Sleeplessness
Sleeplessness
Writer/Performer Kaz Therese
Co-Writer and Director Anthea Williams
Carriageworks and Riverside Theatres
Part mystery, part documentary, part forensic investigation, Kaz Therese’ solo work Sleeplessness maps a remarkable Australian story told across three generations of Western Sydney women, and the unimaginable impact of institutionalisation in Australia. It is the story of Kaz Therese trying to uncover their identity as one of the Forgotten Australians.
Reviews
“Sleeplessness gives rare voice and body to the trauma wrought on Forgotten Australians and their children. Its restless night-time oscillations between rational probing and image-driven delirium invaluably foreground a tormented, questing state of being which gradually solves a seemingly inexplicable riddle: who was Lenke and in turn who is Kaz Therese? Tautly structured by writer-performer Therese and writer-director Anthea Williams, the intensively collaborative Sleeplessness is a courageous and emotionally exacting work, a dialectical interplay between the personal and the political imbued with a pervasive sense of tragedy”
“Through this astounding performance, Therese manages to give her back her life while subsequently redefining their own.”
“Therese’s determination to reach for the truth, provides for the piece, a certain zeal that has us on the edge of our seats. Along with the inherent mysteries that surround these stories about a hidden past, it is Therese’s fearless integrity that proves compelling. Co-written with and directed by Anthea Williams, Sleeplessness is beautifully structured, capable of weaving together multi-generational narratives to form a powerfully coherent portrait, not only of an immigration experience, but also of inter-generational trauma, that many Australians share.”
Credits
Writer/Performer - Kaz Therese
Co-Writer and Director - Anthea Williams
Cultural Leadership - Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor
Sound Designer - Anna Liebzeit
Video Artist - Zanny Begg
Lighting Designer - Karen Norris
Choreographer - Martin del Amo
Stage Manager - Anastasia Mowen
Video Consultant - Samuel James
Producer - Erin Milne for Bureau of Works
Curator - Daniel Mudie Cunningham
Cinematography Budapest - Margie Medlin
Additional Film Materials - Kaz Therese
Cinematography Sydney - Tania Lambert
Commissioned by Carriageworks and supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Photos by Anna Kucera