Eliza
Eliza is a contemporary dance/theatre work combining elements of digital imagery, puppetry, and contemporary choreography, set to an evocative 'live' sound score.
Inspired by the stories and subsequent mythologies of real life figures such as the mysterious Eliza Fraser (who disappeared and later re-appeared, the sole survivor of a tragic shipwreck and the subsequent murder of her husband with the rest of the crew in far North Queensland) through to the enigmatic Lindy Chamberlain (whose newborn was taken by a dingo in central Australia). Their stance appears one of guilt by omission, where their silences speak as loudly as their actual voices. As with films such as the eerie classic Picnic at Hanging Rock (again loosely based on a real story), the landscape ultimately silences all, where we will never know what really happened, other than that something did happen out there?
Some say the Australian landscape can never be innocent, that it is a natural environment that is inhospitable to freedom. In deliberately referencing the tradition of Australian gothic horror films, the landscape is cast as a potentially malevolent and hostile character. The dominant sense is of the unknown and the unknowable, and the hidden, a landscape full of fearful secrets and unheard voices. The work is deliberately structured as a mystery, where we the audience are led to ask ourselves, what crime has she committed? What has she done?
Director/Devisor: Sally Richardson
Production Design: Zoe Atkinson
Vision Design: Ashley de Prazer
Sound Design: Kingsley Reeve
Puppetry Director: Philip Mitchell
Dramaturg: Shannon Bott
Choreographers: Chrissie Parrott, Danielle Micich, Paea Leach
Performers: Shona Erskine, Jacob Lehrer
Singer: Mayuka Juber
