My Darling Patricia
Managers & Producers
www.mydarlingpatricia.com
AFRICA
A Malthouse Theatre Commission
One of the achievement of Africa is its emotional honesty: how it at once expresses human resilience - the ability to generate beauty from the "rag and bone shop of the heart" - and the incorrigibility of damage and loss. Realised with an admirable skill, it's funny, beautiful and heartbreaking. Beg, borrow or steal a ticket to this one.
The Australian
Where some see abandon and chaos, others see the child’s ability to transform their surroundings into places of wonder and delight. Inspired by the true story of three German children who set off to elope under the African sun, broken toys, puppets, and sun-faded furniture are the props that feed the theatre of the imagination in My Darling Patricia's Africa.
Exploring the resilient powers of imagination, fantasy and escape in the lives of children, Africa is work for adults told from a child’s perspective, and is a rich continuation of the company’s juxtaposition of the domestic with the fantastic in suburban Australian contexts.
"It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries - the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year's Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun." The Guardian
In Development
Posts in the Paddock
A theatrical work featuring sound installation, puppetry and storytelling in a unique collaboration between indigenous and non-indigenous artists with a family connection to Jimmy Governor.
The Company
Taking its name from a faded 46 year old love letter found hidden in a discarded vanity set, My Darling Patricia was founded in 2003 by Clare Britton, Bridget Dolan, Katrina Gill and Halcyon Macleod. The troupe has since been joined by Sam Routledge and the five artists approach theatre from backgrounds in dance, visual arts, circus, puppet making, film and spectacle performance.
My Darling Patricia utilises puppetry, installation and performance to create arresting and redolent images, weaving intricate emotional narratives in a performance environment that enfolds their audience in an intimate experience.
The Work
Night Garden was presented by Performance Space and Arts House in March 2009. Night Garden continued the troupe's exploration of the contemporary Australian Gothic through a unique blend of performance, puppetry, video and installation. This dark and enchanting tale traces the fractured relationship of a woman and her son in a distinctively suburban, Australian landscape. Performed and viewed through the skeletal remains of a burned-out house, Night Garden immerses the audience in a haunting and visually spectacular, dream-like landscape. “a mesmerising drama of suburban life” (Martin Ball, The Age, 2009).
An earlier work, Politely Savage, was a disquieting story of feminine decay and regret and was initially presented at PACT Theatre in 2005. Since then, it has been performed at The Performance Space and the Victorian Arts Centre, presented by the FULL TILT programme for the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2006. In March 2007, the production was presented at the Adelaide Fringe by Vital Statistix.
Awards for Politely Savage include:
Best Independent Production (Sydney Thetre Critics Award 2006)
Outstanding Production (Melbourne Fringe Festival Awards 2006)
Best Design (Melbourne Fringe Awards 2006)
Best Theatre Show (Adelaide Fringe Festival 2007)
Nominated Outstanding Production, Theatre Panel (New Form Green Room Awards 2006)
Politely Savage was the company's third work, following on from the success of Dear Pat (performed in a converted shipping container at Bondi Beach and Sydney Olympic Park 2004) and Kissing the Mirror (a haunting installation and performance created in one of Sydney's historic Town Halls 2003).
Contacts
marguerite@mpproductions.com.auOn Tour
Please see News and Current Tours for touring information for My Darling Patricia.
Technical Requirements
Contact marguerite@mpproductions.com.au for full technical riders.
Africa image by Jeff Busby
Politely Savage image by Heidrun Lohr
Night Garden image by Jeff Busby