Hope is an icicle. If it drops from a height, it can pierce a hole right through you. Londoner Edith Middleton arrives in Sydney in the grip of the Depression and watches her last penny roll down the drain of that great wishing well, Australia. As her life pitches into abject poverty, she bears an illegitimate child on a sweatshop floor, a gifted boy who drags his reluctant mother through the hole in his heart to discover love that is at once fragile and cruel. "The Wishing Well" is a feisty, powerful and uplifting story of resilience and love, told seductively with a wealth of actor-power, passion, vivacity and warmth. (2 acts, 21 male, 13 female).