in development.

Collegiality — a muddied schoolboy in blazer and tie holds a shovel

Collegiality

“What’s buried at the top stays buried.”

Emmet Richards arrives at St. Kostka looking for a fresh start. Oliver Brenn has already paid the price of belonging. As their friendship is tested by the school’s traditions and unspoken rules, the line between complicity and survival begins to blur. A darkly comic and unsettling story of friendship, power and the cost of fitting in.

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The Dig — collage artwork of Flinders Ranges stories around a map of Hawker

The Dig

The land hums with stories. Some are ready to be told. Others prefer to remain hidden.

An interactive theatrical excavation of South Australia's forgotten histories: where audiences choose their own path through music, performance and story. For families and young people aged 10+.

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A hand emerging from a mound of dark soil

Collegiality

by Matt Crook

about the show.

CAST: 5
DURATION: 110 Minutes
AUDIENCE: 16+
SCHOOLS: Years 11–12

Collegiality is a darkly comic psychological work set within the world of elite Australian boys’ boarding schools; institutions built on tradition, hierarchy, and silence.

Inspired by a series of real-world incidents that exposed cultures of misogyny, entitlement, and misconduct, the play examines the systems that allow such behaviour to emerge, escalate, and endure. Within these environments, patterns of behaviour are not only learned, but rewarded, absorbed into the fabric of what is considered normal.

Boys are not born broken. They are shaped.

At its core, Collegiality asks: how does an inherently good boy begin to make harmful choices?

The play operates with the logic of psychological horror; a world where identity is shaped under pressure, loyalty is enforced, and silence becomes a survival mechanism. Removed from family and immersed in a rigid social order, the boys are forced to navigate a landscape where complicity is currency, and resistance carries consequence.

While engaging with questions of class, power, and accountability, Collegiality remains grounded in friendship, finding a twisted humour in the absurdity of tradition, and the quiet, devastating cost of fitting in.

The Collegiality company in a script reading around a long table

behind the scenes.

development history.

October 11–15, 2021 | Windmill Rehearsal Studio, Adelaide

CAST: Aarod Vawser, Chris Asimos, Elizabeth Hay, James Smith, Julia Vosnakis

CREATIVES: Dramaturg. Elena Carapetis | Producer. Matt Crook

This development of Collegiality was made possible through The Department of Premier and Cabinet (through Arts SA's Arts Recovery Grant) and supported by Windmill Productions. Windmill generously donated the rehearsal space in 2021 and honoured a contract for a COVID cancelled tour, that allowed me to write the first draft in 2020.

January 13–17, 2025 | ADT Studio, Norwood

CAST: Annabel Matheson, Antoine Jelk, Chris Asimos, Elizabeth Hay, James Smith

CREATIVES: Dir. Corey McMahon | Dramaturg. Elena Carapetis | Producer. Annabel Matheson

This development of Collegiality was made possible by Theatre Republic and supported by the Department of Premier and Cabinet (through Arts SA) and Lesley Forwood.

excerpts.

BRENN: There, see? You feel that? That’s the sweet visage of apathy my friend. It will ensure your survival. The less people know you care, the less they know about you. And the less they know about you, the better. That’s power. Don’t let no one take your power from you.

MERRITT: I don’t know about you, but I need to know, for me, that when the time comes, I deserve that spot amongst my forebears. Bottom line: this is my final year and I’ve been here too long to leave with anything less than my destiny.

LONGROVE: There’s a reason he’s third speaker on the state debate team.

RICHARDS: Do you think they know what goes on here?

BRENN: What?

RICHARDS: Our parents. Like, do you think they think about us at all?

BRENN: Are you kidding? They’re the ones who sent us away. They don’t give a fuck. Unless we flunk, which we won’t because we’re smart. We’re not their problem anymore. Until that time, we’re here and they’re there and that’s that.

RICHARDS: They must do.

BRENN: I can assure you, they put very little thought into it, old Joc and Tanja. Probably decided it before I was born.

RICHARDS: You gonna have kids?

BRENN: Yeah man. Once I’ve taken over from dad. You’re looking at the future CEO of Brighton-BrennCast baby.

RICHARDS: So, you're gonna get married?

BRENN: Yeah man. All successful guys do. Even if it’s just for optics, you know. I mean I’ll fuck around for a while, just sow my seeds and shit, but eventually I will. Dad was a pants man.

RICHARDS: A pants man? What’s a pants man?

BRENN: The clue is in the name, sunshine. But you know, eventually when I’ve put in some time at BrennCast and I’m old, like thirty- maybe, I’ll settle down and marry.

BRENN’s phone buzzes. Silences it again.

BRENN: You?

RICHARDS: No way. Life is hard, man. Who wants to raise something that’s going to experience all that someday, knowing how hard it is? Who wants to be an adult full stop?

BRENN: I do.

RICHARDS: Why?

BRENN: Why not? Everything is better. You can do what you want.

RICHARDS: I thought you could do what you want now.

BRENN: Yeah, but it’s acceptable as an adult.

RICHARDS: Why is that? They’re not actually good at anything. They pretend they are, pretend they know things, how the world works but they don’t. They make it up as they go. Just like we do. The blokes that work in parliament, Dad’s mates, they’re loose units. I’ve seen the Minister for Mental Health cry alone in a car park at midnight. I’ve seen the Minister for Trade try to do a keg stand at a fundraiser and throw up on his own policy draft. These are the people running the country. They’re no smarter, no better, no safer. No happier, that’s for sure. I don’t think anyone actually ever grows up. I think this is it. Nothing changes, nothing ever gets better, and high school never ends.

BRENN: That’s bullshit. It gets better.

RICHARDS: I don’t think it will.

BRENN: It has to. There ain’t no one trying as hard as me. Ain’t no one sacrificing like me. I’ve got cocurriculars coming out my arsehole. I’m shitting electives, brother. I’m giving every piece of myself. So don’t tell me it’s never getting better.

BRENN: I know you know that’s not true.

The Dig in rehearsal — three performers mid-scene with a cardboard trilobite

The Dig

by Matt Crook

about the show.

CAST: 4
DURATION: 50 Mins
AUDIENCE: Families or young people aged 10+
SCHOOL YEARS: Year 5 – 12

The Dig is a theatrical excavation of South Australia’s forgotten histories, unearthing extraordinary (and mostly true) stories of curiosity and survival.

Meet Fred, our guide. A human encyclopedia of stories. Our wayfinder through deep time. Fred could just as easily fix your car as tell you the geological history of the road you broke down on.

Fred hands you a map and asks, “where do you want to start?”

Take a deep dive into the past, across time and space, peeling back the layers of the land to uncover buried stories - some by time, some by dust, some by choice. Will you step into the boots of outback mailmen battling the elements? Or help solve Darwin’s Dilemma? Perhaps you’ll sit beside the last Diproton as it faces extinction, its legend soon to be forever etched in stone.

Blending documentary theatre with magical realism, The Dig reveals history is alive. Choose your path and discover the stories shifting beneath your feet.

TL;DR

The Dig — poster collage: the land hums with stories

Structurally, The Dig is an interactive theatrical experience. Audiences choose where and when to go, jumping between moments in time, into different stories, and uncovering a layered, living history.

One moment, they’re in 1959, witnessing the search for lost boy, Nicholas Bannon in Ikara. The next, they’re catapulted 50,000 years back, sitting in the dust with a Diprotodon trying to make sense of a world that no longer makes sense of him.

At key moments, the audience chooses which stories are unearthed. Artefacts buried in the land serve as portals, unlocking different narratives. One performance they may uncover a battered boot and find themselves in an outback search. Another, a fossil might catapult them back to the Pleistocene. With the exception of the opening, the work is modular, scenes can be performed in any order, shaped by audience choices.

Beneath the spectacle, The Dig is about resilience. A theatrical adventure designed for curious minds, both young and old, inviting audiences to step into stories buried in their own backyard, to dig into history, and maybe, just maybe, to unearth something they weren’t expecting.

Interview with Matt Crook via InReview:
‘It’s so rare’: Indie-Mill encourages artists to dig deep for young audiences.

Interview with Matt Crook via ABC North & West
SA Breakfast with Tom Mann: Listen Here

The Dig in rehearsal — Fred points down the road while a trilobite watches on
The Dig rehearsal — Matt crouched with shovel and script The Dig rehearsal — Fred in his red flannel shirt The Dig rehearsal — a scene played against projected outback roads The Dig rehearsal — live music on guitar The Dig company — five faces in a moment of quiet The Dig rehearsal — Matt working through the script The Dig rehearsal — torchlight in the dark The Dig rehearsal — a strongman moment with a cardboard trilobite crown The Dig rehearsal — a searcher in scarf and stripes The Dig rehearsal — the company crouched around a discovery The Dig rehearsal — a lunge, a trilobite, and a moment of alarm

watch the showing.

too long; can't dig.

  • A ‘choose your own’ adventure style of storytelling – every performance is different
  • A brand-new idea developed by a team of all-South Australian artists.
  • Featuring live music composition by performer Kyron Weetra
  • Appeals to both young and adult audiences through its blend of story, humour and imagination
  • Inspired by Writer and Co-Director Matt Crook’s Grandfather, known to many as ‘Mr Flinders Ranges’, and the true stories of the region
  • Explores colonisation, survival, resilience, evolution and deep time with honesty and imagination
  • Balances truth, myth, humour and poignancy from the brutality of history to the wit of an extinct megafauna

creatives.

Writer / Development Co-Director — Matt Crook

Performer / Development Co-Director — Annabel Matheson

Performer — James Smith

Performer — Chris Asimos

Performer / Music Composer — Kyron Weetra

Set & Costume Designer — Olivia Zanchetta

Made possible by the incredible team at Windmill Productions.