The Schaubühne’s Richard III and a Floating Palais headline an “every one’s a winner” festival.

The Adelaide Festival has already bagged a fair few column inches for its initial announcements for 2017, with headline acts including Barrie Kosky’s dazzling Saul fresh from Glyndebourne Opera, Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River restaged in a local quarry and Miriam Margoyles licking her lips as she prepares to get her teeth into Peter and the Wolf. Today, Artistic Directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy have launched their full programme and it’s a doozy, with a beautifully balanced array of theatre, music and dance from Australia and all around the world.

Saul and The Secret River aside, a work from Berlin Schaubühne Artistic Chief Thomas Ostermeier could headline any festival in the world. His Hamlet garnered five-star reviews at the Sydney Festival a few years back and now it is the turn of Shakespeare’s ultimate villain: Richard III. “Lars Eidinger gives an utterly mesmerising performance that surpasses any performance of King Richard that I’ve seen – and that includes [Anthony] Sher,” says Armfield, talking over speakerphone from Melbourne where he is currently re-rehearsing Wagner’s Ring. A hit at this...