Lorelei // Miss Peony // No Pay? No Way!

Sarah Giles

Company: Opera Queensland//Belvoir Theatre//Sydney Theatre Company


Year the project commenced: 2017
Year it became impossible:2020 
Audience not reached: 10000+​​​​​​​
They say bad luck comes in threes. And so it was for acclaimed director Sarah Giles who went from presenting a diverse range of shows across the country to lighting the ghost light and bunkering down in Melbourne.
The glorious ‘Lorelei’ was a new opera by Casey Benetto, Gillian Cosgriff and Julian Langdon that was originally performed in 2018 and scheduled to be remounted by Opera Queensland in 2020. A riot of glamour, colour and voice, the show was much lauded in its Melbourne season but now remains tightly packed away in boxes.
‘No Pay? No way!’ was a new adaptation by Marieke Hardy of Dario Fo's brilliant 1970's farce. Commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company, it was halfway through a season at the Sydney Opera House when the lights were turned off in March 2020 due to Covid-19.
On the other hand, 'Miss Peony', a new play by Michelle Law, never even made it out of the box the first time. It was scheduled to appear at Belvoir in Sydney, QPAC in Brisbane and Arts Centre Melbourne. The project at first looked like it might still be possible until the number of months theatres would remain closed became all too clear.
Without an audience to congregate, all three shows have had the pause button hit. For all three there is hope they can return once the audience can.

LORELEI 
Design - Marg Horwell 
Lighting - Paul Jackson 
Written by Gillian Cosgriff, 
Casey Benetto, and Julian Langdon 

NO PAY? NO WAY! 
by Dario Fo 
Adapted by Marieke Hardy 
Design - Charles Davis 
Lighting - Paul Jackson 

MISS PEONY 
By Michelle Law and Julian Langdon
UPDATE as of November 2020: 
Miss Peony will now have its premiere as part of Belvoir's 2021 season. 

↑Back to Top