Images by Joshua Zeunert
A bold new South Australian theatre production is heading to the home of Romeo and Juliet in Italy, reimagining one of Shakespeare’s most iconic works through the lens of climate change, technology and the raw power of the natural world.
Created by Shakespeare South founder and Artistic Director Alys Daroy PhD, IL VENTO is an ecological adaptation of The Tempest that will be performed in Verona as part of the prestigious World Shakespeare Congress.
This combination of live performance, immersive soundscape and environmental reflection sees the production blend original music with electronic composition, drone cinematography and Shakespearean storytelling into a haunting exploration of humanity’s relationship with the elements.
Alys says The Tempest felt like the natural Shakespeare work to reinterpret for modern audiences because of how urgently its themes resonate today.
“I think The Tempest remains one of Shakespeare’s most urgent plays because it asks profound questions about power, control, magic (or technology) and humanity’s relationship with the natural world,” she shared. “The play emerged around 1611 during a period shaped by early scientific inquiry and the growing anxieties around resource depletion, including timber shortages linked to shipbuilding and land clearance.
“The Tempest sits at the intersection of these shifting worldviews — between enchantment and exploitation. Shakespeare gives us an island shaped by storms, magic, music, displacement and transformation. This is a place that feels both wondrous and deeply contested. Reading it now, in a time of climate crisis and ecological instability, those themes resonate in really powerful ways.”
The production draws heavily on South Australian environmental experiences, from drought and bushfires to the volatility of changing weather patterns. While the work expands into global themes around climate instability and deforestation, Alys says the emotional landscape of the production is unmistakably South Australian.
“South Australia is deeply embedded in the work, both aesthetically and emotionally,” she said. “Though we work nationally now, the cast and creative team are almost entirely South Australian-born and bred (Michaela Burger: Il Vento; Melanie Munt: Miranda; myself: Sycorax) while Paul Westbrook, who plays Caliban and originally comes from the UK has long been part of the South Australian arts community. I think that connection to place inevitably shapes the production’s emotional landscape.
“Growing up in South Australia means you are always attuned to the possibility of drought, the very real threat of bushfires and the volatility of weather events more broadly. When I worked in the UK, those realities felt more distant and abstract than they do here. In South Australia, the power of the elements is something you live alongside very consciously, and I think that inevitably shaped the emotional world of the play.”
The adaptation introduces the character of Il Vento, Italian for the wind, played by South Australian performer Michaela Burger. The character draws inspiration from Shakespeare’s Ariel while also embodying the chaotic unpredictability of nature itself.
Music and sound also play a central role in the production, with an original electronic score by Maestro Federico Zandonà and students from the Conservatorio di Verona paired alongside nine original live songs composed and performed by Michaela.
The production will also feature drone cinematography by Associate Professor Joshua Zeunert from The University of Adelaide, sound design from Dr Leo Murray, and puppetry elements created by performer Paul Westbrook.
For the Alys, taking an independent South Australian production overseas has been both exciting and daunting. “All theatre, but especially independent theatre, requires enormous resourcefulness,” she said. “We don’t currently have any funding and taking work internationally involves a huge amount of logistical, financial and emotional labour behind the scenes. We’re doing this through collaboration, goodwill and elbow grease!
“At the same time, it’s incredibly meaningful about taking an independent South Australian work to Verona for the World Shakespeare Congress. Being invited by both the International Shakespeare Association and the Conservatorio di Verona is a great honour and we want to represent our home state in a way that does justice to our incredible arts scene here.
“I also think there’s something beautiful about the circularity of it—taking an Australian ecological adaptation of Shakespeare back into an international conversation in Italy, while still remaining grounded in our own landscapes, voices and experiences.”
At its core, IL VENTO is not designed to leave audiences hopeless. Instead, the production hopes to inspire wonder and renewal.
“If audiences leave feeling both emotionally moved and slightly more respectful of wind, weather and the sea, we’ll feel we’ve done our job,” she concluded.
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