Butel, currently performing in the State Theatre Company and Windmill Theatre co-production of Rumpelstiltskin at the Southbank Centre in London, has built a strong reputation in the performing arts, having acted in more than 100 professional plays and directed a wide range of works.

He has also won four Helpmann Awards, most recently for his role in Mr Burns – A Post Electric Play (a State Theatre Company/Belvoir production).

Butel will relocate from Sydney to take up the position in Adelaide in March, the same month Brookman will present his last show with the company – a one-man adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm – before moving to Berlin with his family.

Brookman, who has been artistic director for the past six years, says he has no doubt the company’s new AD “will push it to even greater heights and ensure that the best theatre in the country continues to be made in Adelaide”.

“Mitchell is both an extraordinary performer and incisive director but more than that, he is a storyteller of the highest order and a person I have the deepest possible respect for.

“I can’t wait to see what he’ll do – South Australia is in for a wonderful adventure.”

Butel says many of his own “all-time favourite” viewing and performing experiences have been at State Theatre Company, adding: “I look forward to laying groundwork for similarly transformative, provocative and entertaining experiences for other audiences and artists.”

State Theatre says he was appointed after “an exhaustive search”.