SHADOWS OF HERSELF- A new one woman play by ANNA THOMAS
After seven sell out seasons at the Adelaide Fringe for her critically acclaimed one woman show How To Drink Wine Like A Wànker, and receiving an award for best theatre in 2026, multi-award winning playwright, performer and producer, Anna Thomas prepares to debut her latest production, Shadows of Herself, at Holden Street Theatres 2026 Adelaide Fringe.
Directed by multi-award winning theatre maker Hannah Maxwell
“Her shadows fall to the floor.
Scattered.
Disconnected.
Two Dimensional and empty.
She picks them up, lovingly.
Individually and collectively all at once.
Because she must rise at that moment.
She must make peace with all the women she has been,
the woman she is now, and all the women she is yet to become…”
Mornings are chaos. The vision of a poised businesswoman mocks her in the rear mirror. A new mother strolls past, baby nestled in a pram more valuable than her car. A seasoned mother leaps from the lofty heights of an SUV. She isn’t a stay-at-home mum; she’s a domestic engineer. A young woman parks abruptly, no ring, suit and flip flops, heels in bag, an apologetic smile permanently plastered on her face as they race past.
A battle of identity under the weight of her own expectations.
She is surrounded by Shadows of Herself.
Shadows of Herself was first launched in the 2025 Adelaide Fringe as a work in progress and was a finalist for the 2025 Holden Street Theatres’ Adelaide Fringe Award.
Thomas has remounted ‘Shadows Of Herself’ under the masterful direction of multi-award winning theatre maker, Hannah Maxwell, from London, UK.
“Shadows of Herself was borne from an energy rising inside of me, a feeling of being old, tired, grateful and enraged all at once. I was reading Emery Hall’s poem ‘I have been a thousand different women’ and I realised that underneath the exhaustion there was an anger and a passion brewing inside of me, deep in my soul. A realisation that half the population have untold stories, many of which are not extraordinary, but by the sheet success of their existence, the women who hold these stories are extraordinary” Anna Thomas
Praise for previous work:
★★★★★ ‘It’s impossibly intimate, like we’re drinking her story, her life’ (GreatScott.media).
★★★★★ ‘Received one of the most thoroughly earned rounds of applause I’ve ever witnessed’ (TulpaMagazine.com).
★★★★1/2 ‘A theatrical spectrum’ (Advertiser, Adelaide).
★★★★★ ‘an intimacy incomparable to other theatre experiences’ (On the Record)
★★★★★ ‘In sharing her personal journey, Thomas takes us on a journey of our own, and the result is simply magical’ (The Student, Edinburgh)
★★★★★ ‘HTDWLAW was, without a doubt, one of my favorite theatre experiences this year and it has nothing to do with the fact that there were 6 glasses of wine involved’ (Theatre Travels)
★★★★★ ‘There’s also a touch of Sideways about it – but dare I say, better.’ (Tulpa Magazine)
Shadows of Herself
WHEN: February 18th – March 22nd 2026
PRICES: prices vary from $38 – $32
WHERE: The Barbara Hardy Garden Holden St Theatres
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