The Great Ridolphi
Watch Trailer

The Great Ridolphi

About

Howdo you hold on to the world’s greatest escape artist?

Twelve years after the death of his father, Victor O’Meara is visited by detectives inquiring on the whereabouts of a missing Francesco Goya masterpiece. Propelled by obscure items left to him, Victor seeks to uncover the truth behind his father’s involvement with one of the greatest art heists of the century and begins a quest that is part adventure, part mystery, and entirely enchanting.

As Victor delves further into his father’s past he finds himself in a place where blind women see, severed limbs are restored, and dead birds fly again. In a world of smoke and mirrors, in search of a man built around trickery and illusions, Victor unravels the mystery behind the identity of illusionist extraordinaire The Great Ridolphi.

With an award winning team including actor Steve Turner (Dinner, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Streetcar Named Desire), writer Chris Isaacs (Flood, FAG/STAG, Old Love), and director Adam Mitchell (Next to Normal, When The Rain Stops Falling, Death Of A Salesman), this one man show will dance the line of mysticism and wonder.

Mitchell and Turner never play for the laughs Isaac buries in his script, and it’s a handsome decision. ★ ★ ★ ★

The West Australian

Every member of the team has given their VERY best. Everyone left the theatre stunned at the overall perfection of this play. Amazing skills.

Gordon the Optom

Event details

  • Duration: 60-minutes

The Artists

Chris Isaacs

Writer

Chris Isaacs is a writer, devisor, performer, and founding core artist of The Last Great Hunt. As a playwright he has had his works performed nationally and internationally.

Credits include Bite The Hand, York (Co-written with Ian Michael for Black Swan State Theatre Company); the multiple award winning The Great Ridolphi (Blaz Award for New Writing Perth FRINGEWORLD); the multiple award-winning FAG/STAG (co-written with Jeffrey Jay Fowler); award winvning Old Love (Audience Development Award – The Blue Room Theatre); and award winning Flood (PAWA best new play), Bali (co-written with Jeffrey Jay Fowler), and The 1s, The 0s, and Everything In Between (RIPTIDE and ATYP).

As a co-devisor/performer Chris' work includes Lé Nør [The Rain] (Perth Festival) Stay With Us ; All That Glitters; Falling Through Clouds; and the award winning It’s Dark Outside (ArtsHub Innovation Award – 2013 and Helpmann-nominated) for The Last Great Hunt.

Outside of The Last Great Hunt, Chris is a resident artist for Black Swan State Theatre Company and a sessional tutor at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Adam Mitchell

Director

Adam Mitchell is an award winning stage director known for his inventive Theatre, Music Theatre and Opera productions.

He was the Associate Director for Black Swan State Theatre Company and has directed nearly twenty productions for the company. Production highlights include; Oil, Every Brilliant Thing, Next to Normal, Death of a Salesman, The Motherfucker With the Hat, Clinton:The Musical, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Boy Gets Girl and When the Rain Stops Falling.

He was the Artistic Director of Black Swan's HotBed Ensemble, production highlights include: Yellow Moon: The Ballad of Leila and Lee, The Shape of Things, pool (no water), The Laramie Project, Falling Petals and the world premieres of Portraits of Modern Evil by Robert Reid and The Dark Room by Angela Betzien.

His Independent work includes La Fanciulla del West (FFO), Those Who Fall In Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon the Ocean Floor (Griffin Independent/The Blue Room) and The Great Ridolphi for The Last Great Hunt.

Commercial work includes: Fame -The Musical and premiere productions of Mimma: A Musical of War and Friendship and Dragon Lady (Adelaide Cabaret Festival commission).

He regularly directs Theatre, Opera and Music Theatre for The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), has worked with The National Institute Dramatic Arts (NIDA), Victoria College of the Arts, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Playwriting Australia, Sydney and Melbourne Theatre Companies, Barking Gecko Theatre Co., The Australian Theatre for Young People and is a member of the Lincoln Centre Theater Directors Lab (New York).

He is a 40 Under 40 Award winner and has received Equity Guild Awards, Blue Room Theatre Awards, PAWA Awards and the Martin Sims and The West Australian Arts Editor Award.

Steve Turner

Performer

Trent Suidgeest

Trent Suidgeest

Set, Costume, Lighting & AV Design

Trent is an Australian lighting and set designer working across all genres of live performance. Theatre, musicals, opera, concerts, events and public art installations. His work has been seen at most of the major performing arts companies, festivals and venues across the country.

Ben Collins

Sound & Composition

Ben has worked as a freelance musician, sound designer and composer across a variety of platforms since 2003.  He’s been a lecturer in sound design and audio technology at WAAPA since 2015, venue and technical manager at the Redmond Theatre since 2016 and recently has become most interested in field recording, technical theatre design, and multi-disciplinary work.  Ben has worked on short films, animations, dance works, drama and musical theatre and produced podcasts and recorded works for various platforms and is passionate about the use of technology in storytelling.

He's worked predominantly for Black Swan State Theatre Company over the past decade, as well as Barking Gecko, The Last Great Hunt and Fringe productions including most recently audio work Seeking Basic Needs and Other Tales of Excess.  In 2019 he was sound designer and programmer for Le Nor, a Last Great Hunt work for the Perth International Arts Festival, as well as sound designer for Mimma - A Musical of War & Friendship for Orana Productions. In 2020 he was sound designer for THEATRE 180’s successful production of A Fortunate Life.

Subscribe to the hunt

The Last Great Hunt updates delivered straight into your inbox. Find out what’s on and get a glimpse on what we’re working on.

By clicking sign up you agree to our Terms and Conditions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

The Last Great Hunt acknowledges the first peoples of the lands on which we live, play, and work.

We are on the lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, and the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

We pay our respects to these traditional custodians who have nurtured and cared for the land we are on, and we honour their Elders past and present.

We recognise these nations and their long and ongoing contribution to the cultural and environmental landscape we operate within.

Sovereignty of these lands was never ceded.

For more information on these nations and their treasured cultures visit: Noongar Nation and Eora Nation