{"id":80475,"date":"2026-08-26T03:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80475\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:05:14","slug":"first-two-productions-announced-for-2027-adelaide-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80475\/","title":{"rendered":"First two productions announced for 2027 Adelaide Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bluebeard'sAdelaide Festival<\/a> has announced two extraordinary works by two of the world\u2019s most acclaimed theatre directors: Romeo Castellucci\u2019s Bluebeard\u2019s Castle<\/a> and Barrie Kosky\u2019s K.<\/a>, the first Adelaide Festival exclusives announced for 2027.<\/p>\n

With previous Festival productions\u00a0Go Down Moses\u00a0(2016) and\u00a0Mozart\u2019s Requiem\u00a0(2020) wowing audiences, Romeo Castellucci\u2019s breathtaking production of B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k\u2019s operatic masterpiece,\u00a0Bluebeard\u2019s Castle, transcends a naturalistic setting with a spectacular water-filled stage lit by flames.<\/p>\n

Castellucci places the audience in the viewpoint of Judith, newlywed to Duke Bluebeard and driven to open the seven forbidden locked doors of their castle. Each new chamber in turn brings an eruption of fire that illuminates both Bluebeard\u2019s secrets and the unfolding layers of Judith\u2019s psyche.<\/p>\n

Lauded for its poetic brilliance after premiering at Salzburg Festival in 2022, this production illuminates why\u00a0Bluebeard\u2019s Castle\u00a0is a 20th\u00a0century operatic cornerstone; from the awe of its orchestration to the power of its vocal writing.<\/p>\n

Barrie Kosky continues his career-long association with Adelaide Festival following a string of spectacular operas including\u00a0Saul\u00a0(2017),\u00a0The Magic Flute\u00a0(2019),\u00a0The Golden Cockerel\u00a0(2022) and\u00a0The Threepenny Opera\u00a0(2024).<\/p>\n

\"KK.\u00a0is his theatrical reimagining of Franz Kafka\u2019s famous novel\u00a0The Trial, a whirlwind of theatre, dance, song and vaudeville delivered by the extraordinary actors of the Berliner Ensemble and a live band.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone must have been telling lies about Josef K, he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning he was arrested\u201d\u2026so begins\u00a0The Trial; a comic yet terrifying tale of Josef K\u2019s blind tumble through totalitarian bureaucracy and an absurd, labyrinthine system of laws that are nearly impossible to navigate.<\/p>\n

Fuelled by Kafka\u2019s exploration of Yiddish theatre and his own Jewishness, Kosky\u2019s chaotically inventive spectacle features German star Kathrin Wehlisch in the title role. Wehlisch\u2019s masterclass in comedy and vaudeville will be the talk of the Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur early release brings together two Adelaide Festival favourites \u2013 Romeo Castellucci and Barrie Kosky \u2013 directors whose work is wildly imaginative and impossible to forget. Just remember the spectacle of Kosky\u2019s Saul\u00a0and Castellucci\u2019s\u00a0Requiem. Now they return with two productions that promise to be equally unmissable,\u201d said Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Matthew Lutton OAM.<\/p>\n

\u201cBluebeard\u2019s Castle is one of the great 20th century operas, and Castellucci\u2019s elemental production unleashes the full power of what visionary opera can be. Kosky transforms\u00a0The Trial\u00a0into an all-singing, all-dancing feverish collision of terror and comedy that only he could conjure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m particularly thrilled that this will be Barrie\u2019s first theatre work in Australia since 2010\u2019s The Tell-Tale Heart. These are audacious, spectacular events: rare, exhilarating, and unlike anything audiences will experience anywhere else in Australia,\u201d said Lutton.<\/p>\n

Bluebeard\u2019s Castle<\/a>\u00a0will be performed at the Festival Theatre from 26 February \u2013 2 March 2027. K.<\/a>\u00a0will be performed at Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre from\u00a04 \u2013 7 March 2027. Tickets are now on sale!<\/p>\n

The 2027 Adelaide Festival runs 26 February \u2013 14 March. The full program will be launched on Tuesday 27 October 2026. For more information, visit: www.adelaidefestival.com.au<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n

Images: Bluebeard\u2019s Castle (Salzburg Festival, 2022) \u2013 photo by Monika Rittershaus | K \u2013 photo by J\u00f6rg Br\u00fcggemann<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide Festival has announced two extraordinary works by two of the world\u2019s most acclaimed theatre directors: Romeo Castellucci\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,1174,1164,1168,1172,1165,1175,260,1163,1171,1169,1170,1173,1166,1177,1167,1162,1176],"class_list":["post-80475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-belvoir","tag-book-of-mormom","tag-destination-nsw","tag-fortyfivedownstairs","tag-kooza","tag-la-boite-theatre","tag-melbourne","tag-meow-meow","tag-midsumma","tag-muck-rack","tag-ngv","tag-opera-australia","tag-publication-media","tag-rocky-horror","tag-the-lion-king","tag-theatre","tag-todd-mckenney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}