The Legend of King O’Malley is part of the Reginald Season 2014.

(Kind of) Based on a (mostly) true story, The Legend of King O’Malley is a wild romp of epic story telling. When King tried to trick the devil out of a contract for his life, the devil punished him by killing his one true love. Broken and dying, King boards a ship to Australia which crashes off the coast of Rockhampton. He miraculously recovers and finds himself in the real land of opportunity. King O’Malley was one of the most colorful figures in Australia’s federation history; who knows when we will need someone like him again.

First produced in 1970, The Legend of King O’Malley heralded the new wave of Australian theatre when first produced at Jane St Theatre/Nimrod setting a tone for theatrical works dealing with Australia’s history. The original cast featured such Australian theatre royalty as Robin Nevin, Gillian Jones and was originally directed by John Bell for NIDA at the Old Tote.

Don’t Look Away are a company dedicated to mounting invigorating, imaginative and exploratory reactions to classic Australian plays. This production of The Legend of King O’Malley will be epic in its scope, satirical in its tone, and polemic in its attitudes. They will be drawing on bawdy cultural references of modern day revivals, the presentation of war from 20th century cinema, and the international opinions of Australian politics (are we, indeed, a ‘pack o’Gallahs’?). But most importantly, it will be side splitting-ly hilarious.