Adelaide Festival of Arts 2016 –
February 26 – March 14 2016
An interview with outgoing Adelaide
Festival Director – David Sefton
By Peter Wilkins
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| Group F's A Fleur de Peau. Photograph by Daniel Roblin |
Epic is the word that springs to
mind when describing the 2016 Adelaide Festival Programme. Unlike its companion,
the open access Adelaide Fringe with its smorgasbord of tasty theatrical
morsels, the2016 Adelaide Festival, envisioned by departing Artistic Director,
David Sefton, offers a sumptuous banquet of carefully curated theatre, music,
dance, spectacular events and the Adelaide Writers Week. For three weeks visitors to the Festival State
will be treated to local and international
world class performances.
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| Pina Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal in NELKEN Photograph by Oliver Look |
“It’s taken me four to five years
to pull off the likes of getting Pina Bausch back and bringing Romeo
Castellucci back to Australia. These have all been conversations that virtually
started the moment I walked in the door. These are very much things that I
wanted to have associated with my watch.” This is Sefton’s fourth and final
Adelaide Festival before he hands over the reins to acclaimed theatre director,
Neil Armfield and renowned arts administrator Rachel Healey. For the first time
in the festival’s history, the Adelaide Festival will be led by two Artistic
Directors, which is a reflection of the great work done by Sefton and his
predecessors and the stature of this internationally acclaimed festival.
“Bausch and Castelluci are names
that you really want for your festival’, Sefton says. “These are the best names
out there. Pina Bausch’s company will be presenting NELKEN (
Carnations), from the famous Tanztheater Wuppertal. Created before her
death in 2011, NELKEN will have its exclusive
Australian premiere in Adelaide. “A stage carpeted in a spectacular field of silk
carnations is the stunning playground
for twenty of the world’s best dancers and spliced with theatre, plenty
of humour and trademark bold imagery.”
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| GO DOWN, MOSES by Romeo Castellucci Societas Raffaello Sanzio. Photo: Guido Mencari |
Romeo Castelluci’s GO DOWN MOSES from his Societas
Raffaello Sanzio explores existential doubtsoand uncertainties from the Old
Testament Book of Exodus. “Castellucci is absolutely unmissable. He is the
master of contemporary theatre. He can upset people because he has a very
uncompromising stance to what he’s saying. It is profoundly intellectual,
profoundly challenging. This guy is a very big deal. He is one of the greats
and makes work just like nobody else.”
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| The James Plays from the National Theatre of Scotland and the National Theatre of Great Britain. Andrew Rothney as James ll. Photo Manuel Harlan |
“I very consciously set out to
return to the epic” Sefton tells me. Last year Adelaide audiences were treated
to the six hour long Roman Tragedies,
by Dutch company Toneelgroep Amsterdam. This year the National Theatre of
Scotland and the National Theatre of Great Britain will collaborate on THE
JAMES PLAYS, first performed at the Edinburgh International Festival and
stretching over ten hours with a dinner break. Rona Munro’s new historical trilogy
of the reigns of James l, ll and lll of Scotland will also be an Adelaide Festival
exclusive. “The James Plays are more than seven hours of gripping, historical,
political intrigue, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality.”
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| THE JAMES PLAYS from the UK. Photo: Manuel Harlan |
“I keep urging people, including
my dentist, to see it on the same day, because there is nothing like it to
engage with the plays over one session.”
“I’m a very firm believer that a
festival has to provide things that aren’t there for the rest of the year.”
Sefton says. “For example, the Adelaide Festival is very well known for opera
in the 1960s when Adelaide didn’t have a State Opera. If I did opera, it wouldn’t
be a conventional opera. There are people who would have liked me to do a Traviata, and will be sorely disappointed
because I had no intention of doing one.”
He has worked with the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra, but that has been on entirely new projects, and this year
they will be playing with TECTONICS
who will be making a return to the festival
and curated and conducted by Ilan Volkov. This will be a spectacular two
day programme, showcasing new theatrical work with a stunning array of
collaborators including The Necks and Phil Niblock.
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| TECTONICS. Curated and conducted by Ilan Volkov |
“The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
would never in a million years be able to programme TECTONICS in one solid block and have an audience come to that
because it’s just not in the realm of a standard orchestra to take those risks.
So the festival has been able to step in and do that, and that is one of my
great successes.”
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| Slingsby's production of Oscar Wilde's THE YOUNG KING Image: Andy Ellis |
Leading local exponents of their
art form have also been included in the programme. Slingsby, under the
direction of Andy Packer will be presenting Oscar Wilde’s THE YOUNG KING for young audiences and State Theatre of South
Australia, Belvoir and Malthouse Theatre will present David Greig’s award
winning play, THE EVENTS, featuring
Catherine McClements. Garry Stewart’s Australian Dance Theatre will present HABITUS, using sofas, ironing boards,
kitchen drawers and an avalanche of books to comment on the complexity of a
living ecosystem.
“I always like to think that the
presence of a festival here is because of so many local companies. I do feel
that the festival is partly responsible for that. The education is good here
and the training is good. I feel that I can shine a light on that going out of
the door and say ‘Look what is going on here’. This is work that deserves to be
seen in a major festival.”
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| Catherine McClement's in THE EVENTS State Theatre of South Australia, Belvoir and Malthouse Theatre. Photo: Kris Washusen |
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| Garry Stewart's Australian Dance Theatre in HABITUS. Photo: Chris Herzfeld |
I ask David Sefton the impossible
– to name the highlights. He pauses and then offers a couple of tips.
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| GOLEM from London's The Young Vic Photo: Bernhard Mueller |
“GOLEM is a real winner. It’s not a family show by any means. It is
the most successful show by The Young Vic from Great Britain. The have a
completely original take on the use of the stage. You have to see it to
understand it. It looks kind of low tech and a bit jokey but actually it takes a
great amount of artistry, dedication and skill to look like that. They have
this stage aesthetic, which is a little punk rock and a little bit tongue in
cheek but when you unpick it it’s incredibly sophisticated. And very, very
clever. I love what they do and this is by far the very best thing that they
have done. It’s absolutely to be see. You won’t see anything like it.”
And the most epic event in this
epic festival? The tone of a festival is always set by its opening, and this
time Sefton has secured the return of Group F from France to stage their
pyrotechnic extravaganza, A FLEUR DE PEAU, for the first time on
Adelaide’s recently modernized oval. “The company has evolved so much since
they were first here in the 80s”, Sefton says. “It was more a straight
fireworks show. Now it’s a massive multimedia and pyrotechnic show, so far
removed from where they started and it’s great to be going into the oval. It’s
the best and fastest selling show in the festival.”
“One of the great things about
the Adelaide Festival is that it does have an audience that does understand
what a festival does. And it’s an audience that always asks ‘What’s the
challenging gig? What must I see that will confront me?’ and I love the fact
that the city embraces the festival so heartily. It makes the job so much
easier and a pleasure to do.”
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| MAGIC OBJECT Adelaide 2016 Biennial |
Audiences to Sefton’s fourth and
final festival will have 30 theatre, music, dance and visual arts events to
choose from alongside Adelaide Writers’ Week. The line-up includes seven world
premieres, 21 Australian premieres and 20 events excusive to Adelaide over 18 days
from February 26 to March 14 2016. I ask Sefton what it will be that he leaves
with after his fourth largest and most epic festival.
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| Adelaide Writers' Week 2016 |
“I’m leaving with a sense of what
a proper festival feels like. I’ve worked in very large cities, and I’ve done
Festival type programming before, but this is the first time I’ve run a
festival that has a relationship with the city that is a kind of ideal one. You
can’t miss the festival and everyone knows about it. I take away what that
feels like. It’s what a proper festival should feel like.”
Adelaide Festival 2016
February 26 – March 14 2016
For further information and
bookings go to:
