Adelaide Festival's Beyond Borders Venture Fund to Back VISIONS OF GOD SUPPORT GROUP

Adelaide Festival has announced that Visions of God Support Group, a new theatre work by South Australian playwright Hew Parham and director Chris Drummond, is the inaugural recipient of the Beyond Borders Venture Fund.

The Venture Fund represents a significant evolution of Adelaide Festival's Beyond Borders initiative, which since 2024 has supported engagement between South Australia's independent artists and the Festival's acclaimed international program.

Established through the generosity of a donor group led by William Boyle and Emeritus Professor Julie Holledge, Beyond Borders was founded to further the opportunities for South Australians to meaningfully engage with the world's leading artists and performances, and to help ensure the Festival's investment in international excellence also enriches the local creative ecology.

Over the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Festivals, 75 South Australian artists have participated in the initiative, with a cohort of 50 artists engaged each year. Participants receive complimentary access to a curated selection of Adelaide Festival's international productions and opportunities to engage directly with visiting artists and creative teams. The initiative includes First Nations artists and artists with disability, reflecting the diversity and strength of South Australia's independent creative community.

A distinctive feature of Beyond Borders is its use of data from the AusStage database, the nationally significant live performance archive established and maintained by Flinders University. For more than two decades, AusStage has documented the production history of Australian live performance, creating an invaluable record of artistic activity across the country.

Each year, the Beyond Borders cohort is refreshed to reflect artists who have been most active in South Australia's independent performing arts sector over the preceding 12 months. Drawing on AusStage data helps ensure the initiative remains connected to artists currently contributing to and shaping the state's creative landscape.

In 2026, Beyond Borders has taken a major step forward through the creation of the Beyond Borders Venture Fund. Raised by the donor group and matched by the South Australian Government, the Fund provides $100,000 in creative development support for an ambitious independent South Australian work.

The Festival received 23 applications from Beyond Borders participants, reflecting both the quality and breadth of independent artistic practice in South Australia.

Following assessment, Visions of God Support Group was selected as the inaugural recipient.

Written by Hew Parham and directed by Chris Drummond, Visions of God Support Group is an ambitious new theatre work that brings together a range of Beyond Borders participants and South Australian independent artists.

Ambitious in both theatrical and visual scale, the project represents the kind of work that is often difficult to realise within existing development pathways. The Venture Fund is intended to support projects of this type, helping ambitious independent works take their next creative leap under the auspices of Adelaide Festival.

Visions of God Support Group will receive a creative development showing as part of Adelaide Festival 2027.

Set in the purgatorial suburb of Parkwood, the work centres on a modest hall, where a small support group gathers every Tuesday night. Each member believes they have experienced a vision of God. What unfolds is a time-travelling, reality-splintering negotiation between belief and doubt, isolation and connection.

Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Matt Lutton said the Venture Fund reflected a long-term commitment to supporting South Australian artists and strengthening the state's independent arts sector.

"The Beyond Borders Venture Fund recognises that South Australia's independent artists are generating ambitious ideas and exceptional work, and that sometimes what is needed is the opportunity and support to take the next creative step."

"We were delighted by the quality of applications received and are thrilled to support Hew, Chris and the wider creative team behind Visions of God Support Group."

Hew Parham said “I'm beyond thrilled and feeling incredibly privileged to receive the Beyond Borders Venture Funding to support the development of Visions of God Support Group. The work explores themes of loneliness, questions of faith and the search for connection through the lens of a support group. The show is interested in the big questions, but also in the small acts of care that get us through the day. It perhaps starts with the beginning of the universe and maybe ends with a cup of tea.

This funding is a remarkable gift for an independent artist, providing the time and resources to fully explore an ambitious idea and collaborate with exceptional artists to interrogate and elevate a new work in progress. I feel this show is trying to speak to something deep that many of us are reaching for in our lives, and I'm honoured that it gets to be explored through the generosity of the donors to the inaugural Venture Fund.”

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