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

National tour for Mobile States
12-15 August 2010, Arts House, Melbourne
18-20 August 2010, Browns Mart, Darwin Festival
25-28 August 2010, Brisbane Powerhouse
2-5 September 2010, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts

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

Video Operator (Mobile States tour 2010) Richard Manner

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, the NSW Government through Arts NSW, and the Centre for Performance Studies at the University of Sydney. Toured by Performing Lines for Mobile States, a national touring initiative of the Australia Council, the Australian government’s arts funding & advisory body.