Visually and sonically astounding, hauntingly real.
FC Burgman and Toneelhuis are back at the 2026 Adelaide Festival with Works and Days after last being in Adelaide for Sheep Song in 2023.
Known for their incredibly cinematic and large scale products that tell stories about humans and their interaction with change and their environment.
Sheep Song opens with a flock of live sheep on the stage and weaves a fable about identity and what it means to be human, and what it means to fit in and belong. Strong story telling, high production, and confronting and boundary pushing of these that seem simple on the surface are archetypal FC Burgman. Depending on your openness and willingness to contemplate deep issues can feel anything from borderline weird to confronting and perverse.
I was very excited to hear FC Burgman and Toneelhuis are back for the Adelaide Festival with Works and Days, a production that traces human rituals through revolution and change.
The show opens to actors in greyscale basic heavy wool-like costumes, a large wooden pole, and a chicken. The first scenes show what could have been early farming, agricultural, or almost pagan life. You expect the show to shock and stun and the first example of this was the (faux) killing of a chicken by slamming it on the floor in a hessian bag, it’s blood splattering the stage, before being tied to the belly of a women who may be or is expecting to be pregnant.
Works and Days investigates the eras of human social from farming and agriculture, interaction with nature, and rituals, to steam engine revolution, finishing with the introduction of technology, the internet, and AI. It explores how people persist, adapt, and search for meaning and connection with nature across changing eras.
FC Burgman have amped up the production and show but with a theme that feels a little too real to be humoursly entertaining. Contemplating our human society, interaction with nature, overabundance, expectations and change. Amazingly they are able to do this in such an enthralling and engaging way that encourages deep consideration of these matters but layered with chucky playfulness. The audience giggles as the chicken clucks while sitting on a stage prop.
The production is incredibly cinematic and cleverly uses the whole stage. The opening section is like the film Midsommar in the theme but also the non verbal and highly visual scenes of early pastoral rituals.
The production is equally minimalistic and complex. Simple costumes and score, and scenes, however almost every component that could be used on a stage is employed. The actors plough up the stage to sew and harvest their crop, it rains, and the floor explodes with pineapples.
Of the eight performers, two are musicians who play live music throughout the show. There is no recorded soundtrack and the only words spoken are ‘we are finished’ at the end of the show. To articulate such complex meaning and feeling without spoken word is no less than impressive. At first the music complements or even creates the sounds expected from what is happening on the stage. Slowly it becomes more complex and bold, moving to more of a soundtrack to the performance on the stage. The music for the show is inspired by Vivaldi’s works and at times even uses short themes. Instruments are used in unconventional ways and instruments are even made up or manipulated with things like pipe from a hardware store.
Works and Days is a thought provoking and provocative ingestivation in our human society and leaves you wondering where we are headed. Clever dark humour, powerful imagery, and poetic commentary on our connection and ritualistic practices aligned with the earth leave a lasting impression.
A note to allow plenty of time to get to Festival Theatre after works to revamp the space aren’t totally completed and you may need to walk some distance.
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