Archived

The Bougainville
Photoplay Project

By Paul Dwyer
Director David Williams

  • Venue Upstairs Theatre
  • Dates 9 – 28 Nov 2010

Writer, academic and performer Paul Dwyer retraces three journeys made by his father, Dr Allan Dwyer, a world-renowned orthopaedic surgeon, who visited Bougainville during the 1960s, healing dozens of crippled children. Family stories become entwined with the larger narrative of Australia’s colonial enterprise in the years following: the opening of the giant Panguna copper mine, environmental devastation and Bougainvillean resistance, a war that cost the lives of up to 20,000 people.

Since 2004, Paul Dwyer has been making his own journeys to Bougainville, conducting research on the post war reconciliation process and following the impact of those encounters between his father and the Bougainvillean children. This is politics and performance at its most personal.

Team

By Paul Dwyer
Director David Williams
Video Artist Sean Bacon
Lighting Designer Frank Mainoo
Technical Assistance Russell Emerson

Cast

Paul Dwyer

Videos

Production images by Heidrun Lohr

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