What happens when yesterday's revolutions are placed in the hands of tomorrow's performers?
Flinders University's Drama Centre presents The Shock of the New in Adelaide, a curated anthology of scenes from pivotal South Australian theatre productions - works that challenged form, ignited cultural debate, and helped reshape our understanding of what theatre can be.
This bold new performance season runs from August 6-9 in the Matthew Flinders Theatre at Flinders University's Bedford Park campus.
Performed by the graduating actors of the Bachelor of Performance (Honours), The Shock of the New in Adelaide transforms archival research into dynamic live theatre.
From iconic breakthroughs to little-known provocations, this vivid, shape-shifting evening of performance offers both celebration and interrogation of Adelaide's radical theatrical past.
Highlighting memorable works premiered in South Australia by Australian and international writers such as Patrick White, Howard Barker, Louis Nowra and Jean Genet, to name a few.
The production is directed by Chris Drummond, inaugural Australian Creative Histories and Futures Artist in Residence at Flinders and the immediate past Artistic Director of Brink Productions.
Launched last month, the Australian Creative Histories and Futures project brings the Flinders University-hosted AusStage database together with Design and Art Australia Online and over 50 years of invaluable data held by Creative Australia.
Yearly artists in residence form a key part of the project, with Chris Drummond appointed to create a theatrical tour of Adelaide's innovative past, using his archival research alongside the students to reanimate the data into living form.
In so doing, the project hopes to see these moments anew-and to re-enter them from new critical directions to understand their impact in the broad sweep of Australia's creative history and future.
The Shock of the New in Adelaide is the students' creative response to the Drama Centre's 50th anniversary celebrations, held last year - a milestone that honoured five decades of innovation in actor and director training.
At that event, students engaged with generations of alumni, culminating in an inspiring Wal Cherry Lecture delivered by Jim Sharman and Scott Hicks, who issued a call to arms: to carry forward the Drama Centre's spirit of risk, imagination, and artistic leadership. This production answers that call.
The production marks the latest collaboration with long-standing Design Artist in Residence Kathryn Sproul, whose experience as one of Australia's leading stage designers brings a unifying visual logic to the anthology format.
Delivered through the University's partnership with State Theatre Company South Australia, for whom Sproul has designed numerous memorable productions, the team also proudly welcomes back Mark Pennington as Lighting Designer - a distinguished alumnus who trained as an actor at Flinders before becoming one of South Australia's most sought-after lighting designers. Their combined expertise brings polish and theatrical invention to this capstone performance.
"Some plays began here," says Drummond. "Others landed here and left a mark. In The Shock of the New, we ask what happens when those past provocations meet the passion and intelligence of young performers making sense of their own moment.
"Staged with striking imagery and shaped by performer-led interpretation, the performance is more than a retrospective - it is a living conversation between eras, artists, and audiences."
The Australian Creative Histories and Futures (ACHF) project is a partnership with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) through the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons. The ARDC is enabled by the Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
PERFORMANCES:
August 6, 7, 8, 9 at 7:30pm
Matinee: August 8 at 11:00am
VENUE:
Matthew Flinders Theatre, Humanities Road, Bedford Park (Nearest parking: Carpark 5)
TICKETS:
Adult: $25 | Concession: $18 | Student: $12
https://events.flinders.edu.au/events/the-shock-of-the-new-in-adelaide/
Presented by: Flinders Drama Centre - Bachelor of Performance (Honours)
Featuring performances by Flinders Drama Centre's 2025 graduating actors:
Eliza Barnes, Rohan Becker, Ariel Dzino, Liam Hennessy, Alex Karytinos, Isiah Macaspac, Abby McDougall, Hannah McGrath, and Shardae Santos.
