbie Klingberg, Zahara Leon, Paige Maggs, Gracie Nagesh, Ivy Owen and Lenny Thoman) do bring an attitude to the show that really, only a seagull can bring!
Pelican Productions is known for its amazing attention to costume and The Little Mermaid is no exception. Jen Frith’s costumes take over the stage in an absolute cacophony of colour; the cast moves across the stage on Heelys (sneakers with wheels) costumes flowing behind in a beautiful underwater representation. The gulls are perfect in their mono toned winged glory, right down to their bright orange socks! Crabs, eels, mermaids and mermen, princes and kings – each costume was meticulous and quite simply stunning.
The cast (and crew) of The Little Mermaid should be very proud of the production they have mounted and the audience certainly enjoyed it. One proud dad left singing Under The Sea, “I’ll be singing that all week!” he cried. And so he should. Great production, great performances. Do catch this company for their next production.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 15 Aug
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Patch Theatre. 14 Aug 2026
It’s quite a show that can hold both adults and children spellbound. Me and My Shadow (MaMS for brevity) is that show. We all love a bit of shadow play, and while MaMS has plenty of it, it takes that extra step into magic and mystery (how do they do that?!), delighting and entertaining the entire audience.
Artistic Director Geoff Cobham has brought back original cast members Astrid Pill and Nathan O’Keefe for this anniversary show and it’s a lovely touch; they bring as much energy and playfulness to their work as they did all those years ago. Astrid as the little girl who discovers her shadow brings a lovely whimsy to the role, while Nathan plays the Shadow as cheeky but entirely loveable.
To the accompaniment of Zoe Barry’s musical score, the shadow play develops subtly but inevitably, from when the girl first discovers the Shadow, to the natural development of his own character. Many of us had an imaginary friend when we were young and this blend of physical theatre, of colour play, and sound makes that experience all the more magical.
The pair play well together; their familiarity works to keep the flow natural and gentle, and each surprise is dealt with as a thing of wonder by each of them. In your imagination, anything can happen, and in this show just about everything does. Arms that stretch forever, lights that fly through the sky, robots that wear paper bags – as long as you think it’s real, it is!
Lighting is everything in shadow play, and Geoff Cobham brings his long experience to this show, there were moments when each of us wanted to jump and be the small person or the giant! The cleverness of it all meant that we didn’t see some of the sleight of hand at work – we still want to know how some of that magic happened, like the firefly lights, and the scissors, and the collapsing bag and…
First mounted in 2010 by Patch Theatre, when it was rewarded with a Helpmann Award, Me and My Shadow has a fresh new look but remains true to the original production. This is just such a pleasure to watch – take the kids, they’ll love you for it.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 15, 22, and 29 August
Where: The Space Theatre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
Holden Street Theatres. 12 Aug 2026
Playwright Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside is redolent with the most densely beautiful writing. A magnificent tour de force exploration of the literary and personal lives of Yale Professor Bella Baird (Michelle Nightingale) and nervy, louche but intelligent student Christopher Dunn ( Benji Riggs).
Rapp’s text is a complex one. Delivered at times in first person by Nightingale and Riggs, interposed with commentary.
It’s like experiencing a novel within a novel. There’s always this strange sense of crossing from reality to fiction and back as Baird remembers her interaction with this socially obtuse, yet intense would-be writer. Contrasts that with her personal life, literary life.
These two differing personalities linked by the world of letters; a professor staring cancer in the face, a student seeking certainty in the fictional, offer a journey into what it means to live, perhaps not to be really alive. Is ‘life’ a written achievement? Do ‘rules’ achieve anything?
Director Nick Fagan’s set design splits the space into three realms; Baird’s home, park space, and Baird’s office. Martin Smith’s lighting is sparsely functional.
Rapp’s text demands its interpreters rise to a significant challenge. Avoid letting it do the heavy work for you. Dig deeper to find expression beyond its seductive other worldly smoothness. There is a greater reality underneath this text. Beyond text, is a human condition that subsumes text.
Nick Fagan’s direction is functional to the surface intent of the work. Michele Nightingale’s performance is the better of the two. There’s a richness in her work. Benji Riggs offers a cut and paste lost young man not up to the complexity the character demands.
There are dual realities at play in this work. It demands they be addressed, even if that seems beyond a cast of two. As pleasant as the experience might be, not meeting that challenge makes for a less than fulfilling experience.
David O’Brien
When: 11 to 29 Aug
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: Holden Street Theatres