Overview
Discover the secret power of words
Pip Williams’ award-winning New York Times bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words is brought to vivid life in this wildly popular stage adaptation by Verity Laughton. “Filled with humour and historical awareness” (Broadway World) and expertly directed by Jessica Arthur, it’s no wonder this play has become a runaway success.
It’s 1886 and the very first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is being compiled. Four-year-old Esme Nicoll has a front row seat. Well, she’s hiding under the sorting table, anyway. As her father and his male colleagues decide which words stay and which go, Esme collects the discarded scraps to compile her own far more magical dictionary. A sweeping historical tale, The Dictionary of Lost Words follows Esme from her childhood in the 1880s, into adulthood at the height of the women’s suffrage movement and the beginning of the First World War.
This beloved modern classic, featuring Arkia Ashraf, Rachel Burke, Ksenja Logos, Angela Nica Sullen and Shannen Alyce Quan, is a beautiful and transportive reflection on the love between a daughter and her father and a spellbinding night of theatre.
A best-selling multi-award winner (including the People’s Choice Award at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards) and chosen for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club, the book has been lauded as an “absorbing, quietly revolutionary novel”, “deeply, intrinsically kind [and] a profoundly comforting place to dwell” (The Age) and “a captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded” (New York Times).
Presented by State Theatre Company of South Australia, Sydney Theatre Company and QPAC
This event is part of the QPAC 40 program, celebrating 40 years of curiosity, inclusion, gathering and stories.
Gallery
Cast and Creatives
- Adapted by Verity Laughton from the novel by Pip Williams
- Director Jessica Arthur
- Set Designer Jonathon Oxlade
- Costume Designer Ailsa Paterson
- Lighting Designer Trent Suidgeest
- Composer & Sound Designer Max Lyandvert
- Assistant Director Shannon Rush
- Marketing Image Lisa White
- With cast Arkia Ashraf, Rachel Burke, Ksenja Logos, Angela Nica Sullen and Shannen Alyce Quan
Accessibility
For wheelchair users, Companion Card holders or those requiring assistance, dedicated seating options are available, and bookings can be made through our Call Centre by giving us a call on 136 246. You can also find information on access and accessibility at QPAC here.
To book the below accessibility enhanced performances please call QPAC Group Sales on 07 3840 7466 or email groups@qpac.com.au. You can find a full list of accessibility enhanced performances including Audio-Described / Auslan Interpreted / Captioned / Relaxed / Tactile tours here.
Auslan Interpreted
Selected performances are professionally signed by Auslan interpreters.
Tactile Tour
Tactile tours offer blind and low-vision patrons the chance to touch and examine props and costumes and hear the cast and crew describe the visual aspects of the production.
- Sat 10 May 2025, 11:30 AM
Audio Described
Trained Audio Describers provide a commentary with concise descriptions of actions, expressions and gestures to compliment the theatre experience for patrons who are blind or have low vision. Description is relayed via a discreet headset using radio frequency.
- Sat 10 May 2025, 1:00 PM