Stage play “Cathedral” captivated an audience last week at Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre, a thrilling and suspenseful story based in the Limestone Coast.

The dramatic and poetic play was written by multi-award-winning playwright Caleb Lewis and told the story of a diver called Clay, played by talented Adelaide actor Nathan O’Keefe.

Clay awoke trapped at the bottom of a flooded sinkhole, gasping for oxygen and took the audience on a journey of loss, grief, first love and hope, all underpinned by the question, if he would find his way out.

“People seemed to have really connected with it, both the local references and issues but also thematically in terms of exploring grief and resilience and hope,” Mr Lewis said.

“It was thrilling and exciting and so lovely to see an audience full of people responding to a story about Mount Gambier and about the Limestone Coast and this community.”

The script had input from knowledgeable sources including Dr Richard Harris, who was involved with the Thai cave rescue, commercial divers and local cave divers.

“I feel incredibly lucky and incredibly grateful that so many people from Mount Gambier and the region shared their knowledge and their expertise to help me craft this play and get it right,” Mr Lewis said.

Mount Gambier cave diver Josh Richards provided technical details about cave diving and the physics, such as Bar pressures.

A scene where Clay’s ribs break was also inspired by Mr Richards’ real-life experience of breaking two ribs while trying to escape from a narrow cave entrance while diving.

“It was pretty extraordinary to have someone of his (Caleb’s) calibre decide to write a play about something that a very small community of people absolutely adore and it’s nice to have svomeone communicate how special it is,” he said.