Sunday Arts Magazine

7 Nov 2022

Emilia

Arts, Performing Arts, Sunday Arts Magazine

LISTEN TO PODCAST NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:00 — 10.1MB)

Subscribe or Follow Us: Apple Podcasts | Podchaser | Email | RSS

From the West End to Australia, the ground-breaking triple Olivier Award-winning stage show EMILIA makes its Australian debut at Arts Centre Melbourne from 10 – 27 November.

Inspired by 17^th century poet and revolutionist Emilia Bassano – the supposed ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets – this highly lauded show, written by British playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, features a team entirely made up of women and non-binary creatives from diverse cultural backgrounds.

It’s 1609. Emilia Bassano is a writer, wife, lover, mother and muse. All she wanted was her voice to be heard. Could she have been the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What about her own poems? Why was her story erased from history?

Over 400 years later, women are still faced with sexism, inequality and harassment. In recent times where the #MeToo movement and Roe vs Wade have been most prevalent, it seems that we are not evolving fast enough. This theatre piece shows that we are Emilia, that we must stand up alongside her and be counted.

Fierce and provocative, EMILIA is the perfect mix of comedy and fury; a rollicking ride that takes audiences on an exuberant and moving journey though love, loss, identity, ambition, power, rebellion and what it is to be a woman in a man’s world.