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. 

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.