Adelaide's award-winning company, Red Phoenix Theatre, is excitedly preparing to perform the South Australian premiere of the stage adaptation of the hysterically funny UK film, 'A Bunch of Amateurs' at Holden Street Theatres.
We asked Red Phoenix Theatre's Artistic Director Michael Eustice to list his top five movie and book adaptations that Adelaide theatre audiences should be watching out for this year.
One
'A Bunch Of Amateurs' (Red Phoenix Theatre - May 2019). Adapted from the film starring Burt Reynolds and written by the creative writing team behind 'Spitting Image' and editors of 'Private Eye' magazine. Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear only to find he's not in Stratford-upon-Avon and, instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre from developers.
Two
'The Maltese Falcon' (Independent Theatre - April/May 2019). Adapted from the book by Dashiell Hammet and John Huston's multiple academy award nominated film noir screenplay starring Humphrey Bogart. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.
Three
'Jasper Jones' (State Theatre Company SA - August 2019). Australian author Craig Silvey won multiple awards for his outstanding coming of age story. Adapted for the screen in 2017, the film went on to win seven Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Four
'The Miracle Worker' (Adelaide Rep - April 2019). This outstanding stage version of the blind and deaf Helen Keller's autobiography 'The Story of My Life' was also made into film in 1962 which was nominated for five and won two Academy Awards. The Adelaide Rep's production was outstanding and is highly likely to be award nominated as well. If you didn't see it, you missed an excellent production of a wonderful play. Don't miss the others!
Five
'Seven Little Australians' (Hills Youth Theatre - June 2019). There are few more iconic novels than Ethel Turner's 'Seven Little Australians' which was published in 1894. It delightfully recounts the adventures of the mischievous Woolcot children. The novel has been in print continually ever since and the ABC's wonderful 1973 television series was an enormous success.
'A Bunch of Amateurs' plays at Holden Street Theatres 23 May-1 June.
