19 - 28 April 2007 Blacktown Arts Centre, Blacktown
THE FOLDING WIFE by Paschal Daantos Berry
Developed in partnership with Blacktown Arts Centre
The Folding Wife is a physical theatre performance integrating rhythmic poetic text with the unique visual language of Manila-based Anino Shadowplay Collective. The performance explores the external and internal landscape that propels people to scatter across the face of the earth and the consequences it has for personal and cultural identity.
Drawing on the recollections of a young Filipina/Australian woman The Folding Wife contrasts the iconic imagery of a fierce and impenetrable Australian landscape with that of the resilient Filipina. It is a deeply moving story about migration and cultural heritage that concentrates on a dispute between three women from the same bloodline, trapped in different eras but anchored and weighed down by the impulse to leave.
The Folding Wife captures the anxiety of post-colonial poverty in the Philippines and the lure of the First World dream, a circumstance that sits at the heart of many contemporary migrant experiences. Does a country and the promise of a new life measure up to its imagined expectations?
Anino Shadowplay Collective
Established in 1992, Anino Shadowplay Collective is a group of multimedia artists dedicated to popularising the art of shadow play. Towards this end ANINO undertakes live performances, exhibitions, video, publication, and workshops in a wide context, flirting between the commercial world and grassroots. At present, it counts among its supporters the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Museo Pambata Foundation, CASA San Miguel Foundation, and Ibarang Arts Foundation.
Its members come from diverse backgrounds; university students, visual artists and theatre practitioners are amongst their core members. Since 1992 the collective has been performing and conducting workshops at Museo Pambata, Ayala Museum, University of the Philippines, Cultural Centre of the Philippines and other arts institutions. Their interest in Philippine folklore, political history and contemporary culture as the vertebrae of narratives is in the same realm as the women of The Folding Wife. Their aesthetic, like Filipino culture itself, borrows from a wide canvas, taking influence from Filipiniana (nostalgia) to Japanese manga. They deal with questions of Filipino identity through projected images and hybrid theatrical styles.
The Folding Wife was produced in association with Blacktown Arts Centre and its development has been supported by Blacktown City Council.
Writer
Paschal Daantos Berry
Director
Deborah Pollard
Performer Valerie Berry
Multimedia & Design Anino Shadowplay Collective: Datu Arrelano, Andrew Cruz, don Maralit Salubayba, Teta Tulay and Araceli Victoria Arellano
Lighting Designer Neil Simpson
Production Manager
Alex Dick
This lovingly realised and beautifully performed work escapes its own cultural limitations of place.
Sydney Morning Herald
Like painters playing with liquid light, colour and form, they create the visual sensuality and texture of memory so powerfully evoked in the text. Realtime
Technical Specifications - For those interested in presenting a season of The Folding Wife.
