PRODUCTION NOTES :

A slideshow with fireside chat

  1. An eminent Australian orthopedic surgeon makes a series of trips to Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) during the 1960s, just as the era of Australia ’s colonial mandate is drawing to a close. The doctor is presented with dozens of crippled children and lepers; his operations allow many of these people to walk for the first time.
  2. The giant Panguna copper mine is established against the wishes of Bougainville’s traditional landowners. Environmental destruction is caused by the mine, and the struggle for Bougainville to become independent of PNG leads to a brutal civil war during which roughly one in ten of the island’s inhabitants die.
  3. An Australian academic begins fieldwork study of reconciliation ceremonies on Bougainville in the current period of post-war reconstruction. He carries with him a book of photographs.

Three narrative threads are delicately interwoven in an intimate, moving, and constantly surprising monologue performance from acclaimed performance group version 1.0. Combining field notes, oral history, slides, Super-8 film, video installation and the display of various artifacts, The Bougainville Photoplay Project grapples with the ethical, epistemological and practical dilemmas of making art and conducting research in post-colonial, post-conflict settings, particularly when the artist/researcher is a citizen of the former colonial power. This is politics and performance at its most personal.

NOMINATED FOR BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION, 2009 SYDNEY THEATRE AWARDS

Production History
13-31 October 2009, Old Fitzroy Theatre as part of Tamarama Rock Surfers 2009 program

6 September 2008, LiveWorks Festival, Performance Space @ CarriageWorksCanberra Theatre Centre

9-11 February 2008, The National Multicultural Festival, The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre

27 April 2007, UTS Gallery, Sydney

February 2006, Mori Gallery, Sydney

July 2005, ADSA Annual Conference, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga

PRODUCTION CREDITS :

Artists:
Devised and performed by Paul Dwyer

Director David Williams

Video Artist Sean Bacon

Lighting Designer Frank Mainoo

Technical assistance Russell Emerson

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body and the Centre for Performance Studies, University of Sydney.  The Tamarama Rock Surfers are supported by the NSW Department of Arts Sport and Recreation.