War of the worlds
In Collaboration with Riverland Youth Theatre and Arena Theatre Company
Aliens, anxiety, and the end of the world.
War of the Worlds is an ambitious theatre project conceived by award winning playwright Fleur Kilpatrick (also the Artistic Director here at Riverland Youth Theatre). The show will be performed simultaneously in Whyalla (SA), Barmera (SA) and Bendigo (VIC) by youth ensembles from D'faces, Riverland Youth Theatre and Arena Theatre Company, respectively.
The premise of this new adaptation of War of the Worlds is that, on the night of an alien invasion, three regional theatre companies are presenting parallel versions of scenes from classics. As chaos begins to descend on Australia, these companies of young people find the only communication they have with the outside world is with each other. This script is a tribute to the resilience and friendship of the teens in these regional theatre companies, the ways in which they look after their friends and survived covid and everything else the 21st Century is hurling at them.
War of the Worlds connects multiple performance spaces in regional communities and, through a combination of pre-recorded ‘alien sightings’, Facetime and audio calls between live performers, creates a performance that also provides artistic opportunities and networks for young people in remote towns.
War of the Worlds has already undergone development in 2022 and 2023, supported by Arts South Australia, PAC Australia (through Local Giants) and the Fairfax Initiative. This development has so far included creative development periods with the directors from Arena, RYT and Dfaces, workshops with teenagers in Whyalla & the Riverland, and writing time for Fleur to complete full draft of the script. At the time of writing this application we have been invited to attend APAX (the annual National Performing Arts Market) to pitch War of the Worlds, and we have also been invited to attend the Fairfax Festival for a final two-week development and staged reading outcome, which is where we will develop support material for further funding applications, and Fleur will workshop location specific variations on the script.