Back To Back Theatre Premieres Major New Work THE SHADOW WHOSE PREY THE HUNTER BECOMES

Back to Back Theatre's newest work, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes asks its audience to consider a history we would prefer not to remember, and a future that is ambivalent.

The work will have its world premiere at Carriageworks in Sydney on 25 September, before returning to the company's home town with performances at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre. The Australian season will conclude at Arts Centre Melbourne as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, including a Q&A panel with Human Rights Watch on 17 October.

Inspired by its own ensemble of actors with intellectual disabilities, Back to Back Theatre is a leading voice in contemporary world theatre and one of Australia's most important cultural exporters. Over the last decade, the multi-award-winning company has presented 44 national and 82 international seasons of its work. This continues with North American performances of The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes at the Arts Emerson in Boston, The Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and Stanford University, California in early 2020.

Co-conceived by four performing core ensemble artists of Back to Back Theatre - Mark Deans, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price and Simon Laherty, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes weaves a persistent narrative through the ethics of mass food production, human rights, the social impact of automation and the projected dominance of Artificial Intelligence in the world.

A theatrical revelation inspired by mistakes, misreadings, misleadings and misunderstanding, drawn from true stories of exploitation, Back to Back's Artistic Director Bruce Gladwin says The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes will remind us that none of us are self-sufficient and all of us are responsible.

Back to Back Theatre is immensely proud to bring a new work to its home bases and amazing audiences in Sydney, Geelong and Melbourne, says Executive Producer Alice Nash. We can't wait for audiences to intelligently decipher what this work means to them all.

Back to Back Theatre is part funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes has been co-commissioned by Carriageworks, the Keir Foundation, the Thyne Reid Foundation and The Anthony Costa Foundation, supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus 1, withdevelopment support from the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Une Parkinson Foundation, The Public Theater (New York City) and ArtsEmerson (Boston).

The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes was developed, in part, at the 2019 Sundance Theatre Lab at MASS MoCA.

Back to Back Theatre creates new forms of contemporary performance imagined from the minds and experiences of a unique ensemble of actors with a disability, giving voice to social and political issues that speak to all people. Based in the regional centre of Geelong, the company is one of Australia's most globally recognised and respected contemporary theatre companies. In addition to its professional practice Back to Back collaborates intensively with communities around the world, with a focus on artistic excellence and elevated social inclusion for people with disabilities.

Back to Back Theatre has received 18 national and international awards including in recent years, the Audience Award for Best Short at Adelaide Film Festival, Performance Studies International's Artist-Scholar-Activist Award, a Helpmann Award for Best Australian Work, an Edinburgh International Festival Herald Angel Critics' Award, a New York Bessie and the Myer Foundation Group Award for longstanding contribution to the development of Australian theatre. In 2015, Bruce Gladwin received the Australia Council for the Arts' Inaugural Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre. www.backtobacktheatre.com

Back to Back Theatre presents
THE SHADOW WHOSE PREY THE HUNTER BECOMES

25 -28 September, Carriageworks, Sydney
3-6 October, Geelong Performing Arts Centre
9 -20 October, Melbourne International Arts Festival

Bookings & Info: https://backtobacktheatre.com/projects/shadow/