The Chronicles
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https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/whats-on/season-2026/the-chronicles
Date Reviewed: 12/03/2026
The Chronicles by the multi-award-winning Stephanie Lake Dance Company is not so much a dance production as an experience for the senses. The images the dancers produce, and the sounds produced or danced to stay in the minds of the viewers for a long time after the performance.
Choreographed by Stephanie Lake herself with music composed by Robin Fox, lighting designed by Bosco Shaw, set design by Charles Davis and costume designed by Harriet Oxley, the production takes us from the first embryonic writhings of a baby to the inevitable decay and death at the end of life.
The dancers - Max Burgess, Rachel Coulson, Tra Mi Dinh, Tyrel Dulvarie, Marni Green, Siobhan Lynch, Darci O’Rourke, Harrison Ritchie-Jones, Robert Tinning, Georgia Van Gils, Kimball Wong and Jack Ziesing are spectacular in their ability and endurance. The production is largely high energy, and they do not hold back, leaping, twisting, turning, and crawling in an empty performance space.
Their connection with each other is remarkable as they combine their bodies to make new shapes. In one memorable section the first dancer in a line creates a shape which the next dancer ‘links’ to. Then the first dancer slips out of his/her position only to be replaced by the next dancer who changes the position and so forth, unique and fascinating to watch.
The section is ‘backed’ by Young Adelaide Voices in white choir gowns, holding lanterns, standing at the back of the stage on a raised grassy hill. They sing ‘Ah Poor Bird’. The purity of the voices mixed with the purity of the dance is spellbinding.
There are so many sections worthy of mention – the image of female dancers ‘riding’ across the back of the stage on the back of male dancers crawling, the vocalisations of the dancers to enhance the music, the company all in grey skirts dancing in unison (an impressive image), the company lined up across the stage screaming and then dropping out one by one until only one dancer is left which drew well deserved applause.
However, the most magical scene is the ‘hay’ scene. Without giving away too much, a dancer hauls a bail of straw across the stage. Then the dancers bring on small bales of straw crawling onto the stage. The bales are the torn apart and strewn across the stage laying the foundation for the next section.
The finale of the production sees Oliver Mann on the grassy singing “Forever Young’ as one of the dancers passes away and is enveloped by the same box light that ‘gave birth’ to a dancer at the beginning – powerful and moving!
Bosco Shaw’s lighting deserves a special mention for its originality and ability to create magical spaces for the dancers and singers to work in. Especially impressive are the sixteen light boxes that hang from the flies, one of which envelops a dancer at birth and death. They are also used to highlight specific sections and to provide strobe effects. These lights are augmented by a more standard rig that provides corridors and washes.
The Chronicles is an extraordinary multi-sensory experience that left me in wonder after the actual performance. It is poetry in dance and song!
Barry Hill OAM
Images by Andrew Beveridge