Secret River and Miriam Margolyes for Adelaide Festival

Secret River and Miriam Margolyes for Adelaide Festival

Adelaide Festival has announced two more shows from its 2017 program: Neil Armfield's The Secret River in the Anstey Hill Quarry, and Peter and the Wolf starring Miriam Margolyes

The Adelaide premiere of Neil Armfield’s landmark Sydney Theatre Company production of The Secret River will be an epic new open-air performance staged in the Anstey Hill Quarry, presented in association with State Theatre Company of South Australia, and the Adelaide exclusive season of Peter and the Wolf starring Miriam Margolyes with music by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Based on the international best-selling book by Kate Grenville and adapted for the stage by award-winning Adelaide based playwright Andrew Bovell, the multi Helpmann Award winning The Secret River promises to be one of the major highlights of Co-Artistic DirectorArmfield and Rachel Healy’s first Adelaide Festival.

With all-new staging set in the breathtaking natural surrounds of the Anstey Hill Quarry in Tea Tree Gully, this monumental show under the stars will be the first time a major theatrical production has been performed in the quarry since the legendary Mahabharata at the 1988 Adelaide Festival.

Originally produced by Sydney Theatre Company, The Secret River was a sold out hit when it premiered in 2013, followed by seasons at the 2013 Perth Festival and the Canberra Centenary celebrations.

It has since won six Helpmann Awards including Best Direction for Armfield, Best New Australian Work and Best Play, and most recently played encore seasons in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Armfield says The Secret River is one of Australia’s most significant stories.

"The Secret River addresses the contradiction at the heart of our society. It acknowledges truths that have been hidden for generations but have created the country that we live in today. Wherever we have performed this play, there has been a palpable sense in the audience that ‘at last this story is being told’.”

Based on Grenville’s Man Booker Prize and Miles Franklin nominated novel of the same name, The Secret River tells the story of two families divided by culture and land. William Thornhill arrives in New South Wales a convict from the slums of London. This new land seems to offer him something of which he hadn’t dared dream: a place to call his own. On the banks of the Hawkesbury River, he plants a crop and lays claim to the soil in which it grows.

But the Hawkesbury is already home to a family from the Dharug people; a family whose existence depends on that land. As Thornhill’s attachment to the land deepens, he makes a terrible decision.

The production stars Nathaniel Dean (Candy, Somersault, TV’s Anzac Girls, Puberty Blues, Underbelly) as William Thornhill, and Ningali Lawford-Wolf (Last Cab to Darwin, Rabbit Proof Fence) as Dhirrumbin, as well as Bruce Spence (The Cars that Ate Paris, Mad Max II, Finding Nemo, Star Wars) as Loveday.

Miriam Margolyes will make her Adelaide Festival debut with an Adelaide exclusive performance of children's classic Peter and the Wolf, with music by the ASO conducted by Nicholas Carter and direction by Patch Theatre Company Artistic Director Naomi Edwards.

Margolyes will lend her distinctive voice to the role of narrator in Sergei Prokofiev’s timeless Peter and the Wolf, a combination of symphony and storytelling that introduces children to the different instruments of the orchestra through the tale of young Peter and the various animals he meets when he ventures outside his grandfather's garden gate.

With each animal represented by a particular instrument and musical theme, Peter and the Wolf helps children to learn about music and the orchestra in a fun and engaging way.

In part two of the program Margolyes will also narrate Benjamin Britten’s mini-masterpiece The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, a set of stunningly witty vignettes for each instrumental group rounded by a dazzling fugue.

Also featured will be Leoš Janáček‘s operatic tale of love and fantasy The Cunning Little Vixen, and the famous Polovtsian dances from Borodin’s barbarian fairytale Prince Igor.

"Part of the genius of both Britten and Prokofiev was their ability to speak directly to generations of children," Ms Healy said.

"The wit and suspense of Peter and the Wolf and the freshness and fun of Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra derive from clearly etched melody, brightly coloured orchestration and dazzling compositional technique. It’s a joyous introduction to classical music for kids and families."

The Secret River

By Kate Grenville, an adaptation for the stage by Andrew Bovell

Director Neil Armfield
Artistic Associate Stephen Page

Set Designer Stephen Curtis

Costume Designer Tess Schofield

Lighting Designer Mark Howett

Composer Iain Grandage

Sound Designer Steve Francis

Cast includes Georgia Adamson, Joshua Brennan, Shaka Cook, Nathaniel Dean, Frances Djulibing, Jennifer Hagan, Ningali Lawford-Wolf, Bruce Spence and Matthew Sunderland

Previews: Tue 28 Feb – Wed 1 Mar, 7.30pm

Thur 2 Mar–Sun 19 Mar, 7.30pm

The Quarry, Anstey Hill Recreation Park, Perseverance Road, Tea Tree Gully

Duration: 2hrs 50min, including interval

Tickets: $40 - $99

Peter and the Wolf

Saturday 11 March, 2017 – 7.30pm


Sunday 12 March, 2017 – 2.00pm

Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre


Duration: 1hr 30min, including interval

Tickets: $30 - $89

Tickets for both shows via BASS 131 246 or adelaidefestival.com.au

Images: The Secret River - Nathaniel Dean and Ningali Lawford-Wolf - Photographer: Hugh Hartstone, and Miriam Margolyes - Kyte Photography.

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