Playing It Safe In Adelaide

“Stephen Page, the artistic director of the 2004 Adelaide Festival that began on February 27 and runs until March 14, has put together a program that, by importing plenty of foreign acts, is intent on making amends for Peter Sellars’ home-grown, half-baked fiasco of two years ago… Although he defends the American director’s festival as ‘the most cutting edge’ he has seen in its ambition of embracing community, social and regional concerns – ‘it was sloppy; it had no order’. So Page, charged with bringing the the festival back from the brink, which includes regaining corporate confidence and that of the politicians who ran a mile from the Sellars fall-out, has shaped a something-for-everyone program.”