The Strange Case of Rhiannon Rose charts the experience of a young woman doing community service at a local court and her friendship with the Magistrate, Joanne Milne. After a boozy lunch and a tough day, Justice Milne is well ‘under the weather’ when Rhiannon offers to drive her home. After that, a tentative friendship develops between the pair. But Rhiannon is struggling to control her own demons of addiction and, while reading the novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, finds herself identifying more and more with the monstrous transformation at the heart of that tale. When Rhiannon encourages the judge to allow a mother on welfare to keep the children that are about to be taken away from her, she feels a sense of influence and connectedness that make her genuinely hopeful about her future. But when this decision has tragic consequences, Rhiannon blames herself, goes on a bender and has to find a way, all over again, to start back on the path to recovery.

The Strange Case of Rhiannon Rose is a touching, insightful and frequently amusing perspective on the stresses and life challenges that young adults have to face, often without support and certainly without the emotional maturity and experience that can buffer such blows. Based thoroughly on interviews with young adults involved with Beyond Empathy programs, it questions the way in which young adults are often singled out as ‘problematic’ when the adults around them can be equally, if not more, dysfunctional. And with the playfully-conjured, Gothic melodrama of Jekyll and Hyde weaving in and out of Rhiannon's consciousness, it is a thrillingly good yarn where it’s hard to know where the surprises, monsters and horrors really lurk.

For further information about this project, please contact the BE office on 02 6772 0101 or at admin@beyondempathy.org.au