Geography: Oceania > Australia and New Zealand > Australia
Year: 2007
Produced by: Urban Theatre Projects and Blacktown Arts Centre with Anino Shadowplay Collective
Creative Team: Written by Paschal Daantos Berry; directed by Deborah Pollard; created with Valerie Berry and Anino Shadowplay Collective
Synopsis: The Folding Wife reconstructs a Filipino-Australian family history across several generations. Paschal Daantos Berry examines the lives of women whose choices are affected by colonial power and migration to Australia. The production uses shadow animation to allow remembered scenes to appear and disappear. The title suggests an identity that is repeatedly folded so it can fit changing political circumstances or expectations. Migration is presented as a direct journey from the Philippines to Australia. The production also considers American colonial influence and the way family stories alter when they are retold generation after generation. Photographs provide fragments of evidence, but they cannot establish a complete account. The work confronts migration through transmission, descendants inherit stories that are powerful but incomplete as performance becomes a way of preserving fragments of memory.
Source: Urban Theatre Projects, production archive: https://utp.org.au/event/the-folding-wife Diversity Arts Australia, Paschal Daantos Berry interview and production history: https://diversityarts.org.au/creative_lives/the-art-of-creating-with-family-performance-maker-writer-and-d ramaturg-paschal-daantos-berry-in-conversation-with-his-sister-actor-valerie-berry/