The 2026 Adelaide Festival has announced two major international exclusives ahead of its full program reveal – the first under Festival Artistic Director Matthew Lutton, who was appointed to the position in March.

French film and stage star Isabelle Huppert takes the stage in Robert Wilson’s Mary Said What She Said for Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, while French choir and orchestra Ensemble Pygmalion makes its Australian debut under founding director Raphaël Pichon.

Isabelle Huppert in Mary Said What She Said. Photo © Lucie Jansch

Last seen in Australia more than a decade ago in Sydney Theatre Company’s The Maids with Cate Blanchett and Elizabeth Debicki, Huppert plays Mary Queen of Scots, a sovereign whose passions cost her the crown.

Announcing the production Lutton said, “Director Robert Wilson inspired generations with his genius, and I was deeply saddened to learn of his recent death. We have lost a visionary, and Mary Said What She Said was to be his Adelaide theatre debut.”

“This production, created with the force of nature that is actor Isabelle Huppert, not only reveals new layers of Mary Queen of Scots but the power of Wilson’s unique theatrical vision.”

With a book by Darryl Pinckney and a score by Ludovico Einaudi, the play draws upon Mary’s letters, laying out her involvement in some of the most notorious plots of her time. She is lying, but facing martyrdom on the eve of her execution, has fear persuaded her that she is telling the truth?

The title refers to the damning testimony against her by one of her four ladies-in-waiting, all of whom were called Mary.

Pygmalion. Photo © Fred Mortagne

Adelaide also has a major musical drawcard in Ensemble Pygmalion, which will perform three programs of early music at Adelaide Town Hall and St Peter’s Cathedral.

“Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion are leaders in their interpretation of early music,” Lutton said, describing their performances as “electric”.

Festivalgoers can expect concerts that balance scholarship and theatrical flair, with Pygmalion frequently collaborating with visionary directors such as Pierre Audi, Romeo Castellucci, Katie Mitchell and Simon McBurney.

The first program (27 & 28 February) is titled Bach: Good Night World and features 10 singers and 11 instrumentalists. It includes music by Buxtehude and Melchior Franck as well as the Bachs – Johann Christoph, Johann Michael and Johann Sebastian, climaxing in the latter’s Jesu, meine Freude and Nach dir Herr verlanget mich.

The second (2 & 3 March) turns the clock back further to explore Monteverdi’s Vespers (Vespro della beata Vergine) from 1610.

The third (4 & 6 March) focuses the talents of 18 instrumentalists and 28 singers on the 17th-century composer Luigi Rossi’s opera Orfeo, which debuted in 1647 and was then lost for over three centuries.

Announcing the Adelaide seasons of Mary Said What She Said and Ensemble Pygmalion, South Australian Minister for Arts Andrea Michaels MP said, “We are proud to have recently contributed an additional $650,000 from the Malinauskas Government’s Arts Investment Fund, as previously announced, to support Adelaide Festival in 2026.”

She added, “This ensures that stories can continue to be told artistically and that audiences can experience the world’s best artists on South Australian stages, beginning with these two festival exclusives.”

Adelaide Festival will launch its full program on 27 October and opens on 27 February, 2026.