Beautiful Souls

“…the warnings have been there for decades and how on earth any young Australian can be so stupid as to take the risk is completely beyond me…”
— John Howard, Australian Prime Minister, 2006 on Channel 4 after news of the death penalty for two of the Bali Nine.

Under the direction of critically acclaimed US director, Jeremy Dobrish, Springboard Theatre Company is working with an accomplished New York creative team and actor Jake Robards for the US premiere of Beautiful Souls.

Beautiful Souls is an intensely moving one act play of three young Australians facing execution in Thailand in the early days of the Thai government’s all-out war on drugs. Written by Queensland playwright, Sven Swenson four years ago, the play pre-dates high profile Australian cases, such as Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine, all aged between 18 and 28 at the time of their arrest.

With the ambiguous circumstances in Beautiful Souls that surround the characters’ arrest, the play raises the question of whether these three young Australians will suffer the death penalty to serve as poster children for the Thai government’s tough new anti-drug policies.

The themes of Beautiful Souls and their closeness to recent social and political events in Asia make it all the more affecting as the characters deal with loneliness and non-communication and the need to connect while hopeful for a reprieve.