The Australian Premiere of SHELLSHOCKED Comes to Holden Street Theatre This Fringe

Award-winning playwright and Fringe favourite Philip Stokes will bring his latest play Shellshocked to Holden Street Theatres.

Performed by Jack Stokes and Lee Bainbridge, Shellshocked tells the story of a young soldier Wesley (Stokes), broken by the horrors of World War 2. On returning home and in desperate need of a job, he is interviewed by local portrait painter Mr Lupine for a vacant apprenticeship. Wesley encounters another kind of madness inside the artist's studio, which threatens to push him to destruction as he discovers the ulterior motives behind the artist's palette...

Shellshocked continues multi-award-winning Holden Street Theatres (under the Artistic leadership of Martha Lott) and TONY, Olivier and EMMY award-winning UK artistic producer, Richard Jordan's long association of producing and presenting acclaimed new international writing at Adelaide's premiere new writing theatre. Past collaborations include Heroin(e) for Breakfast, Jesus Jane Mother and Me, My Filthy Hunt all by Philip Stokes, Believe, and Bitch Boxerwhich have won multiple Adelaide Fringe awards.

Shellshocked receives it Australian Premiere Exclusive to Adelaide following a sell-out season at the Edinburgh Fringe and UK tour. In May 2025 the production will transfer to New York for a season Off-Broadway.

Philip Stokes' critically acclaimed plays include Heroin(e) For Breakfast, LASH, Über Hate Gang, My Filthy Hunt, Jesus, Jane, Mother and Me. His work has had sold-out productions across the globe, winning awards including The Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award and the Adelaide Holden Street Theatre Award, along with gaining five-star reviews from international press. He is recognised by the British Library as a Culturally Important Playwright of the 21st Century. He has enjoyed a long association with the Adelaide Fringe where his award-winning plays Heroin(e) For Breakfast and Jesus, Jane, Mother and Me have also played the Adelaide Fringe winning their prestigious weekly theatre awards.

Jack Stokes (Wesley Hepton) is 20 years old, from Leeds, and has had no professional training. He is an award-winning actor who has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the last two years in two highly acclaimed one-man shows. Jesus, Jane, Mother, and Me gathered over twenty 5-star reviews and won Theatre Weekly's 'Best Solo Performance', the Holden Street Theatre Award, and the Adelaide Critics Circle Award. The show toured the UK and Australia, where it was the Critics' Pick, and received 5 stars from The Stage. His next show, LASH, had a sellout run at The Pleasance, won Theatre Weekly's 'Best Monologue', and was nominated for an OFFIE. Shellshocked is his first production working alongside another actor.

To post a comment, you must register and login.