SHOCK OF THE NEW
A vibrant and innovate interreactive production being staged for Festival 2018 promises to take its audiences on a delightfully wacky guided tour like no other
SHOCK Therapy Productions was founded in 2015 by Sam Foster and Hayden Jones.
Working across theatre, film and live events, the company delivers high quality, relevant, multidisciplinary performances.
We sat down with Mr Foster whose career has taken him to New York, London, Namibia, South Africa, Denmark, Norway and India as well as all over Australia.
He has won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for his work as a Stunt Performer in Mad Max — Fury Road. He was also awarded Best Director at the 2015 Matilda Awards.
His show Welcome to Sameville will be showcased at Festival 2018.
QTell us about your new work Sameville for Festival 2018?
Welcome to Sameville is an interactive, theatrical experience where people get to take a guided tour of a new autonomous region called Sameville. People will get to meet the characters inside Sameville and discover the truth about this regimen and the kind of things that have really been going on inside this place. It is a colourful and wacky world that will entertain
you and challenge the way you think about yourself, global politics, power, control and the idea of sameness.
QWhat is the inspiration behind your project?
The inspiration came from the desire to create a work for families that could be fun and entertaining while at the same time be thought provoking and address issues of suppression, freedom of expression, racism, manipulation, power and global politics. We were inspired by the works of Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl and Pixar films on this level. We were also inspired by great literary works such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
QWhat can audiences expect?
They can expect to get up close with strange characters, be inspired, be challenged, dance, eat lollies, take a “Sameness Test”, witness new technologies, join in secret missions and learn how to play Sameball.
QWhat does it mean to you to create a work for the arts and culture program of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games?
As a company that has only been established for three years this is definitely the biggest opportunity we have had to date. It is a privilege and honour to be included in a cultural program along with some of the best artists and companies in the World. This is what we have worked so hard for so it means an awful lot to us.
QHow do you think the local arts and cultural scene will benefit from Festival 2018?
I hope it will shows the residents of the Gold Coast that not only can we host an International Arts Festival, but a large portion of the program is filled with local Gold Coast based artists. I feel like Festival 2018 is a coming of age for the Gold Coast and it is a chance to show people that we are now a producer of world class work. I believe it will be a springboard for the local arts and cultural scene and will provide many future opportunities for artists both local and abroad.