Despite a chaotic lead-up to this year’s Adelaide Festival – in which Writers’ Week was cancelled, most of the festival board resigned, and a shadow of uncertainty was cast over the event – the city is heaving with people, the sun is shining and there is an air of expectation.
Britpop veterans Pulp performed to a rapturous crowd on opening night, and halfway through the 17-day festival, ticket sales are “tracking the same as in previous years”, according to its PR. Parallel to the main program (February 28 to March 5) is guerilla event Constellations: Not Writers’ Week .
Coda Bar, the official Adelaide Festival bar, on opening night. Saige Prime Matthew Lutton made his debut as director of the internationally acclaimed event in its 41st year, and he could not be happier. His ambitious vision is to create more large international co-productions. If there is an amazing singer in Iceland you want to write music, or a choreographer in Japan you’re keen to work with, Lutton wants to make that happen.
“Adelaide Festival [is] an international festival, and part of that is [developing] international relationships,” he says. “I really want to try and be a platform or springboard for those sorts of amazing collaborations.”
Sadly, local artists are encouraged to think smaller and smaller, Lutton says. That’s part of why we have seen the proliferation of one-woman shows such as Prima Facie and, under Lutton’s earlier tenure at Melbourne’s Malthouse theatre, Wake in Fright. While they are fantastic, there is a significant economy involved.
“It’s upsetting that you hear artists always thinking, ‘How can I make it smaller?’” Lutton says. “Let’s think the opposite: what’s the really big idea?”
Pulp perform at the Adelaide Festival opening night. Andrew Beveridge His large-scale thinking is already on clear display. Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, directed by renown
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