SEA PROJECT

Love versus survival – would our instincts dictate that we choose the latter? Arthur, an award-winning production company, addresses this and more in their latest tale of migration and love. In this exciting new work, director Paige Rattray is teamed up again with one of Australia’s hottest playwrights, Elise Hearst. “The reason I began working with Elise is because of this script,” she explains. “It took me completely by surprise. At times it’s so intense and dramatic and at the flip of a coin you’re laughing and in a completely different world.” But this world is one that many Australians will relate to. “Anyone who has been away from home or had to settle in a new place will really connect with the story of what people go through when they try to assimilate.”

Partly inspired by Hearst’s family history and her grandmother’s escape from WWII Poland, the complex love story follows Bob who finds Eva washed up on the shore with a missing a finger and a lost memory. It’s not long before Bob is falling in love with Eva, but when a mysterious rogue called Maciek turns up a series of dramas unfold. “We cover a lot of ground. Elise’s writing is very sparse but there’s so much subtext underneath,” Rattray explains.

And the Tasmanian-born director is engaging with the play on a myriad of levels. “When you work in theatre it’s always important to focus on your achievements and take that into the future with you. And that’s what Eva does – acknowledges her past and decides to move forward and that gives us hope.”

Sep 6-29, Griffin SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod Street, Kings Cross, $15-30, 9361 3817 griffintheatre.com.au