2012 Adelaide Festival Theatre Program.

The program for the 2012 Adelaide Festival, from March 2 – 18, has been announced, including an extensive range of international and local theatre. 2012 marks the move for the Adelaide Festival from bi-annual to annual event. The Odéon – Théâtre De L’Europe production of A Streetcar, starring Isabelle Huppert and the Liverpool Everyman production of Pinter’s The Caretaker, starring Jonathan Pryce, are among the exclusive international theatrical highlights.

HARD TO BE A GOD

Australian Premiere / Exclusive to Adelaide. From Hungary.

A production that is challenging, confronting about the sex trade.

Two trucks stand stationary at the side of a road. Goods are being exchanged: a small group of young women destined for a sickening, hellish end. Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó fashions human trafficking, pornography and sects into gruelling, extreme theatre. This explosive piece lurches between deep depravity and disturbing tenderness, challenging audiences to judge for themselves what is right and what is wrong in a small, psychotic world.

This production is one that you simply must see. It is a powerful portrayal of a horrible world that Mundruczó and his cast present in such a way that despite all your reservations you stay there and see it through. Fear, manipulation, dependency, hope, misfortune, indifference and stupidity have a shock effect, in places downright infuriating, but at every moment authentic. (...) All this, what is more, we can see in a performance by a wonderful cast. (Volkskrant – Holland)

A Streetcar 

Odéon – Théâtre De L’Europe.

Australian Premiere / Exclusive to Adelaide. Starring Isabelle Huppert. From France

There was theatre before Krzysztof Warlikowski – and then there is theatre after Krzysztof Warlikowski. Europe’s great avant-garde director, Warlikowski, and one of Canada’s finest theatre-makers, Wajdi Mouawad, put a controversial 21st century spin on Tennessee Williams' much-loved American masterpiece. The result: a production that divided Paris. At the centre of the maelstrom is France’s most enduring and respected film actress, Isabelle Huppert, who takes to the stage for the famous Odéon - Théâtre de L’ Europe in a brave and haunting performance. This is Streetcar like you’ve never seen before and unlikely to see again. Find out what all the fuss is about.

RAOUL 

James Thiérrée - La Compagnie Du Hanneton

Australian Premiere Season. From France

Umbrellas become jellyfish, clothes take on a mind of their own, ghost-like elephants wander and candles won’t snuff in James Thiérrée’s world of endless invention.

One of Europe’s most versatile artists, the acrobat, clown, poet and magician uses his impish talent and extraordinary physical prowess to transform everyday objects into magical dream-like spectacles that captivate, charm and inspire. In this mesmerising new large-scale solo show, Thiérrée is raoul, a man without beginning or end, who tumbles through a series of utopian fantasies where acrobatics, mysterious transformations, music and dance collide – a world which is at once recognisable and yet utterly alien.

Charlie Chaplin's grandson (he hates being referenced as that) and last in Australia at Sydney Festival 

THE CARETAKER

By Harold Pinter / Starring Jonathan Pryce.

A Liverpool Everyman Production. Australian Premiere / Exclusive to Adelaide 

 “It’s about two brothers and a caretaker,” Harold Pinter said simply of his early masterwork The Caretaker. More than 50 years since the play’s debut, West End powerhouse Jonathan Pryce is the definitive Caretaker in a “near flawless production” endorsed by the late Pinter.

After captivating London with rave reviews and sell-out performances, Pryce makes his Australian debut in a production remounted exclusively for Adelaide Festival before its San Francisco and New York tour. Don’t miss legendary film and stage actor Pryce in one of the 20th century’s most important and compelling plays.

WATER STAINS ON THE WALL

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

Australian Premiere / Exclusive to Adelaide

A giant sheet of traditional calligrapher’s rice paper is unfurled, brushes are drawn and ink is uncapped. With a control and articulation verging on the superhuman, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s performers bring the beauty of calligraphy to life.

One of the finest dance companies in the world, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan rises to the challenge set by lauded choreographer Lin Hwai-min, dancing on a rice paper inspired platform tilted at eight degrees. Dancers seem to hover as they jump and spin with movement reflecting the virtuosity of chi kung, internal martial arts, contemporary dance and meditation. Inspired, Lin and dancers create an abstract work of beauty and magic that stands sublimely on its own.

I AM NOT AN ANIMAL

The Border Project. World Premiere. From Australia.

Humanity is defined by its desire to transcend its animal nature. Yet our animal instincts still govern much of human behaviour. Following a sold out debut at the 2010 Adelaide Festival with Vs Macbeth, The Border Project returns with a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration with Adelaide Zoo.

I Am Not An Animal takes the Zoo we know and transforms it into an extraordinary performance installation. For the first time, the animals themselves become the subjects in a work of art, engaging with built objects, environments and human co-performers.

From the whispers of an intimate guided tour to large scale visual and sound installations, travel through a Zoo you have never seen before.

BLOODLAND

A Sydney Theatre Company in association with Adelaide Festival and Bangarra Dance Company. From Australia.

In an expanse of red dust pounded by the hot Arnhem Land sun, a telegraph pole protrudes from the earth; a symbol of the scar that the modern world has left on an ancient community.

This is Cherish’s place. This is where she hides away from the real world, speaks to imagined friends and is visited by the ghosts of relatives long gone. Then, on a day like any other, Cherish unearths the body of a dead boy, opening fresh wounds within an already torn community.

Featuring an Indigenous cast of 12 including established urban actors as well as traditional Yolngu storytellers, the production fuses traditional languages and Pidgin English as well as dance and song to tell the story. Bloodland promises to be a unique work of scale and significance.

THE HAM FUNERAL

By Patrick White. From Australia.

A young poet moves into a squalid rooming house run by Mr and Mrs Lusty, a bloated, gluttonous pair. When her husband dies abruptly, Mrs Lusty announces a grand funeral featuring a lavish feast, “an ‘am funeral”, in his honour.  Driven by her incontinent appetite, she attempts to seduce the young poet, with comically tragic consequences.

Part vaudeville, part lyric poem, and part gothic drama, The Ham funeral now enjoys legendary status as one of the most intriguingly original plays in Australian theatre history.

SCHOOL DANCE

Windmill Theatre. From Australia

This is a story of three teenage boys. They’re going to the school dance. They’re on a mission. But they are losers. These are the awkward kids. The invisible teens. Fuelled by a diet of raging hormones and mee goreng noodles, they exist in a misfit realm, navigating complex waters with little success.

With a unique performative voice, this is a highly personal work that, just like its central protagonists, is funny, sad, scary, weird, really stupid, endearing and repulsive.

Adelaide Festival 2012 runs from March 2 – 18, 2012. More details www.adelaidefestival.com.au

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