Two of the world’s most acclaimed theatre directors are bringing extraordinary work to Adelaide in 2027. Tickets are now on sale for Romeo Castellucci’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Barrie Kosky’s K., the first Adelaide Festival exclusives announced for next year’s program.
Both directors have deep ties to the Festival and devoted Adelaide followings. These productions promise to be among the most talked-about events of the 2027 season.
Bluebeard’s Castle
Romeo Castellucci’s previous Festival productions, Go Down Moses (2016) and Mozart’s Requiem (2020), left Adelaide audiences spellbound. His interpretation of Béla Bartók’s operatic masterpiece continues that tradition of visual and emotional intensity.
Castellucci places the audience in the viewpoint of Judith, newlywed to Duke Bluebeard and compelled to open the seven forbidden doors of their castle. A spectacular water-filled stage, lit by flames, transcends naturalistic staging. Each chamber brings an eruption of fire that illuminates both Bluebeard’s secrets and the unfolding layers of Judith’s psyche.
The production premiered at Salzburg Festival in 2022 to acclaim for its poetic brilliance. It illuminates why Bluebeard’s Castle remains a 20th-century operatic cornerstone.
Festival Theatre, 26 February to 2 March 2027
K.
Barrie Kosky’s relationship with Adelaide Festival has produced some of its most memorable operatic moments: Saul (2017), The Magic Flute (2019), The Golden Cockerel (2022) and The Threepenny Opera (2024). Now he returns with something different.
K. is his theatrical reimagining of Franz Kafka’s The Trial. Delivered by the extraordinary actors of the Berliner Ensemble with a live band, it fuses theatre, dance, song and vaudeville into a chaotically inventive spectacle.
“Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K, he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning he was arrested.” So begins Kafka’s comic yet terrifying tale of blind tumbling through totalitarian bureaucracy. Kosky draws on Kafka’s exploration of Yiddish theatre and his own Jewishness to create something vivid and unpredictable.
German star Kathrin Wehlisch takes the title role. Her masterclass in comedy and vaudeville is expected to be the talk of the Festival.
This marks Kosky’s first theatre work in Australia since 2010’s The Tell-Tale Heart.
Her Majesty’s Theatre, 4 to 7 March 2027
What the Artistic Director says
Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Matthew Lutton OAM describes both directors as “wildly imaginative and impossible to forget.”
“Bluebeard’s Castle is one of the great 20th-century operas, and Castellucci’s elemental production unleashes the full power of what visionary opera can be,” he says. “Kosky transforms The Trial into an all-singing, all-dancing feverish collision of terror and comedy that only he could conjure.”
“These are audacious, spectacular events: rare, exhilarating, and unlike anything audiences will experience anywhere else in Australia.”
Booking information
Tickets are on sale now to the general public. Festival Friends receive access to the best seats, a 15% discount on applicable adult tickets, and a range of special offers.
The full Adelaide Festival 2027 program launches on Tuesday 27 October. The Festival runs from 26 February to 14 March 2027.
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