Staging Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods and Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel on alternate nights across the same week must have sounded hugely ambitious in the planning phase.

That ambition, by artistic director Dane Lam and director Constantine Costi, has paid off handsomely with two wonderful productions. Both shows take us into the depths of the forest where familiar fairy tales become considerably darker as we confront our fears and our desires.

The two productions use largely the same set, a stylised over-sized forest, with individual flats and props to change the scenes. The forest is used to great advantage in each show, creating an intriguing visual and musical dialogue for audiences who see both, but equally impressive if you just see one.

State Opera of South Australia’s Into the Woods. Photo © Andrew Beveridge

Into the Woods is, on the surface, a confection of fairy tales including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. With music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James Lapine, Into the Woods takes these familiar tales and digs deeper. What...