AustLit

It begins, as always, with a storm. Sit still and hear of my sea-sorrow.

'A chaotic storm erupts. A disastrous shipwreck ensues. Refugees Prospero, Miranda and Ariel are washed ashore on Christmas Island seeking asylum in Australia. But this side of the story is yet to be seen.  

'Award-winning playwright of ideas Helen Machalias returns to The Street with another work of social commentary, reimagining Shakespeare’s The Tempest for our time in This Rough Magic - an exhilarating epic of power reckoning, survival and the cost of pursuing the promise of a better life. 

'A powerful epic where ‘brave new world’ poetry collides with ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric and interpolations of Persian poetry, philosophy and storytelling to deliver a radically different representation of offshore detention.

'Acclaimed Director Beng Oh crafts an extraordinary fast-moving spectacle conjuring an island of strange sounds and wondrous sights, enigmatic characters, and surprising relationships. A terrific acting ensemble open up the spaces between myth and reality, life and death, freedom and control.

'Ambitious and thrilling This Rough Magic is a rich theatrical conversation with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, epic in scale and full of mysticism and longing. Not to be missed.' (Production summary)