

It’s a rock’n’roll cabaret with a dark and twisted secret which stumbles into the den of acrobatic sailors, a smiling magician and an aloof hirsute songstress.


For its 21st season performing under the stars at the Botanical gardens, The Australian Shakespeare Company invites us to enter a world of magical mayhem.

There is a refined synergy in Michael Kantor’s production of Optimism, a modern reworking of Voltaire’s classic adventure.