State of Shock

Based on the true story of Alwyn Peter, a Queensland Aboriginal charged with murder in 1979. In September 1981 an historic legal precedent was set in the Queensland Criminal Court when he was released on parole. After a year of gathering expert evidence, Alwyn Peter's defence lawyers presented a case showing that men like Peter were shaped and destroyed by their artificially created environments on Queensland reserves. The play is the result of interviews with Alwyn Peter, his family, friends and defence counsel.

In 1982 Tony Strachan received a grant from the Australia Council to travel to Weipa and Brisbane to research Alwyn Peter's story. The play was workshopped at the National Playwrights' Conference in 1984, and premiered at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre in 1986.