Critical Conversations: Trophy Boys and The Importance of Being Earnest

In partnership with the State Library of South Australia, Critical Conversations is a new program that connects artists and audiences to explore the big ideas behind our productions, featuring leading creative, academic, and political voices who delve into the themes of selected plays from the season.

Trophy Boys and The Importance of Being Earnest
Performing Gender: why it’s so hot right now

We’re joined by an insightful panel, including independent director, theatre maker and dramaturg Teddy Dunn, playwright Anthony Nocera, Adelaide University Screen Studies teacher Dante DeBono, Artistic Director of State Theatre Company South Australia and director of The Importance of Being Earnest Petra Kalive and our host for the evening, lecturer in Women’s & Gender Studies at Flinders University Dr Cambrey Payne.

Date: Monday 13 April 2026

Time: 5.30pm for a 6.00pm start. Concluding at 7.00pm.

Location: Hetzel Lecture Theatre
Institute Building, State Library of South Australia
North Terrace, Adelaide 5000.

Tickets: $10 including a wine from The Lane

BOOK NOW

Please contact marketing@statetheatrecompany.com.au if you have any questions.

Dante DeBono
Dante DeBono is a screen studies teacher at Adelaide University with the goal of promoting social inclusivity and equality through her research and creative outputs. She is currently completing a PhD focused on the queer potential of revisionist adaptations in fiction through screenwriting-based practice-led research. She has been published in TEXT, New Writing, and The Conversation. You can find some of her creative writing in Green: A Blue Feet Anthology (2022) published by Buon-Cattivi Press.

Teddy Dunn
Teddy Dunn is an independent director, theatre maker and dramaturg who graduated from Flinders Drama Centre in 2015 with First Class Honours and a University Medal. Since his graduation, Teddy has directed four debuts of new Australian plays, he has directed students at AC Arts, and at Flinders University. He also works with a group of queer youth community members and ActNow Theatre. As an actor, Teddy has worked with State Theatre Company South Australia, the ABC, ActNow Theatre, Patch Theatre Company and Vitalstatistix. He was a participant in the 2015 Director’s Studio at Playwriting Australia, working on best practice for directors of new, Australian plays, and in 2016 won the Bendigo Bank Award with the Helpmann Academy.

Petra Kalive
Award-winning director, performer and arts leader Petra Kalive is Artistic Director of State Theatre Company South Australia. A former Associate Director at Melbourne Theatre Company and Artistic Director of Union House Theatre at the University of Melbourne, Petra has directed, supported and developed work across a range of Australia’s leading mainstage and small to medium theatre companies including Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St Theatre, Arena Theatre Company and St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre. Kalive has worked in leadership roles at Melbourne Theatre Company, La Mama, Union House Theatre at the University of Melbourne and Melbourne Playback Theatre, and held Board positions at Outer Urban Projects, Melbourne University Theatre and Complete Works Theatre Company. She has recently completed a Churchill Fellowship exploring the creation of extraordinary professional ‘public theatre’ with, for and by community.

Anthony Nocera
Anthony Nocera is a writer. His work has been published in places like The Guardian, The Age, The Suburban Review and The Saturday Paper among others. His play Log Boy will premiere as part State Theatre Company SA’s inaugural Spark program. His play My Hair is Thinning won the 2026 Midsumma Festival Queer Playwrighting Award.

Dr Cambrey Payne
Dr Cambrey Payne (he/they) is a trans, autistic lecturer in Women’s & Gender Studies at Flinders University. His most recent research explores autistic embodiment, with a focus on the intersection of autism with gender and sexuality. He is interested in the politics of identity, particularly in the current era of anti-feminist and anti-trans backlash.