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Mar 2025
54m 4s

How Anaïs Mitchell wrote the hit musical...

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About this episode

This episode of The Stage Show is about love that doesn't end well!

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is retold in a hit folk musical called Hadestown. It's won Tonys, Grammys and is now in Australia. We speak to the singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, who wrote Hadestown as a concept album, before touring it around in an old bus and then turning it into a remarkable stage show with the Broadway director Rachael Chavkin.

Soprano Anna Dowsley sings the gorgeous aria Ah Belinda! In  Dido and Aeneas,  the opera by Henry Purcell about another ill-fated couple from classical times. Anna reflects on her character's fate and on working with acrobats in this production between Opera Australia and Circa, the Queensland based circus company.

Anton Chekhov’s play Three Sisters  follows the lives of  a 19th C. family who feel trapped and are hankering for something more. It continues our theme for the day of tragic love-stories. We hear from Theatre Works' new production with director Greg Carroll,  and actors Stella Carroll and Chris Connely. 

And globe trotting theatre critic from UK's The Stage newspaper, Richard Jordan, joins us for his highlights of the Adelaide Fringe .

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