Café Scheherazade, a new Australian play by Thérèse Radic and based on the best-selling 2001 novel by Arnold Zable shares the stories of Eastern European migrants in Melbourne, whose journeys and experiences of displacement and survival are universally resonant of refugee lives.

The original Café Scheherazade in St Kilda was an Acland Street icon. The memories of its founders and regulars are extraordinary and their life experiences have contributed significantly to Melbourne’s cosmopolitan landscape. Set in this former iconic café, Café Scheherazade shares the stories of the proprietors, Avram and Masha Zeleznikow, and their Eastern European patrons, who recount their journeys and experiences as refugees with feisty argument and endearing humour.

The play reminds us to celebrate and embrace those refugees who continue to arrive in Australia contributing to the rich diversity of this culture out of their experience of distress and displacement.