That started us thinking about the Storm Boy phenomenon. I returned to the Ambience Entertainment office and told my producing partner Michael Boughen.'īoughen (Tomorrow, When The War Began, The Loved Ones, Killer Elite) continues: 'I said to Matthew, 'I didn't know it was a play' and he said, 'Yes, and the season is fully booked out'. 'I tried to book tickets for myself and my 11-year-old son, but it was sold out. 'The Barking Gecko Theatre Company from Western Australia was staging the play in partnership with the Sydney Theatre Company,' recalls Street. Sydney based producer Matthew Street (Tomorrow, When The War Began, The Bank Job, W, The Messenger) had studied the book in primary school, as many Australian school children still do, a memory that drew him in 2013 to take notice of a new stage adaptation.

However, Mr Percival soon returns and the extraordinary bond between the two will change Storm Boy's life forever.Ī pending vote to turn the hunting ground into a bird sanctuary brings danger into their secluded world and when sudden tragedy strikes again, young Michael is pushed into the outside world and forced to slowly leave his identity as 'Storm Boy' behind.Īs day comes and Michael Kingley completes his story, the reconnection with his past brings him back to life and decisions will be made that impact not just his own future and that of his family, but the future of the precious world around him.Ĭolin Thiele's novella Storm Boy, which tells the story of a young boy and his extraordinary friendship with an orphaned pelican on South Australia's remote Coorong National Park, has enchanted and moved Australians for over half a century. The pelicans grow and Storm Boy reluctantly returns them to their breeding ground, so they can live wild, amongst their own kind. Storm Boy fiercely dedicates himself to rearing the weak and vulnerable animals, naming them Mr Proud, Mr Ponder, and ' the smallest and most vulnerable ' Mr Percival.

The Coorong has a bird breeding ground and a hunting area and one day, after befriending an Aboriginal man, Fingerbone Bill (Trevor Jamieson), Storm Boy rescues three pelican chicks whose mother has been killed by hunters. Hideaway Tom retreated here after experiencing personal tragedy, to protect his son from a harsh and unforgiving world. To prevent Maddy travelling down a path similar to one he took years before, Michael tells his granddaughter the formative story of his youth, when as 'Storm Boy' (Finn Little), he lived a lonely existence with his father Hideaway Tom (Jai Courtney) on a small shack between the isolated Ninety Mile Beach and the Coorong in South Australia. Maddy is angered by the pending decision and its environmental impact and directs her fury towards her father. Malcolm travels to Sydney on urgent overnight business, leaving Michael to collect his troubled granddaughter Maddy (Morgana Davies) and spend time with her at the Downer's sprawling house, overlooking a private beach. However, Michael starts to see things he at first can't explain, and the vote is delayed a day when a storm unleashes its fury, wrecking the company's boardroom. His son-in-law Malcolm Downer (Erik Thomson) is confident the board will approve the lease without a hitch as they're all, it would seem, on the same page.

Synopsis: Michael Kingley (Geoffrey Rush), a world-weary retired businessman, travels to Adelaide to vote as a director of the company he founded on the leasing of vast farming lands in the Pilbara region to a mining company. Cast: Jai Courtney, Geoffrey Rush, Morgana Davies, Erik Thomson, Finn Little

Jai courtney storm boy