With COVID in the rearview mirror, Perth Festival pushes back against parochialism

October 29, 2026 — 3:33pm

After a post-pandemic dip, Perth Festival is back doing what patrons want it to do: deliver the best in international arts and culture.

Even though it’s been six years since COVID shut the world down, it has taken that long for the international arts touring scene to get back on track and for Perth Festival to be once again on global touring itineraries.

During that period, successive Perth Festival artistic directors have been forced to call upon local companies and artists to make up the numbers.

While it has provided opportunities for local practitioners, it also led to a rumbling among patrons, who complained the city’s premier arts festival was not doing its job.

That longing for large-scale world-class works will be satisfied in 2027, which will be a series of European blockbuster shows that hark back to Perth Festival’s glory days, such as Peter Brook’s nine-hour Mahabharata in the Boya Quarry (back in 1988), and Robert Lepage’s Seven Streams of the River Ota in 1998, transformative experiences that still burn bright in the memory.

“Perth deserves to experience some of the best, most exciting artists and ideas from around the world.”

Perth Festival artistic director Anna Reece

From Latvia comes trailblazing Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski’s ROTHKO, a four-hour time-shifting collision of cinema and theatre inspired by a famous art forgery; from Denmark comes Operation: Orfeo, a “hypnotic reimagining of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice told through extraordinary voices, light, architecture and illusion”; and from Greece comes Taverna Miresia – Mario, Bella, Anastasia, Mario Banushi’s wordless and visually stunning evocation of his Albanian childhood that recently won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.

Perth Festival artistic director Anna Reece was unapologetic about the pivot to the international for next year’s late-summer arts jamboree.

“We are an international arts festival, and we should be proud of that. It is also our point of difference within the local scene,” Reece said ahead of Thursday’s program unveiling at the East Perth Power Station, which the Festival has brought back from the dead in the past two years.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve worked really hard to create a distinct identity for Perth Festival.

“We have created new spaces for Perth people to gather and experience art, such as the Power Station and The Embassy Ballroom in the Perth Town Hall.

“These are now familiar gathering points that are critical for the Festival.

“With those foundations in place we are ready to expand our international ambition again. Perth deserves to experience some of the best, most exciting artists and ideas from around the world.”

Reece said Perth Festival’s re-embracing of its international ambition, upon which it built its reputation, did not mean local practitioners would be overlooked.

“A great international arts festival should expand our sense of what’s possible at the same time as strengthening our commitment to WA artists. The two make each other stronger,” she said.

“There were a number of local commissions last year and there will be another wave 2028.

“It has to do with the cycles and the time it takes to complete work.

“International work challenges us and it challenges our local artists. It broadens our perspective and connects our city to conversations happening far beyond our borders.”

Reece is reluctant to dive back into COVID – “it’s boring,” she laughs – but emphasised the damage the pandemic did to arts festivals around the world.

“The knock-on effect of COVID has been enormous,” she said.

“Everything stopped. It meant you couldn’t tap into the tours of European companies.

“If you wanted the work, they had to come back together and rehearse it. The global pipeline dried up.

“Perth Festival over the years has hosted some of the great masters, such as Robert Lepage. This year we are introducing local audiences to the next generation of superstars, such as Łukasz Twarkowski and Mario Banushi. It’s incredibly exciting.”

Perth Festival runs from February 5 to 28. Tickets for all shows are on sale from November 2. Lotterywest Films begins on November 23 with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.

Mark Naglazas is a journalist specialising in Perth culture and the arts.

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