O, Ophelia staged at a UniSQ Arts Block Theatre

The play explores a concerning trend in modern relationship that has trapped and traumatised too many women.

Performing in O, Ophelia on March 24 are third year University of Southern Queensland acting students (from left) Emmy Riber and Tiani Clark.

The University of Southern Queensland will host a travelling performance of O, Ophelia, a heartbreaking exploration of the insidious power of coercive control.

Written and directed by acclaimed artist Amber Grossmann, the piece pairs the theatre company’s professional actors with UniSQ students, giving the young actors first-hand experience of a career on stage.

With a nod to the Shakespearean namesake, the piece centres on Ophelia, a teen from Far North Queensland who falls in love with Hamish.

What starts with passion mutates into a controlling and abusive relationship that isolates Ophelia from her friends and family.

Tiani Clark and Emmy Riber are two of the UniSQ students in the supporting cast.

They said that while the story was confronting, it had an important message for young people and their families.

“It is about how unsettlingly easy it is to fall in a coercively controlling relationship, and how easy it is to be a bystander to those relationships,” Ms Riber said.

“As the chorus members, we are the bystanders in this relationship, we have to watch and enable Ophelia in what is a bad relationship with this man.

“It starts off as something seemingly innocent, Hamish is charming and likeable, and that is something that makes the play powerful.”

“The first time I read the script I thought, ‘Oh my god, I know someone that has been in that situation before,’” Ms Riber said.

“As a bystander, you don’t know what you can do, it is not like physical abuse where you can tell a friend to call the police and they can see the obvious signs or evidence

The play is touring regional Queensland and draws on contemporary culture of the Sunshine State.

It balances light-hearted larrikinism with a dark and pervasive subject matter.

“There are some funny aspects in the play, there is light and shade there, so the audience has a chance to breathe and take in the heavy content,” Ms Clark said.

O, Ophelia is playing for one night only, at the UniSQ Arts Block Theatre.

Click here for tickets.