Bold claim: art can choose to go out in a blaze of beauty rather than fade away into silence. And that’s exactly what Slingsby Theatre Company is doing with A Concise Compendium of Wonder. Nestled in a shaded corner of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, a round wooden venue has arisen to cradle 110 attendees—a miniature, purpose-built space that feels intimate, magical, and intentional. Above the doorway, a sign invites us into the Wandering Hall of Possibility, while a small crew works diligently just inside, putting the final touches on what promises to be a transformative experience.
This production is the centerpiece of Slingsby’s three-part trilogy, drawn from the timeless fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Oscar Wilde. The works unfold across vast spans of time and space—from a famine-scorched medieval Europe to a lunar colony on the brink of a new year, 3099. Viewers can experience the trilogy as three standalone pieces or as a seamless triptych. The same three actors guide the audience through distinct yet intricately connected stories, with each performance reconfiguring the space to suit the tale at hand.
For two decades, Slingsby has created theatre for young people and their families, aiming to speak to the inner child as it grows into an adult, and to honor the enduring wonder that persists in people of all ages, says artistic director Andy Packer. Fairytales—whether reimagined classics or fresh creations—sit at the heart of their work. They explore magic and imagination, but they also confront death, loss, grief, and loneliness, placing children in difficult situations where courage and resilience must emerge. Slingsby’s venues are immersive and rich with enchantment; in previous shows, they’ve transformed unconventional spaces—Emil and the Detectives was staged inside an abandoned theme park, and Man Covets Bird had audiences seated on a real grass floor within the theatre.
Magic remains an undercurrent, yet danger never fully disappears, a tonal thread the New York Times once described as “bleakly whimsical.” Slingsby treats young audiences as collaborators: acknowledging their capacity to understand pain and disappointment while guiding them toward a hopeful path, where kind souls exist and personal strength helps you chart your own course.
After touring across Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America, A Concise Compendium of Wonder will be Slingsby’s final work. Packer says the company is “investing everything we had in the bank,” with a premiere in Adelaide followed by three weeks on the Eyre Peninsula in Whyalla, and then additional touring before Slingsby closes its doors.
Initially, the trilogy wasn’t intended to be Slingsby’s swan song. In 2023, while developing the project, the company faced another denial of multi-year funding from Creative Australia. Though state funding supported their work, federal multi-year support had not been renewed since 2016, and Slingsby had spent the last decade exploring diverse, entrepreneurial ways to stay afloat. After the third funding rejection, the decision became clear: the time had come to end the company’s run.
Packer argues that government arts funding should rise, but he also urges artists to assess the personal costs of their labor—the countless unpaid or underpaid hours that go into making a show. He asks a candid question to the field: are artists simply spinning in a hamster wheel, or is there a sustainable path forward?
Beyond this final trilogy, Slingsby will no longer be able to sustain the creative risk they’ve long pursued. “That leaves you with no choice but to go out in a beautiful fashion,” Packer reflects. So, with three closing works and a purpose-built touring theatre, the company will do just that.
The creation of the trilogy marked a different process for Slingsby. Rather than collaborating with playwrights, they commissioned short stories from esteemed Australian authors Ceridwen Dovey, Ursula Dubosarsky, and Jennifer Mills. Each author adapted a fairy tale and wove in contemporary questions about nature and climate—issues that had repeatedly surfaced in Slingsby’s school workshop programs, where climate anxiety and a sense of impending doom for the future kept echoing through the sessions.
Mills’s The Childhood of the World follows two famine-stricken children who discover a path to resilience in a forest. Dubosarsky’s The Giant’s Garden centers on children banished from a beloved garden, while Dovey’s The Tree of Light features a Moonfolk elder narrating beneath the moon’s last surviving tree.
As with all Slingsby productions, the trilogy closes on a note of hope. “I want to pull the audience into the darkness, but I don’t want to leave them there,” Packer explains. “I aim to guide them back to a sense of hope—for themselves and for the people they share their world with.”
The show also speaks directly to young audiences’ climate concerns. Any transport of the set for Concise Compendium will rely on land or sea travel, minimizing carbon impact. And when Slingsby’s doors finally close for the last time, the Wandering Hall will pass to other companies or festivals, allowing it to live a second life before its materials are recycled.
Reflecting on the journey, Packer admits a tinge of sadness—the closing of Slingsby’s grand expedition. “It didn’t have to be this way, but here we are, and I’m proud of the decision,” he says. “It lets us stay grounded in the present, rather than worrying about an uncertain future.”
A Concise Compendium of Wonder runs at Adelaide Botanic Gardens as part of the Adelaide Festival through March 15.
Would you join the conversation about whether a company should push forward through tough funding climates to safeguard radical artistic risk, or celebrate a well-executed final act that preserves legacy and artful risk-taking for future generations?
