By Oscar Wilde, Presented by Theatre Works and Little Ones Theatre, 2018

A lush gothic fable, The Nightingale and The Rose, explores the beauty of love, art, creation, and song from the perspective of an effervescent nightingale who hears the longing cries of a young student desperate to find a red rose to give to his sweetheart.

On her quest to retrieve the red rose for the lovesick student, the nightingale is confronted with a haunting decision that will shake her and the very universe to its core, her life and voice for a red rose, or eternal heartbreak.

Told through a highly stylised, visual, and queer aesthetic, Little Ones Theatre’s exploration of Oscar Wilde’s most bewitching and melancholic fairy tale will unpack the adult longing laced within Wilde’s poetic prose, highlighting idealistic and cynical perspectives of love with all his decadent symbolism, sweeping romanticism and biting wit.

The second part of Little Ones Theatre's proposed Oscar Wilde trilogy resonated with audiences and critics alike, garnering standout reviews. It played at Theatre Works from 30 May until 10 June, 2018. The Nightingale and the Rose received two Green Room Award nominations including Best Performer (Jennifer Vuletic) and Best Lighting Design (Katie Sfetkidis).

With: Jennifer Vuletic, Brigid Gallacher, Yuchen Wang

Director: Stephen Nicolazzo
Set and Costume Design: Eugyeene Teh
Lighting Design: Katie Sfetkidis
Sound Design and Composition: Daniel Nixon
Stage Manager: Jacinta Anderson

★★★★ "Director Stephen Nicolazzo has constructed an exquisite ode to Romanticism in this adaptation, as detailed and precise as anything he’s put on stage before. These adaptations by Little Ones of Wilde’s stories for children are minor gems, perfect distillations of form and content. Their queerness is inherent...The true essence of their queerness doesn’t really lie in gender or even sexuality; it’s in an idea of otherness as something incredibly fragile and worthy of protection or elevation. They intrinsically point to the author’s nature, and Nicolazzo is the ideal theatre maker to bring them, quivering and beautiful, back into the light." Tim Byrne, Time Out

★★★★ “The ingredients that make up this production are a recipe for brilliance. I was captivated. Keeps your mind ticking over. A must.” Liddy Clark, Stage Noise