Green Room: Beetlejuice Adelaide-bound | Flickerfest’s local showcase | Sidney Nolan’s ‘Adelaide Ladies’
South Australian arts and culture news in brief.
Jump in the line – Beetlejuice is coming to Adelaide
It’s been a challenging year for musical theatre in Australia, but Beetlejuice is one production that refuses to die. With music and lyrics by Australian comedian Eddie Perfect, the Tony-nominated adaptation of the spooky Tim Burton classic will make its way to Adelaide on October 10 – just missing Halloween – as it nears the end of a lengthy Australian season.
The Australian production – which opened in Melbourne in May 2025 with Perfect himself in the title role made famous onscreen by Michael Keaton – will open at the Festival Theatre following runs in Brisbane in June, Perth in August, and finally finishing up in Sydney in November.
Leading the cast will be American actor and Broadway regular Andy Karl, whose credits including originating the lead role in the Tim Minchin-penned Groundhog Day: The Musical, which he also toured to Australia. Karis Oka will join him as Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz, reprising the role she started last year opposite Perfect. Adelaide audiences might remember Oka from her starring role in Fangirls: the musical at the 2021 Adelaide Festival.
Tickets go on sale in May.
Flickerfest hits the road
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Long-running short film festival Flickerfest is heading back to Adelaide this weekend to showcase its latest crop of short-form storytelling from around the world. After celebrating its 35th year at Bondi in January, Flickerfest will screen two programs at The Mercury in Adelaide’s west end on Saturday May 9, with Best of Australian Shorts running at 6pm followed by the Best of International Shorts at 9pm.
Plucked from a high-watermark 3,700 entries, this year features more than a few local connections, from Adelaide writer/director Alies Sluiter’s dark romance Boy on Fire – which stars Will McDonald from Netflix’s Heartbreak High reboot – to Yankunytjatjara filmmaker Lilla Berry’s The Secret – which had its first run at Adelaide Film Festival’s Made In SA showcase last year. There’s also Boyish from director Scarlett Scherer, Stephen Packer’s future-tinged crime drama Alpha Test, and Nicholas Burt’s The Way of the Wind.
Overseas highlights include the Australian premiere of the Oscar-winning The Singers; A Friend of Dorothy starring Miriam Margoyles and Stephen Fry; Indonesian filmmaker Amar Haikal’s exploration of grief and landfill in My Plastic Mother; and an unexpected left turn from Oscar winning actress Renée Zellweger, who makes her directorial debut with the nine-minute animated short They.
Check out the full lineup and book tickets here.
History Festival’s art and literary connections
South Australia’s History Festival is already well underway, but there are a few upcoming events in May with fascinating local arts connections.
Readers and history buffs might already be familiar with the work of the pseudonymous Thistle Anderson – AKA Mrs Herbert Fisher – who tore turn-of-the-20th-century Adelaide a new one with her 1905 book Arcadian Adelaide. Often compared to Lady Whistledown, the similarly mysterious gossip sheet writer who narrates Netflix’s hit period romance Bridgerton, Anderson/Fisher’s burn book has been periodically reprinted over the years, and this month will find new life in a play by Maureen Sherlock, presented by Prospect Productions. Listen in to the scandal and sensation of Thistle’s life and writing when Sherlock’s play is given a reading at Marina Community Hall on Sunday May 17 at 5pm.
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Another highlight will be Adelaide-based soldier-turned-art sleuth Andrew Turley, who has spent years exploring the life and work of Sidney Nolan – most recently in his expansive tome Nolan’s Africa. For this year’s festival, Turley will revisit his study of Nolan’s ‘Adelaide Ladies’ – a series of 60 portraits painted after the artist’s visit to Adelaide for the 1964 Adelaide Festival. With some of the ladies now held by the Tate, and others made regonisable from after appearing on Patrick White paperbacks, Turley’s The Lost History of Sidney Nolan’s Adelaide Ladies promises to be a fascinating deep dive at the David Roche Gallery on Thursday May 7 at 6pm.
Check out the full History Festival program here.
ACE’s Sydney callout
Adelaide Contemporary Experimental has opened applications for its ongoing partnership with Sydney artist-run space firstdraft, now entering its fifth year.
The ACE x firstdraft Short-term Residency invites South Australian artists to apply for a three-month residency from July to September residency in ACE’s upstairs studio space in the west end, culminating in an exhibition at firstdraft’s Sydney space. Past recipients include Jingwei Bu in 2025, Emmaline Zanelli in 2024, Teresa Busuttil in 2023, and Shaye Dương in 2022.
Applicants need to be over 18, living in South Australia for at least 12 months, and not be undertaking full-time study. Applications close Monday June 8, find out more here.
New leader for Adelaide Youth Orchestra
The Adelaide Youth Orchestra has named a new artistic director to succeed longtime leader Keith Crellin OAM, who has bowed out leading the orchestra for much of its 25-year history.
Darwin-born clarinettist and conductor Lloyd Van’t Hoff will pick up Crellin’s baton in June. The Yale graduate, who is currently Head of Woodwind at the Elder Conservatorium, will shepherd the orchestra through its 25th anniversary year and beyond, making his debut as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor at Adelaide Town Hall in September.
“To lead an organisation that represents the very best of youth orchestras and music education, where young people discover their artistry, confidence and sense of belonging, is an honour” says Van’t Hoff. “I am excited to build on the extraordinary foundation Keith Crellin has created and to work alongside the remarkable students and team of AdYO as we imagine an ambitious and inspiring next chapter together.”
Crellin will lead the orchestra once more on June 27 at the Gala Centenary Celebration of the late Diana Ramsey AO at the Adelaide Town Hall. Adelaide Youth Orchestra board chair Catherine Baldwin paid tribute to Crellin’s contributioin:
“His legacy is not just in the music played, but in the thousands of lives he has shaped through rigour, passion, and artistic integrity. We are eternally grateful for his 24 years of service.”
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]
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