Andrew Bovell’s drama, presented for the first time in Australia after premiering in Spain in 2023, is a story of intergenerational trauma drawing on that country’s continuing process of reckoning with its colonial and more recently fascist past.

It begins in present day Madrid with the arrival of a Colombian migrant, Alejandro (Spanish actor Borja Maestre, reprising his role from the Spanish production), hired by twin siblings Julia (Kerry Fox) and Carlos (Jorge Muriel, also from the original cast) to look after their frail, seemingly catatonic mother Camelia (Sarah Peirse).

Initially, the situation feels borderline comic, as Julia and Carlos compete for the handsome Alejandro’s attention. The only real connection Alejandro feels is to Camelia, however. Only he seems to be able to coax her out of her lock-in state.

Borja Maestre and Sarah Peirse in Song of First Desire. Photo © Brett Boardman

From there the mood turns darker as Bovell jumps us back in time – to the years of the ‘White Terror’ and the momentous events of 1968 – to explore this family’s past – one marked by violence, repression,...