The Bougainville Photoplay Project
Old Fitzroy Theatre
Until 31 October
Tickets $21-35
Bookings 1300 438 849
Critic’s Rating 7/10
As published in the Sun Herald
The first thing you realise while listening to Dr Paul Dwyer is how little many Australians know about the small island of Bougainville, its history or its people.
With the aid of slides, projections, videos and personal anecdotes, Dwyer takes us through his journey on the island in 2002 while researching restorative justice.
He explains that on the eve of his journey, he suddenly realises he’s following in the footsteps of his father, who worked on the island as an orthopaedic surgeon in the 1960s.
It’s a beautifully personal way to explain a place that, despite a beautiful landscape has been beset with a violent history – with questions even about the culpability of our own nation’s leaders: Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Gareth Evans.
Dwyer paints a picture of an island that has changed a lot since his father first arrived. But what is most touching is the way the character of these people has survived, with a genuine desire for reconciliation after 10 years of war, pollution and poverty.
Directed by David Williams and with video design by Sean Bacon, this is a production of simple and earnest story-telling.
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