Theatre Archives - FIFTY+SA

Peter Goers on monsters, mischief and the joy of being a terrible house guest

Staff Writer — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 05:03:26 +0000

Some actors disappear into a role. Peter Goers, by his own cheerful admission, does not. “Whatever role I play, people see me,” he says, and in the case of Sheridan Whiteside, the acid-tongued tyrant at the centre of The Man Who Came to Dinner, that may be truer than usual. Goers takes on Whiteside when The Adelaide Repertory Theatre opens its 2026 season at the Arts Theatre on Angas Street, running 9 to 18 July. It’s the first of three in-house productions for The Rep this year, followed by The Sunshine Boys in September and The Drowsy Chaperone in November, and the company is billing

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Adelaide Cabaret Festival Review: Po Po Mo Co Best Bits Spectacular

Dave Bradley — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 01:53:40 +0000

The ‘femme queer clown’ quartet Po Po Mo Co (as in ‘Post Post Modern Comedy’) began their show with no introductions and no explanations, just an amusingly awkward warning that there was going to be nudity. And yes, there was too. And quite a lot of it. Running through an hour-long collection of their best bits (hence that title) from the last 10 years, this featured many musical numbers, all of which were, shall we say, a little weird. After a sort-of-mime set to Baby Bash’s Suga Suga, they then leapt into a bizarro take on 4 Non Blondes’ beloved

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Adelaide Cabaret Festival review: Haus Of Dy-lan

Dave Bradley — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 01:49:56 +0000

The San Francisco-born Dylan Adler’s hour-or-so-long show fearlessly touched upon a host of painfully personal themes, all of which hit pretty hard despite his wild, wonderfully raunchy rudeness. Frequently taking to a piano for self-penned and coolly Broadway-infused musical numbers (“That one’s from Hamilton!!!”), Dylan began with some amusingly crude jokes about Adelaide, Grindr, and more, before noting that he recently drunk-Facebook-messaged Seth, his old high school bully. This led into a slew of autobiographical avenues, with memories of coming out (with his also-fabulous twin) to his parents, the intricacies of being “half-Japanese and half-Jewish”, and how therapy has helped

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Theatre Review: Till the Stars Come Down, Holden Street Theatres

Dr Diana Carroll — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:30:00 +0000

Martha Lott shines in the South Australian premiere of Beth Steel’s smash hit wedding drama. Weddings, funerals, and Christmas all have a fundamental tendency to bring any simmering family tensions bubbling up to the surface. In the smash hit play, Till the Stars Come Down, it’s a wedding that becomes the perfect pressure cooker for old family feuds and uncomfortable home truths. Set on a sultry summer day in a former mining town in the working-class Midlands, the audience takes the place of guests at the wedding of Sylvia and Marek. What should be a joyful celebration of love and

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The Cabaret Festival returns and this year it means business

Staff Writer — Thu, 28 May 2026 00:26:42 +0000

Every June, Adelaide does something it does better than anywhere else in the world. The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the biggest cabaret festival on the planet, takes over the city for just under three weeks, and what follows is the kind of cultural moment that’s hard to replicate anywhere else. This year, running 4–21 June 2026, it arrives with a new artistic director, a provocative new vision and a program – 79 performances across 12 nights – that looks like one of the strongest in recent memory. Reuben Kaye takes the reins for 2026. If you haven’t encountered him before, that’s

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Stage Review: Art, Her Majesty’s Theatre

Dr Diana Carroll — Thu, 21 May 2026 03:30:35 +0000

This witty play shows that even the best of friends don’t always agree! Yasmina Reza’s 1994 play Art shows just how good theatre can be when it’s sharp, sophisticated, and fully focused. It looks deceptively simple on the stage, and that is its inner strength. Originally written and performed in French, the English version premiered in the West End in 1996 and this new Australian staging shows why it has endured for three decades. At its heart, this is a witty and perceptive look at long-term friendships and the inevitable compromises that sustain them. At the centre of the play

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Get run over by the bus – an evening with Jay Laga’aia

Liv Williams — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:40:19 +0000

There are careers, and then there is Jay Laga’aia’s career. Star Wars. Home and Away. Water Rats. Play School. The Lion King. Wicked. Father of eight (yes, eight!). And now, Unscripted — an intimate evening of music and stories coming to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival this June. If it sounds like a lot, that’s rather the point. ‘Opportunity is a bus that rides on the road of success,’ Laga’aia says, with the easy authority of someone who has long since stopped second-guessing himself. ‘And we sit on a chair of what if. So, every now and again, you just got to get off and get run over by that bus. I’ve

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Till the Stars Come Down opens Holden Street Theatres’ 2026 season in Adelaide

Liv Williams — Thu, 14 May 2026 04:34:09 +0000

The Holden Street Theatres 2026 season opens with the South Australian premiere of Till the Stars Come Down, the Olivier-nominated family drama by British playwright Beth Steel. The production runs at The Studio from 26 May to 13 June, directed by Holden Street’s Director in Residence Nick Fagan. Steel’s play premiered at London’s National Theatre in January 2024, where it sold out its run and picked up two Olivier Award nominations including Best New Play. It transferred to the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2025, with critics calling it “deliriously funny,” “utterly unmissable,” and “spun in gold.” Now it makes

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Adelaide Fringe appoints Marc Carnes as new CEO

Staff Writer — Thu, 14 May 2026 04:24:01 +0000

Following a global search, Adelaide Fringe has appointed Canadian arts and culture leader Marc Carnes as its new Chief Executive Officer, commencing 1 July 2026. Carnes will join Australia’s biggest arts festival after more than 20 years working across arts, culture, fringe festivals, audience development, media, tourism and the creative economy in Canada. Most recently, he served as CEO of listener-supported CKUA Radio, Alberta’s voice for music, arts and culture, where he led an eight-year revitalisation and transformation of Canada’s oldest public broadcaster during a period of significant disruption across the social, cultural and media sectors. Carnes also brings direct

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Oscar Wilde gets fast, furious and funny with an all South Australian cast

Staff Writer — Thu, 14 May 2026 04:03:37 +0000

The Importance of Being Earnest is beloved for its wit, satire, and gleeful skewering of Victorian respectability. But beneath the dazzling dialogue lies something more radical: a world built on the performance of identity, class, and desire. Artistic Director Petra Kalive makes her directorial debut for State Theatre Company South Australia with Oscar Wilde’s famous play, bringing vim and vigour to a production ready to delight audiences more than 130 years after its premiere. “I want to crack Earnest open, to revel in the satire, in the barely veiled politics and work with a wildly talented, all-South Australian cast. I

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