With plenty on offer to warm the heart, mind and soul, Adelaide Festival Centre is proud to present two of its beloved annual festivals, a stately range of exhibitions, and two infectiously joyous musicals as part of its Winter 2022 season.
With national treasure and performer extraordinaire Tina Arena AM at the helm, the 2022 Adelaide Cabaret Festival is shortly to draw back the velvet curtains from June 10 – 25 to present plenty to dazzle and delight. Unmissable shows include a decadent homage to the icons of disco at The Piña Colada Room; uplifting stories and song from the one and only Marcia Hines in The Gospel According to Marcia; and, in a rare opportunity to see Tina’s intimate side, the world premiere of Songs My Mother Taught Me, where she will be joined by special guests Lior, Thando, Jess Hitchcock, Wendy Matthews and Sophie Koh. King of the ivories and Festival staple Trevor Jones is back at the Festival Theatre foyer Quartet Bar nightly, ready to accompany everyone’s favourite singalong tunes (and yes, he takes requests!).
South Australian artists include First Nations regional performers Kuko, Katie Aspel and Rob Edwards in T.R.A.I.L. (Tonight’s Regional Aboriginal Islander Live) performing blues, jazz, soul, folk and storytelling. Glam rock goddess Carla Lippis takes centre stage in State Opera South Australia’s hilarious dramatisation of Kathy Lette’s How to Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints); and sassy songstress Victoria Falconer makes her festival debut in And Then You Go – The Vali Myers Project, as the recipient of this year’s Frank Ford Commissioning Award.
After an explosive opening and running until June 12, 8-time Tony Award nominated electrifying musical phenomenon SIX The Musical continues to dazzle and delight audiences. A witty, pop-fueled musical packed full of sass, SIX remixes the history of the six wives of Henry VIII as they take to the microphone to re-tell their stories and reclaim their HERstories, once and for all, in Adelaide’s aptly-named Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Striking a chord with audiences all around the state in July, Adelaide Guitar Festival hosts the world’s largest acoustic guitar on the Adelaide Festival Plaza along with a realm of extraordinary musicians from July 9 to 24, and via On the Road brings free world-class musical entertainment to ten regional South Australian towns.
Plectrum-based pleasures include fiery Flamenco with Spain’s José María Gallardo del Rey and Victoria-based dance group Arte Kanela; crisp classical notes from China’s Xuefei Yang and Australian voice/guitar duo Quin Thomson and David Malone; Spinal Tap’s Derek Smalls turning the amp up to eleven with Australian rock legends You Am I; legendary Black Sorrows frontman Joe Camilleri celebrating his milestone 50th album with special guest Lecia Louise; and charming tunes of the road from Australian country crooners Fanny Lumsden and Jimmybay.
Our top-notch venues – the award-winning Her Majesty’s Theatre and Adelaide Festival Centre, neighbouring the exciting new Festival Plaza precinct – are ready to continue welcoming audiences and artists this winter. SIX was the first major musical staged in South Australia since restrictions lifted, and it’s been terrific to be able to see it performed in Adelaide and audiences once again enjoying the thrill of live performance.
“With the best also on show from local artists in our galleries, and even lighting up the Festival Theatre Shells, there has never been a better time to rug up, get out and experience the best entertainment on offer.
Now in its 17th year, Adelaide Festival Centre’s prestigious exhibition of First Nations artwork, stories and ideas from all around the state, OUR MOB returns from August 18 to October 7 at the newly reopened Festival Theatre galleries. Expressions of interest to exhibit are still open until July 1. Also on display is its youth equivalent, OUR YOUNG MOB, and returning after a captivating 2021 debut, live literary panels for OUR WORDS (curated by poet, activist and proud Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Italian man, Dominic Guerrera) and immersive storytelling event, OUR STORIES. This year’s OUR MOB awards include the $2000 Trevor Nickolls Art Prize and the renowned $5000 Don Dunstan Foundation OUR MOB Emerging Artist Prize.
Catch up on some of the most enjoyable and intelligent arts conversations, recorded during the 2021 OUR WORDS, OzAsia Festival In Other Words, and 2022 inSPACE inDiscussion live panel sessions, with Adelaide Festival Centre’s brand-new podcast From the Wings. New episodes continue to be released fortnightly every Tuesday.
Lighting up the iconic Festival Theatre shells until June 3 are works by local artists Jake Yang, Cedric Varcoe, Bridgette Minuzzo and Sue Michael, animated by award-winning creative team Electric Canvas. From June 4 until July 14, projections continue with artwork by Craigmore and Salisbury East High School students (mentored by artist Caitlin Bowe) from Children’s Artspace exhibition Legendary Textile Tales; and from July 15 until 31, contemporary First Nations artist artwork by Amala Groom, Daen Sansbury-Smith, Elizabeth Close and Jaydenlee Tong in New Light, presented by Illuminate Adelaide and the Australian Network for Art + Technology.
Legendary Textile Tales remains in the new Children’s Artspace gallery until June 12, featuring tapestries, 3D works and ink drawings based off of myths and folktales from each student's cultural ancestry. Come into the gallery, take a trip into history and legend, and create your own loom creation in our workshops Spinning a Yarn!
Mark your diary for August 1 when the 2022 OzAsia Festival program will be revealed, led by the family-friendly Moon Lantern Trail and foodie-favourite Lucky Dumpling Market, along with a fantastic program of music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature and plenty of topical conversations highlighting Australia’s engagement with Asia.
Until August 5, Behind the Seams: costume designs from Adelaide Festival Centre’s Performing Arts Collection brings together the art of Australia’s best theatre costume designers in the Festival Theatre Galleries. One hundred unique works from thirty outstanding designers including Sainthill, Goodchild, Rowell, Moisewitsch, Moore and Arrighi, spanning four decades of productions by Shakespeare, Molière, Rogers and Hammerstein, Wagner, Britten, and The Australian Ballet, demonstrate in painstaking style the precise process of interpreting characters through stage costume.
Appropriately for winter, Disney’s hit musical Frozen will reign on the Festival Theatre stage in an all new, unforgettable theatrical experience with gorgeous sets and costumes and sensational special effects until July 24. Starring Jemma Rix and Adelaide’s own Courtney Monsma in the two leading roles, it features the songs you know and love plus an expanded score with a dozen new numbers.