Photo credit, Grace/Fury hero image: Disrupted Memory by Lisa Tomasetti

I dreamed Picasso’s minotaur crouched on the headland, overlooking the dunes.
One arm shades his eyes from ocean-glare.

The other girls lift in salt swell, beyond the spilling waves. And in this dream, Persephone leaves them—crossing foredunes of pig face and spinifex, along the estuary’s line toward the wharf.
She finds seahorses and anemones between pylons encrusted with oyster shells.
And then she sees it—a starfish, an undulating flower, like a cobra-dance underneath the wharf.
It draws her like a baited hook, and he follows.

The stingrays and the moon and the bay will not judge him.

Excerpt from Sting in the Moon’s Tail – text for Grace/Fury by Judith Nangala Crispin

about GRACE/FURY

Grace/Fury is a whole-of-community response to the seemingly timeless outrage of femicide and violence against women and girls, an outrage of epidemic proportions in Australia. Driven and animated by an extraordinary cohort of women spanning eight decades, energised by female rage and radiance, Grace/Fury is a celebration of solidarity and empowerment, a battle-cry, a defiant celebration of female rage and radiance set in our landscapes and times.

the myth of Demeter and Persephone

Demeter – Goddess of agriculture and fertility – is outraged when she learns of her daughter Persephone’s rape and abduction by Hades. Grief-stricken Demeter roams the world in fury, laying waste to the Earth’s crops, holding the Gods to ransom in defiance of their complicity in the violation. Eventually, seeing the mortals’ starvation, Zeus concedes to Demeter’s demands. He orders Hades to return Persephone to her mother – but only for part of each year.

young people will lead the way

Teenage girls will lead the charge in Grace/Fury. FLING, Bega’s youth physical theatre company, whose edgy teenage energy is an inspirational driving force for the creative team, are key collaborators in this work.

The FLING cohort will be joined by dozens more female singers, actors, percussionists and musicians of all ages will create a large-scale, mobile ‘Greek Chorus’ of 100+ performers, inspired by antipatriarchal heroines, the #metoo global protest movements and even the Matildas, responding to the Demeter and Persephone story in a ritual embodiment of female rage, power and celebration.

I kept her room as she left it – Madonna posters blu-tacked to the wall over a bed crammed with soft toys. I wore her kimono around the house for weeks, wept in bars and cafes, bus stops, petrol stations, and supermarket checkouts.
Have to find a way to be stronger. If I put on lipstick— I will feel normal.

Excerpt from Sting in the Moon’s Tale text for Grace/Fury by Judith Nangala Crispin

Grace/Fury part 1 (2025/26): a whole of community conversation

Grace/Fury’s scale, ambition and subject matter provides a powerful focal point and opportunity to bring together a carefully selected team of civic minded artists and community organisations from within and beyond this region.

Four key arts organisations in the South Coast region – Crimson Rosella Creative Adventures, FLING Physical Theatre, SE Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA) and Four Winds – have formed a creative partnership on Grace/Fury. Led by Grace/Fury producers Crimson Rosella, the partners will work closely with the project’s specially convened Community Engagement Group to develop a two-year community engagement strategy.

The Grace/Fury Community Engagement Group brings together leaders of local women’s support and mental health organisations working in the space of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. This Group will walk alongside the project to its completion, guiding and advising the team on the development of a series of safe community discussions, ensuring that local voices and stories are heard, listened to and embedded in the project.

Grace/Fury part 2 (2027): an epic performance on the Tathra headland

Performed at sunset on dramatic coastal landscapes by a cast of 100+ female-identifying community participants of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, Grace/Fury will be led by teenage girls from FLING Physical Theatre.

Judith Nangala Crispin’s searing new version of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter composed in the 7th century BC spans four seasons, locating the myth in a coastal community in contemporary regional Australia. The myth tells of the rape and abduction of the teenage Persephone by her uncle Hades and her grief-stricken mother Demeter’s earth-scorching pursuit to find her missing daughter.

It is an ancient story and an everyday Australian story.

Grace/Fury gathers dancers, choirs and percussionists from our community, side-by-side with professional artists, musicians and actors. Performers will flow across four magnificent sites around the Tathra headland, an environment of spectacular cliffs, ocean, sky and horizon evoking the poem’s mythic power. The story is accompanied by a live score performed by an all-female percussion ensemble and choir, culminating on the Tathra Wharf as the sun sets.