Green Room: State Opera’s fairytale jubilee, ‘short answer is no’ on Tarrkarri
South Australian arts and culture news in brief.
State Opera goes Into the Woods for Jubilee program
When it rains it pours, and October was a month of back-to-back 2026 program announcements from across the South Australian arts landscape. But we’d be remiss not to mention State Opera South Australia, who have also unveiled their spread for the company’s 50th-anniversary year.
That includes the return of former Adelaide Festival artistic director Neil Armfield to helm a production of Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola (known to her friends and stepsisters as Cinderella). Set to run at Her Majesty’s Theatre from May 7 – 16, it will feature with mezzo soprano Anna Downsley donning the glass slipper alongside Teddy Tahu Rhodes.
Local Sondheim-heads will also be treated to the Tony-winning musical Into the Woods in August, with Adelaide’s own Hugh Sheridan donning the apron in the lead role of The Baker. The show will run from August 22 to 29, as State Opera turns Her Majesty’s into a South Australia’s fairytale heartland with a family-friendly production of Constantine Costi’s Hansel and Gretel running on alternate dates at the same venue.
“Anniversaries are not just about the past,” State Opera artistic director Dane Lame says of the milestone year. “They are about asking what opera should mean for the next fifty years. For me, the answer is simple: opera must be without borders. From Mozart’s grand tour to Joan Sutherland on the world’s stages, opera has always crossed boundaries. And so must we.”
Visit the State Opera South Australia website for the full program, including a Golden Jubilee Gala Dinner that’s still to be announced.
Samstag names 2026 scholarship recipients
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Yuriyal Bridgeman (Papua New Guinea/Queensland), Teresa Busuttil (South Australia) and EJ Son (New South Wales) have been revealed as the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship recipients for 2026.
The long-running program supports artists to pursue studies at international arts institutions, stumping up fees for one academic year along with travel expenses and a tax-free(!) $75,000 allowance.
This year’s crop was selected by Samstag director Erica Green, along with celebrated visual artist Nell and Stephen Atkinson, program director, contemporary art, at the University of South Australia.
“All three artists demonstrated a strong understanding of where their practice was currently situated, the direction they hoped to take, and how their proposed program of study would assist the development of their practice,” Green says.
“This will be a turning point for each of the artists – the consolidation of their practice to date and the beginning of a new chapter,” adds Nell.
Bridgeman will use his scholarship to travel to Germany to access some of the largest collections of Papua New Guinea cultural material outside the region, while Busuttil will visit Portugal to engage with the Mediterranean perspectives and inheritances of her Maltese family tree. Son, who was among the finalists in this year’s Ramsay Art Prize, will complete a Master of Fine Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Local artists in pole position
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For decades South Australia’s ubiquitous concrete-and-steel Stobie poles have provided a roadside canvas for artists of every stripe, with occasionally controversial results.
Last week the Helpmann Academy unveiled twelve new additions to the Stobie art canon, with a street’s worth of new works from three emerging artists – Tieyuan (Vivian) Zhou, Crista Bradshaw, and Ange De Palma.
Since launching in 2022 this collaborative project between SA Power Networks and the Helpmann Academy has brought works by 15 artists to poles around the state. As part of this year’s program, the three selected artists spent time working with multi-disciplinary artist Christine Cholewa to develop their concepts.
“With this project it was really important that it be community based, with the local community in mind,” de Palma says of the experience. “A lot of the work talks about connection, people, and housing. It also reflects the shapes of the blocks and the streets that are around this area. The people of Thebby love their post code so they can now take a photo of themselves next to their post code with The Wheaty in the background.”
Find out more about the project here.
Tarrkarri question gets short answer
And in decidedly un-breaking news, at the press conference announcing the 2026 Adelaide Festival program late last month, InReview had to ask Premier Peter Malinauskas for an update on Tarrkarri, the long-mooted Aboriginal Culture Centre on North Terrace. It had, after all, been almost exactly six months since he told us “The Tarrkarri dream for us is still alive” while announcing the new state cultural policy back in March.
The multimillion-dollar project, which was officially paused following concerns over a cost blowout, was once slated to open this year. Upon hearing the Premier speak this time around, it seemed even a term like ‘dream’ might be too optimistic.
“The short answer is no,” the Premier said. “Tarrkarri continues to remain something the government is engaged in as an opportunity. We do need to see a funding contribution from other sources – federal government, and we’re open to private philanthropy as well – in order to unlock the big picture opportunity. But no.”
InReview has pencilled in our next six-monthly check in for… after the March 2026 State Election.
Green Room is a regular column for InReview, providing quick news for people interested, or involved, in South Australian arts and culture. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]