ADELAIDE FESTIVAL IN ASSOCIATION WITH STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA PRESENTS SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY’S:
The Secret River
After sell-out seasons around Australia and unanimous critical acclaim, The Secret River, Neil Armfield’s landmark theatrical Sydney Theatre Company production, will make its Adelaide debut at the 2017 Adelaide Festival in an epic new open-air performance staged in the Anstey Hill Quarry, presented in association with State Theatre Company of South Australia. Based on the international best-selling book by Kate Grenville and adapted for the stage by award-winning Adelaide based playwright Andrew Bovell, The Secret River marks Armfield’s and Rachel Healy’s first year as Artistic Directors of the 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 smash hit when it premiered in 2013, earning a rare full house standing ovation on its opening night, 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 earned rave reviews in encore seasons in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
It makes its Adelaide premiere as a key work of Armfield and Healy’s first Adelaide Festival, and is set to be one of the major highlights of the 2017 program. 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 stage and screen legend Bruce Spence (The Cars that Ate Paris, Mad Max II, Finding Nemo, Star Wars) as Loveday. MEDIA RELEASE State Theatre Company South Australia Executive Director Rob Brookman was the Associate Director and Administrator of the Adelaide Festival when the Mahabharata was staged at Anstey Hill Quarry in 1988, and will once again be part of presenting a landmark theatre event for Adelaide. Mr Brookman said: “The presentation of Peter Brook’s two seasons in 1980 and 1988 in an abandoned quarry at Anstey Hill were two of the greatest theatre experiences ever seen in Adelaide. The combination of great theatre, a natural environment, the spectacular space and brilliant acoustic created by a monumental rock wall and warm summer nights was magical. It is an exceptional production that risks comparison with these experiences but The Secret River is one such exception.” Adelaide Festival Co-Artistic Director Rachel Healy says “It’s thrilling to recall Peter Brook’s iconic Mahabharata staged in the quarry adjacent to Anstey Hill, but the opportunity to present a singular Australian story of first contact between black and white in the cradle of this awe-inspiring landscape promises an experience like no other.
It is a privilege to stage this unforgettable production on Kaurna land, and to bring theatre of such power and rich theatrical imagination to Adelaide audiences.” State Theatre Company South Australia Artistic Director Geordie Brookman says: “It’s taken us three years to get this incredible production to Adelaide and we are thrilled to do so in such a unique setting. I’m delighted to bring a production of Neil’s to the Company and to continue our important relationship with one of our great dramatists, Andrew Bovell.” The 2017 Adelaide Festival season of The Secret River promises to be one of the theatre events of the decade. Tickets are on sale now. Sydney Theatre Company’s 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 5 Mar, 7.30pm Tue 7 Mar–Sun 12 Mar, 7.30pm Tue 14 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, on sale Friday 23 September 2016 via BASS 131 246 or adelaidefestival.com.au “. “The best live theatre you may see this year… Unmissable,” ★★★★★ – Herald Sun MEDIA RELEASE “Andrew Bovell’s adaptation is set to become one of the great Australian plays: not another night at the theatre, but something like a civic ritual that enacts the true history of where this society comes from,” – The Sydney Morning Herald “
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