THEATRE: THE BOUGAINVILLE PHOTOPLAY PROJECT

The Bougainville Photoplay Project is part performance, part archive, part lecture and part personal history. It traces the story of writer/performer/academic Paul Dwyer and his engagement with Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, from the work his father did there as an orthopedic surgeon to his own work around reconciliation at the University of Sydney. The piece is an intimate show, that combines live performance with video, photos, slides, letters, journals and other personal and academic ephemera to give insights into the slow road to reconciliation in Bougainville following a brutal civil war, largely sponsored by the Australian Government. The small theatre at the Old Fitz provides the perfect setting for the show, which draws the audiences into a lively and engaging oral history. Dwyer is a likable and intelligent performer, unafraid of weaving the entertaining with the academic, the performative with the factual and the personal with the political. While the show could have contained more about the Bougainville conflict from which it takes its name, it nonetheless made for a fascinating piece of theatre. So grab yourself one of the Old Fitz’s famous laksas and settle in for one of the most entertaining lectures you’re likely to see in a long time.

Until Oct 31, Old Fitz Theatre, cnr Dowling & Cathedral Sts, Woolloomooloo, $21-35 (beer, laksa, show), 1300 GETTIX or moshtix.com.au