From Australia’s internationally acclaimed Back to Back Theatre, a professional theatre company with an ensemble of actors with disabilities at its core, comes the darkly humorous film, SHADOW.

Simon, Scott and Sarah, a trio of activists with intellectual disabilities, hold a town hall meeting about the future impacts of artificial intelligence. Simon, considering himself a saviour for the community, quickly appoints himself the mayor, and Scott reluctantly steps into the role of facilitator, but soon becomes enamoured with his own power and begins to dismiss the experiences of others. Sarah, often overlooked and underestimated by her counterparts, explodes, confronting the self-appointed leaders on their inadequacies. What begins as a polite discussion quickly descends into bickering and chaos, seemingly provoked by a force within. Sarah acts to unite the group, only to realise the battle to get their message across may be lost already.

Directed by Bruce Gladwin, SHADOW is based on Back to Back Theatre’s extraordinary award-winning stage play The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes. Using a combination of dramatic and documentary-style elements to tell the story, it explores ideas of individual versus collective responsibility when we are trying to make decisions that are in the best interests of society.

Before the main event enjoy music from a local artist Katharina Fehringer and then two short film collaborations from Back to Back Theatre: RADIAL (Scotland, 2018), and the Darwin Festival edition of The Democratic Set (2012).

Stick around after the films for a post-show chat with key creatives about the work of this visionary company.