Totally mad and utterly unique, Rumpelstiltskin is a freewheeling, flamboyant modern reinvention of the 4000 year old tale made classic by the Brothers Grimm. Fresh from her internationally successful feature film debut Girl Asleep, Windmill Theatre Co. director Rosemary Meyers turns her iconic talents once more to an exuberant children’s theatre installation, co-written with Julianne O’Brien, following on from their Helpmann Award winning collaboration in 2012’s Pinocchio. From the first glance, the production’s inimitable brand of spectacular theatre is palpable. The radically updated fairy-tale begins with the memorable lines read from a story book, set against the layered intoxicating, idiosyncratic…

Rumpelstiltskin has just had an extreme makeover. In Windmill Theatre’s sensational new production, the goblin with a gift for spinning straw into gold is now the shapeshifting mastermind of the high-end couture fashion house, Rumpelstiltskin. He is surrounded by wily flunkeys — Rat and Crow — but, because he is too “foul of face and fugly of form” to be seen in public, he has a vain, dimwitted frontman promoting his much sought-after creations. Writers Rosemary Myers and Julianne O’Brien have retained the structure of the Grimm Brothers fairytale with the three requests for magical transformation, the enabling of a…

Chris Edser’s idiosyncratic illustrations and animations form the backdrop against which the magical and surreal world of Rumpelstiltskin is conjured in a new production. Almost everything about the new State Theatre Company and Windmill Theatre co-production of Rumpelstiltskin is unusual. The story has been reworked to take place in a surreal modern setting, the actors are high octane, the songs pop-driven and catchy, the costumes stylised and the set is not really built – it’s drawn. Remarks The premiere season of State Theatre Company and Windmill Theatre’s co-production of Rumpelstiltskin takes place October 11-30 at the Dunstan Playhouse. While it is a play…

The Adelaide Review sits down with Paul Capsis mid-way through rehearsals for Rumpelstiltskin to chat about childhood memories and Rosemary Myers’ contemporary vision of the infamous fairy tale. “It was the very first thing I ever saw performed,” says Paul Capsis, star of the new Windmill and State Theatre Company production Rumpelstiltskin, of his first theatre experience. “My Auntie took my cousins and me to the Sydney Opera House, which had just opened, and there was a children’s show, and it was Rumpelstiltskin.” This first encounter with theatre for the actor, who is now 52, made a deep impression on…

With all of the attention on the filmmakers behind Girl Asleep, we spoke to its leading lady, Bethany Whitmore. They say that 90% of directing a movie is in the casting, and with Bethany Whitmore in the leading role of Greta in Girl Asleep, director Rosemary Myers and her team struck gold. “One day, I just got a call, saying, ‘You’ve got an audition’, so I prepared for it, and tried really hard, because as soon as I heard what it was about, I was very eager. It was my dream role,” Whitmore tells us over the phone from her…

I know this was originally a piece of theatre; what made you want to adapt it for the screen? When we made the play we always knew we were going to make the film. The play is a standalone play, but it was a great chance to test the story out really thoroughly and learn about the storytelling before we shot the film. Why did you decide to write a play to make a film? We were doing a trilogy of works for teenagers in the Adelaide Festival, and Katrina [Sedgwick] and Amanda [Duthie] had seen some of that work…

Windmill Theatre recently transformed the Eastern wall of our new office and studios in Sturt Street with a highly visual and public art mural, complete with moving windmills and slender planter boxes. We commissioned resident artist and designer Jonathon Oxlade to conceive the vision for the site alongside experienced street and mural artist Vans the Omega (Joel Moore). This mural was made possible with the support of Arts SA, Adelaide City Council and Renewal SA.  

As the company delves into the development of Rumpelstiltskin, director Rosemary Myers and co-writer Julianne O’Brien have been busy finalising the script, writing the music with composer Jethro Woodward and finessing the set and costume elements with designer Jonathon Oxlade. At our development in May this year, all of the cast and creatives gathered for an intensive week-long rehearsal period.