AT FIRST glimpse you wouldn’t think of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” as meat for theatrical exploitation, but it turns out that it is.

Full of learned allusions to Greek and Sanskrit classical literature, the great poem plumbs the depths of spiritually barren post-war Europe yet, like the work of Eliot’s fellow Nobel Laureate Samuel Becket, it does so in a way that expresses a fierce joy in humanity.

Canberra audiences are famous for coming out in droves for such challenging artistic fare, seen in the packed houses for “Of Mice and Mice” last week. And indeed last year cellist (and 2010 “CityNews” Artist of the Year) David Pereira joined actor and Chinese University of Hong Kong academic, Julian Lamb, on the tiny stage of Smith’s Alternative in December 2014 to play their interpretation of “The Waste Land” to sell-out audiences.

Now, as they says in showbiz, by popular demand, they’re appearing in the much larger auditorium of the the Hawk Theatre at Narrabundah College in a short reprise season before touring to Hong Kong, where Lamb teaches and directs the local theatre group Shadow Players.

Pereira and Lamb have fused music and spoken word to fit specific passages in the poem so that the phrasing of the spoken words matches the phrasing of the music very precisely. The music features passages of improvisation and parody, as well as direct quotation from the work of some of the most important composers of the twentieth century, including Sibelius, Mahler, Shostakovich, and Schoenberg.

Through this unique integration of music and poetry, Pereira and Lamb aim to make the emotions of the text more vivid, its tensions more urgent, and its vision of a wasteland yet more memorable.

T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” in performance, at the Hawk Theatre at Narrabundah College, Jerrabomberra Avenue, 7pm, August 13-14 only. Tickets at the door or bookings to trybooking.com