This Adelaide Fringe, multi award winning storytellers Wright&Grainger celebrate 10 years of touring their internationally acclaimed ORPHEUS by presenting a special double bill of ORPHEUS and EURYDICE, performed with a live string quartet and vocal ensemble alongside their signature heart-stopping spoken word and soaring live music. Running from 19 February to 22 March 2026, the two shows can be experienced together or on their own. Wright&Grainger are known for telling Greek myths as if they were unfolding today, and this season they bring their celebrated storytelling to the Mortlock Wing of the State Library of South Australia, recently named the second most beautiful library in the world.
ORPHEUS is Wright&Grainger’s internationally acclaimed wild retelling of the Orpheus myth, like you have never seen it before. Dave is single and stood at the bar. Eurydice is a tree nymph. Bruce Springsteen is on the jukebox. It is a story of side streets, dive bars and how far you would go for the person you love. Since its creation in 2016 ORPHEUS has played more than 650 shows around the world in festivals, cafes, gardens, railway arches, bars, tents, churches, yoga studios, boats, record shops, breweries, loft apartments and very occasionally a theatre. It has won multiple awards including Best Theatre at Adelaide Fringe in 2023.
EURYDICE tells the same story, but from Eurydice’s point of view, giving agency to a voice that has so often been passive and silent. Our Eurydice is given the choice and agency the Greeks never let her express. Leni is 5 years old and holding a Superman costume. Eurydice is 5 years into the rest of her life. It is a story about leaping into freefall and being a daily superhero. A story about this world and the next one. A story about how things change because things always change. Wound from live electronica, soaring spoken word, and now restaged with string quartet and vocal ensemble, EURYDICE is lyrical, gloriously effective, infectious and profound and won Adelaide Fringe’s Best Theatre award in 2019.
Wright&Grainger are Al and Phil, two pals from the fields and lanes of rural North Yorkshire who have spent more than twenty years touring the world with their wild retellings of ancient stories. Their work has taken them across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Bali, India and Off Broadway, with performances everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to a 600 year-old castle in Yorkshire.
They’ve been invited into the exquisite Mortlock chamber of the State Library of South Australia by daring venue partners, the Courtyard of Curiosities, and this epic will be produced in partnership with Parrot Ox, Tom Oliver Productions and Joanne Hartstone.
“ORPHEUS and EURYDICE have travelled with us around the world, but performing them in the historic Mortlock Wing, a place built for storytelling, will be unforgettable,” say Wright & Grainger. “We’re so excited to perform in such a beautiful venue.”
February 19 – March 22
Websites:
https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/wright-grainger-s-orpheus-af2026
https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/wright-grainger-s-eurydice-af2026
Image: Mau Seghetto
