War of the Worlds

General public and school groups welcome

Recommended Ages: 12+
Content Warnings: Contains strong language, sexual references, references to mental illness and alien invasion/apocalypse themes. Utilises theatrical smoke and haze, sound pressure effects (loud noises) and pyrotechnics.
Approximate Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes – no interval

Adelaide Festival and Arena Theatre Company present

War of the Worlds

or that time a bunch of regional theatre companies tried to do an end of term showing during an alien invasion.

By Fleur Kilpatrick after H.G. Wells.

In a groundbreaking collaboration spanning more than a thousand kilometres of mallee scrub and desert, country teens bunker down to survive the War of the Worlds.

On the night of an alien invasion three regional theatre companies are presenting parallel versions of classic stories, including Frankenstein, Alice in Wonderland and Lord of the Flies. The teenagers have been practicing for weeks, collaborating across distance with Facetime, Zoom, phone calls and lots of memes. As aliens arrive and chaos descends on Australia, these three groups of young people and their friends in other far-flung places find the only communication they have with the outside world is with each other.

Part sci-fi thriller and part love letter to the resilience of today’s teens, experience the invasion with young people across two states as they hold tight to their friends, with their noise cancelling headphones and whatever scraps of news they can get.

Each performance of War of the Worlds occurs simultaneously in Whyalla, Barmera and Bendigo with unique location-specific scripts and in-person audiences in each location. Across the performance the three ensembles move between their own location specific experiences and interactions with the other locations using a combination of pre-recorded and live video and voice calls. 

Please note: Sessions times are noted in Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT).

SCHOOL EXCURSIONS

To make a school booking to attend one of our performances, please complete the School Booking Form. 

Image Credit: Sam Wannan

War of the Worlds is a new performance work written by Fleur Kilpatrick and co-created by D’faces (SA), Arena Theatre Co (VIC) and Riverland Youth Theatre (SA) with professional artists and teen ensembles in Whyalla, Bendigo, and the Riverland region, respectively.

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