“In Live Art parlance, The Bougainville Photoplay Project falls into the genre of lecture/performance […] Paul Dwyer is an engaging storyteller (direction David Williams, version 1.0). His performance is part-memorised, part-improvised and interspersed with a careful selection of images in multiple formats (black and white newspaper photographs, Super 8 film, 1960s colour slides, x rays, contemporary colour snaps) skilfully integrated by video artist Sean Bacon. Accompanied onstage by nothing more than a couple of screens, a vintage slide projector and a human spine, Dwyer weaves personal stories, historical documentary and ethnographic academic research into a performance that is never predictable, unfolding intimate reflections that quietly impart their deeper connections.” Virginia Baxter, RealTime #88 Dec-Jan 2008
“This peculiar mixture of theatricality and real stories works. As with other version 1.0 shows, the result is not only a more informed audience but also a more feeling one […] A first-class choice” Alanna Maclean, The Canberra Times, 12/2/08
“Pitched somewhere between cosy university tutorial and travelogue slide show, Dr Paul Dwyer’s Bougainville Photoplay Project is an illustrated account of restorative justice in action. It is accessible, disarmingly funny and affecting.” Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald, 21/10/2009
“Dwyer is a likable and intelligent performer, unafraid of weaving the entertaining with the academic, the performative with the factual and the personal with the political. [...] a fascinating piece of theatre. [...] one of the most entertaining lectures you’re likely to see in a long time.” Kate Britton, City Hub
“not so much a play as it is the most entertaining and throught-provoking lecture you’ve seen in a long time. [...] a hard-hitting but wonderfully hopeful piece of political theatre.” Nick Dent, Time Out Sydney, October 2009
“Dwyer is unusually honest in blending ethnographic research and a recent history of colonialism with his family’s history and personal motivations. While maps and research studies cover the walls, it is his father’s slides that the performance revolves around. By offering up his memories and his own body as evidence, alongside his reflections, curiousity and wit, Dwyer presents us with a case study in as complete a form as he can give it. Any gaps in the narrative only serve his case, instilling in the audience a concern that resonates long after leaving the Old Fitz.” Trish Roberts, Concrete Playground, October 2009
“I smiled, I laughed, I was educated, I was provoked, I was moved. I was, ultimately, inspired.” Kevin Jackson Theatre Reviews
“The way Dwyer has shaped this experience into a work for the stage is hugely impressive. A combo of boy’s own adventure, academic research, political act and theatre-making experiment, The Bougainville Photoplay Project does what one ultimately looks for in the making of the best art. It succeeds in realising its goals. That those ambitions are high and complex are artfully disguised (but not missed) as we are drawn into the event by Dwyer’s easy-going, self-deprecating manner. His touch is as light as his themes are serious. A powerful story – beautifully told.” James Waites, jameswaites.com