Review: The Chronicles by Stephanie Lake Company 2026 Adelaide Festival

★★★★★

When the curtain begins to rise on The Chronicles, it does so slowly. Just a thin orange crack of light appears across the stage. It looks like an eyelid opening. The first breath of a life.

Stephanie Lake’s latest work arrives with a strong pedigree. The Melbourne-based choreographer leads one of Australia’s most respected contemporary dance companies. Their catalogue includes acclaimed works such as Colossus, Manifesto and Monsters. With The Chronicles, Lake turns her gaze to something even larger. Life itself. From the womb to the tomb.

Twelve dancers move through this sweeping meditation on human existence. They are joined by composer Robin Fox’s electro-acoustic score. Fox blends driving electronic rhythms with the ethereal voices of the Young Adelaide Voices choir. Baritone Oliver Mann also performs live. The result is a sonic landscape that feels both ancient and futuristic.

The opening image is striking. A dancer lies curled beneath a box suspended above the stage. The shape evokes a crib. The body beneath it rests in a foetal position. The score begins to pulse like a heartbeat. Movement starts small. Barely perceptible. A twitch. A ripple. A breath.

Life gathers momentum.

Soon the stage floods with dancers. They arrive at speed. They gallop in from the wings like wild horses. Lake’s choreography is restless and muscular. Bodies collide. Groups form and dissolve. Soloists emerge only to melt back into the ensemble. Nothing holds still for long. This is a work about transitions. Moments appear and vanish before you can settle into them.

Bosco Shaw’s lighting design marks these shifts with precision. Orange light becomes white. White fades into darkness. Each change feels like another phase of life.

Then the music shifts.

The Young Adelaide Voices choir appear at the rear of the stage. They stand in what looks like a field of grass. Lanterns glow in their hands. They begin Robin Fox’s choral arrangement of the folk song Ah Poor Bird. It feels fragile. Almost sacred.

Onstage, the dancers arrange themselves in a line. They move like dominoes. Pairs form and reform. One coupling becomes another. Relationships emerge and dissolve. It suggests the passage of love, friendship and family across a lifetime.

The children’s choir then enter the stage. They sit in a circle. Their singing becomes playful whooshing sounds and tongue clicks. Around them, the dancers swirl. Packs of adults and children gather. They chatter and drift apart. It feels like the messy, noisy middle of life. Parenthood. Community. The crowded years.

Baritone Oliver Mann’s solo brings a moment of stillness. His voice begins wordlessly. Then it folds into an a cappella version of the Alphaville arrangement of Forever Young.

By now, the stage looks different. A dancer drags a heavy hay bale into the space. Then another appears. And another. The green grass has dried. Life’s experiences now carry weight.

One by one the dancers rip their bales apart. Golden hay fills the air. It swirls through the light like dust in late afternoon sun. Some dancers stand free. Others disappear beneath the weight. The image is beautiful and unsettling. Age brings wisdom. But also burden.

Charles Davis’s set and Harriet Oxley’s costumes keep the visual world clean and elemental. Nothing distracts from the movement. Or the ideas beneath it.

The final moments arrive quietly. A dancer carries another across the stage. They lay the body down. The box that once hovered as a crib lowers again. This time, it becomes a coffin.

Life closes the circle.

What is remarkable about The Chronicles is its precision. Lake’s choreography is complex yet disciplined. Every gesture lands exactly where it should. Ironically, the piece about life’s chaos unfolds with total control.

So much happens that the eye is constantly busy. The stage is always shifting. The work ends almost before you realise how much time has passed. Which feels appropriate. Life rarely warns us when a chapter has closed.

Stephanie Lake proves once again that she is one of Australia’s most compelling choreographers. The Chronicles is ambitious. It is emotionally generous. And it leaves the audience with a simple, unsettling thought.

Our lives are brief. But the dance of them is extraordinary.

The Chronicles is presented by Stephanie Lake Company and runs to 15 March as part of Adelaide Festival. Dunstan Playhouse, Festival Theatre Adelaide SA 5000.

Tickets: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/Show.aspx?sh=CHRONICL26

Website: https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/whats-on/season-2026/the-chronicles

Socials: https://www.instagram.com/adelaidefestival/ and https://www.instagram.com/stephanielakecompany/

Photo credits: Andrew Beveridge