Local stories take the spotlight in State Theatre Company South Australia’s 2027 season, with a strong focus on stories from Australian writers and most of those productions making their world premieres.
Announced tonight at Her Majesty’s Theatre by State Theatre Company South Australia’s Artistic Director Petra Kalive, the season is an epic journey with stories that echo through time, inviting audiences to immerse themselves in bold new theatrical drama, comedy and reimagined classics featuring familiar faces and brilliant new talent.
Starting with a gripping retelling of one of the world’s oldest stories, the season also features a revisit of an Australian classic and world premiere book adaptation.
Artistic Director Petra Kalive said:
“Out of eight plays, six new Australian works anchor this season: two State Theatre Company commissions, two brilliant new works from award-winning artists and two exciting SPARK productions.
There were new international works and classics in our early conversations, but as the season took shape, we kept choosing the stories that spoke most profoundly to the world we’re living in now – and they turned out to be mostly written by Australians. That tells you something about the state of Australian writing, and I find it thrilling. These are Australian stories – and stories that echo through time.
Many of the plays in the season use the classics or history to help us understand the world we live in now. They are multifaceted, complex and sometimes contradictory, and that’s exactly what this season celebrates.”
In season opener An Iliad, Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s acclaimed and dynamic adaptation transforms Homer’s Ancient Greek saga of heroes, gods and battles into an urgent and personal exploration of difference, disagreement and the devastation of war.
Starring iconic Australian film, television and theatre actor David Wenham with live music from Helen Svoboda, this is a rare opportunity to experience Wenham’s magnetic performance up close.
In February, one of Australia’s most enthralling actors, Margaret J Harvey, returns to the stage for the first time in over 10 years with a powerful contemporary solo work, The Dark Matter of Usulal. Grounded in the living cosmologies of Saibai Island and exploring the body as a carrier of story, this celebration of femininity uses performance, sound, movement and digital imagery to honour the stories of those who came before.
In April, more than 10 years since it was last performed at the Company and more than 70 years since its premiere changed Australian theatre forever, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll comes to the Dunstan Playhouse under the direction of Petra Kalive.
Starring Anna Lindner (The Importance of Being Earnest), Nathan Page (My Brilliant Career), Allycia Angeles (Kimberley Akimbo) and Kate Cheel (Commentary), this all-Adelaide production is set to remind audiences why Ray Lawler’s classic remains one of the country’s most enduring plays.
World premieres round out the remainder of the season, including Evil Hour by James Smith and Snappy by Michele Lee in July and August.
Smith, best known for his work as an actor (The Dictionary of Lost Words, Jack Maggs and Euphoria), makes his State Theatre Company South Australia playwriting debut with Evil Hour, a gripping new Australian gothic drama inspired by South Australian history and women who have been forgotten.
In August, the Company partners with Griffin Theatre for the premiere of Snappy, Michele Lee’s sharp new tragi-comedy and reimagining of Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House. A play about the mental load, motherhood, friends, strangers and keeping it all together, this is a bold new play from the winner of the 2025 Griffin Award.
Award-winning bestseller, The Bookbinder of Jericho, from bestselling South Australian author Pip Williams, then hits the stage in September in a world-first adaptation of the beloved novel.
The co-production from State Theatre Company South Australia, Sydney Theatre Company and Arts Centre Melbourne has been adapted for the stage by South Australian playwright Verity Laughton, who brought the vivid world of the Ruby Award-winning The Dictionary of Lost Words to the stage for two sell-out seasons in Adelaide and nationally in 2024 and 2025.
A companion piece to Williams’ international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, The Bookbinder of Jericho is set in 19th Century Oxford, this time from the viewpoint of Peggy, twin sister to Maude (played by new Adelaide talent Billie-Rose Russell). The work also stars Melissa Kahraman and Ksenja Logos (The Dictionary of Lost Words) under the direction of Shannon Rush.
The SPARK program returns to Adelaide College of the Arts with two South Australian plays Squid and A Guide to Success in the Workplace. In its second year, SPARK continues to be a space for fearless, unfiltered, electric theatre from local independent theatre makers.
A Guide to Success in the Workplace, a twisted ‘horror musical’ about toxic workplace culture from the mind of multidisciplinary performer Taylor Nobes, comes to the Main Theatre in July under the direction of Shannon Rush and starring local talents Luke Bria, Eddie Morrison, Adam Ovadia and Astrid Pill alongside Nobes.
In September, Luke Wiltshire (ABC’s Homebodies) brings his autobiographical story of transitioning, Squid, to the stage under the direction of Stephen Nicolazzo. A one-man play with warmth, humour and remarkable honesty, Squid transforms a profoundly personal story into a celebration of resilience and self-discovery.
2027 Season Overview
An Iliad
29 JAN – 18 FEB DUNSTAN PLAYHOUSE
By Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare
Adapted from Homer’s Iliad
Translated by Robert Fagles
A wry, witty and world-weary poet steps forward to recount the myth of the Trojan War, cursed to retell humanity’s greatest conflict until we finally learn to overcome our appetite for violence and destruction.
After millennia wandering battlefields, trenches and ruined cities, he has reached breaking point. Tonight, he wants the story to end. Following its sold-out season at Sydney Theatre Company, award-winning international star David Wenham returns to this extraordinary role in this critically admired adaptation of Homer’s epic.
Ancient myth collides with the modern world in a powerful, deeply personal meditation on conflict, compassion and what it means to remain human. Directed by Damien Ryan (Artistic Director, Sport for Jove) and accompanied live on stage by musician Helen Svoboda, this is a rare opportunity to experience Wenham’s magnetic performance up close. Hailed by Time Out New York as “shocking, glorious, primal and deeply satisfying,” An Iliad is an unforgettable theatrical event and a stirring call for empathy in a world still at war.
DIRECTOR Damien Ryan DESIGNER Charles Davis LIGHTING DESIGNER Alexander Berlage SOUND DESIGNER Brady Watkins ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Ian Michael GREEK LANGUAGE CONSULTANT Deborah Galanos ILLUSIONS & MAGIC CONSULTANT Adam Mada VOICE & TEXT DIRECTOR Charmian Gradwell ILLUSIONS & MAGIC ASSOCIATE Bruce Glen WITH David Wenham MUSICIAN Helen Svoboda
STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN ASSOCIATION WITH ADELAIDE FESTIVAL PRESENTS
The Dark Matter of Usulal
19 FEB – 6 MAR ODEON THEATRE
By Margaret J Harvey
One of Australia’s most enthralling actors, Margaret J Harvey, returns to the stage for the first time in over 10 years, with an intimate and visually arresting solo performance.
WOMXN is unravelling. As the life she knows begins to slip away, whispers from her ancestors call her towards something she cannot yet understand. Searching for something to hold on to, WOMXN is drawn into a vast, living realm where memory, spirit and the cosmos become one. Grounded in the living cosmologies of Saibai Island, The Dark Matter of Usulal takes us on an extraordinary journey through the stories and knowledge of those who came before.
Part intimate journey, part cosmic awakening, The Dark Matter of Usulal connects us to an unknown ancient story to make sense of the world we find ourselves in. Through performance, sound, movement and digital imagery, The Dark Matter of Usulal asks what holds when the ground shifts, and what continues long after the ending has already been declared.
CREATOR, DIRECTOR & PERFORMER Margaret J Harvey FEATURING THE VOICE OF Zey Harvey-Connellan ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR & DRAMATURG Danielle Micich DIGITAL VISUAL DESIGN Desmond Connellan LIGHTING & SPATIAL DESIGN Jenny Hector SOUND/COMPOSITION DESIGN Marco Cher-Gibard STAGE & PRODUCTION MANAGER Genevieve Davidson
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
16 APR – 8 MAY DUNSTAN PLAYHOUSE
By Ray Lawler
Tender, funny and heartbreakingly honest, Ray Lawler’s astonishingly modern masterpiece remains one of the country’s most enduring plays – not because it belongs to the past, but because it captures the universal ache of watching life change before you’re ready.
The Australian classic that changed theatre forever returns to the Adelaide stage under the insightful direction of Artistic Director, Petra Kalive. More than 70 years after its groundbreaking premiere, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll continues to move audiences with its unforgettable portrait of love, friendship and the passing of time.
For sixteen summers, cane cutters Roo and Barney have escaped the backbreaking grind of Queensland’s sugarcane harvest for Melbourne, where love and laughter have made the world feel possible year after year. But when they return for their seventeenth summer, the friendships and rituals that once defined them crack under the weight of time.
DIRECTOR Petra Kalive SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER Kathryn Sproul LIGHTING DESIGNER Gavin Norris CAST Allycia Angeles, Kate Cheel, Anna Lindner, Nathan Page.
SPARK PROGRAM (SHOW 1)
STARLO PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
A Guide to Success in the Workplace
8 – 17 JULY MAIN THEATRE, ADELAIDE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
By Taylor Nobes
A Guide To Success In The Workplace is a riotous collision of horror, satire, and bloody catharsis. It’s for anyone carrying a secret fantasy of getting back at those who mistreated them. Come for the show tunes, stay for the vengeance.
A hilarious horror musical about power, complicity, and the lengths people will go to cover up bad behaviour – even the ones in HR. It’s Sarah’s second week at the office. She made the mistake of boarding Trevor’s E-scooter after last Happy Hour. It’s a bad time for Sarah to talk about what happened that night because today’s Fun Sock Day, the Empathy Seminar is this afternoon, and there’s another Happy Hour tonight!
When Sarah is left carrying the cost of the company motto, Good Only Counts If People See You Doing It, she has only one choice: to take matters into her own hands… This new South Australian play with original songs is about what happens when every door marked ‘safe’ turns out to be locked from the inside. When everyone you ask for help does everything but listen, you will surely go mad, right? See you at Happy Hour, Trev.
DIRECTOR Shannon Rush DRAMATURG/ PRODUCTION MENTOR Elena Carapetis SET & COSTUME DESIGN Shani Engelbrecht LIGHTING DESIGNER/ TECH OPERATOR Ellen Demaagd CAST Luke Bria, Eddie Morrison, Taylor Nobes, Adam Ovadia, Astrid Pill.
STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN ASSOCIATION WITH VITALSTATISTIX PRESENT
Evil Hour
9 – 24 JULY SPACE THEATRE
By James Smith
Some secrets refuse to stay buried… South Australia. 1850. Lillian Oliver has built her life on faith, obedience and the certainty that God has a plan. But when a young woman fleeing violence arrives at her door, the foundations of everything she believes begin to crack.
As forgotten histories resurface and strange forces gather around her, Lillian is drawn towards a hidden legacy of women’s knowledge, one whispered through generations but condemned as dangerous. With every revelation, the boundaries between the sacred and the supernatural begin to blur, forcing her to confront the truth about her marriage, her family and herself.
Evil Hour is a gripping new Australian gothic drama inspired by South Australian history and steeped in suspense. James Smith, best known for his work as an actor (The Dictionary of Lost Words, Jack Maggs and Euphoria), makes his State Theatre Company South Australia playwriting debut with a thrilling story where faith collides with fear, myth intertwines with memory, and women who were once silenced finally reclaim their voices.
DIRECTOR Nescha Jelk DESIGNER Ailsa Paterson LIGHTING DESIGNER Nic Mollison CAST Elizabeth Hay, Annabel Matheson.
STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY PRESENT
Snappy
6 – 28 AUG DUNSTAN PLAYHOUSE
By Michele Lee
Wildly funny, deeply moving and startlingly original, Snappy is a razor-sharp new comedy about impossible expectations and the quiet breaking point we all pretend isn’t there.
Nina used to be the master of her own design. Controlled. Controlling. Perfect. But when the illusion shatters, she wakes up in a life she doesn’t recognise, inhabiting a self she no longer knows. The cracks in her reality are widening. Time is bending, identity is blurring, and the carefully ordered existence she built is transforming into something strange, lawless, and beautiful.
Winner of the 2025 Griffin Theatre Award, Michele Lee’s reimagining of Ibsen’s classic, A Doll’s House is equal parts funny and tragic. Snappy is about what it costs to build a good life. It’s about the mental load that accumulates, the friendships that hold us and the strangers who reflect us back to ourselves.
It’s about fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, artists, accountants, the people who love us and the people we become. What does it cost to come back to yourself? Because sometimes, holding it together is the most dangerous performance of all.
DIRECTOR Petra Kalive CAST Rishab Kern
STATE THEATRE COMPANY SOUTH AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY AND ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE PRESENT
The Bookbinder of Jericho
24 SEP — 16 OCT DUNSTAN PLAYHOUSE
Adapted by Verity Laughton From the novel by Pip Williams
Following the triumph of sold-out national tours of The Dictionary of Lost Words, the acclaimed creative team returns with The Bookbinder of Jericho, based on Pip Williams’ internationally bestselling companion novel.
In 1914 in Oxford, England, as war redraws the world, Peggy and Maude Jones continue stitching pages, repairing spines and preserving stories – while their own lives begin to unravel. Peggy dreams of something more. More than the bindery. More than the narrow life expected of a working-class woman. But ambition comes at a cost, and leaving behind the sister who depends on her may be the hardest choice she’ll ever make.
As the war rages on, refugees arrive, old certainties collapse and new possibilities emerge. Peggy is forced to decide whether duty will define her life – or whether she’ll finally dare to write her own story. Filled with music, poetry and unforgettable characters, this powerful historical drama explores sisterhood, ambition, sacrifice and the enduring power of words. The Bookbinder of Jericho is a celebration of the women whose stories history almost forgot.
DIRECTOR Shannon Rush SET & COSTUME DESIGNER Ailsa Paterson SOUND DESIGNER Max Lyandvert CAST Melissa Kahraman, Ksenja Logos, Billie-Rose Russell.
SPARK PROGRAM (SHOW 2)
Squid
30 SEP — 9 OCT X SPACE, ADELAIDE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
By Luke Wiltshire
How can you move forward if you’re too scared to look back?
Luke finds himself at a crossroads, stuck between who he wants to be and who he really is. With nowhere left to turn, Luke must finally face who he’s been avoiding, his younger pre-transition self, Squid. From playgrounds in regional Queensland, to public schools in Adelaide, Luke and Squid revisit first crushes, terrible kisses and the nagging feeling that something isn’t quite right.
As Luke remembers what it was like to be Squid, he faces a choice – accept that Squid will always be a part of him or leave that person behind and chase finally fitting in. Squid is a heartfelt autobiographical play about identity, belonging and the courage it takes to finally embrace yourself.
A one-man play with warmth, humour and remarkable honesty, Squid transforms a profoundly personal story into a celebration of resilience and self-discovery. A play about learning to love yourself, because it’s never really that simple.
DIRECTOR Stephen Nicolazzo WRITER & PERFORMER Luke Wiltshire DRAMATURGY Emily Steel
Subscriptions to State Theatre Company South Australia’s 2027 season are now on sale at the website.
Website: https://statetheatrecompany.com.au/season-2027/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/statetheatresa/
Hero image: Artistic Director Petra Kalive and Executive Director Kath Fyffe.
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