Formed in 2007 by Andy Packer and Jodi Glass, Slingsby has established an international reputation for creating imaginative and engaging theatre experiences for children aged eight and over and family audiences, with its shows touring across Australia and to more than 13 different countries.
It has also received 15 industry awards, including a Helpmann Award for the 2018 show Emil and the Detectives, and several Ruby Awards.
However, in a statement released today, artistic director and CEO Packer said the “precarious and highly competitive” funding process “prevents reliable planning, and stifles our capacity to be the brave, rigorous and distinctive creative voice we are committed to being”.
As a result, the company – whose tagline invites audiences to “journey in wonder” – has decided to wind up after its latest production, the triptych A Concise Compendium of Wonder, which it will continue to develop in 2025 before premiering the show in 2026.
Slingsby artistic director and CEO Andy Packer. Photo: Emma Luker
“2026 will be the 20th year of the Slingsby journey; an incredible adventure carrying us further than we ever could have dreamed,” Packer said. “But on a long journey, it helps to know where and when you will finally come to rest.
“This will be our final chapter, and if crafted well, it will leave a resonant legacy.”
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Speaking to InReview, Packer acknowledges that missing out on multi-year federal funding for 2025-2028 was a turning point for Slingsby.
“Essentially, we are not in receipt of the resources to be the company we know we can be,” Packer said.
When Creative Australia announced the list of four-year funding recipients at the end of 2023, Packer said its decision not to include Slingsby was devastating and had “effectively dug up the road ahead that we saw for the company”.
Slingsby has faced a roller-coaster since its federal funding was first axed in 2016 in what is known in the arts sector as the “Black Friday” cuts, which saw the Australia Council end support for more than 60 arts organisations nationwide after its budget was slashed by then arts minister George Brandis.
Nonetheless, the company proved its resilience, with funding from the State Government, donors and other supporters, as well as COVID-19 grant initiatives, helping it to produce and tour a number of highly successful shows. These included the 2021 Adelaide Festival hit The Boy Who Talked to Dogs (a Ruby Award-winning co-production with State Theatre Company SA) and 2017’s Emil and the Detectives, an adaptation of a novella by Erich Kästner presented at the former Dazzeland site.
Packer refuses to be drawn on which of the company’s shows he is most proud of.
“Each and every one of them has done something remarkable… genuinely, it is the show that I’m working on at any particular moment in time… it’s everyone’s energy coming together to make something new that we imagined but which didn’t exist until we came together.”
He adds that it has been wonderful to see how well the company’s work has been received both in Australia and by overseas audiences: “We can make things that connect deeply and emotionally with audiences of all ages everywhere.”
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The Boy Who Talked to Dogs was part of the 2021 Adelaide Festival and also toured to Ireland. Photo: Andy Rasheed
In a statement, Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said Slingsby had been on a remarkable journey since its “humble beginnings” in Adelaide in 2007.
“From its inception, the treasured Adelaide institution has delighted audiences at home and abroad with its truly unique, emotional and empathetic productions,” she said.
“While it will be sad to see the final curtain fall, the State Government is proud to have supported Slingsby over nearly two decades, and congratulates all casts and crews, Andy and the board for their remarkable legacy.”
Asked if there is any chance that an injection of extra funds could change the company’s destiny, Packer replies in the negative. He says he is proud that Slingsby and its board have taken control of their own destiny and will go out on a high.
Executive director Rebecca Pearce agrees, saying: “There is so much to celebrate, and we want the community to know we are filled with pride, joy, optimism and gratitude as we chart our final course.”
A Concise Compendium of Wonder is triptych of new Australian stories written by fiction writers Ceridwen Dovey, Ursula Dubosarsky and Jennifer Mills that span 2000 years and chart humans’ shifting relationship with the natural world. The writers have adapted three well-known fairytales – Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl, Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel And Gretel – which will each be performed by the same cast and presented as full-scale productions.
Dovey’s “radical reimagining” of The Little Match Girl, titled The Tree of Light, had a preview season during this year’s Adelaide Festival.
A model of the wooden building that will be the venue for A Concise Compendium of Wonder.
“This is in many ways the perfect bookend to [The Tragical Life of] Cheeseboy, our first show, where we were trying to work out what was the perfect immersive viewing experience and that wound up being a drape that felt like you were sitting under a tent,” Packer says of A Concise Compendium of Wonder.
“With Compendium we will have a portable wooden building… a beautiful, purpose-built regenerative building that will house three shows.”
He describes the building as being like a small spiegeltent that will seat 120 people, adding of the show:
“It’s so epic… everything about it is intricate.
“If you’re going to go out, it’s a pretty good show to go out on. As [designer] Wendy Todd said, ‘It’s always good to leave to them wanting more’.”