How exactly does it feel to return from war and try to settle back in to a normal family and suburban life in Australia? Good Little Soldier is a unique and engrossing performance exploring the challenges of PTSD through contemporary dance, theatre and music. The performance is the second collaboration between Artistic Director Mark Howett and the Ochre Contemporary Dance Company showing now until July 30 at the Subiaco Arts Centre. It follows an acclaimed series of the show in Berlin that brings the production home to situate it vividly in an Australian context.
Good Little Solder has been hailed as robust dance theatre, that is physically breathtaking, emotionally engaging and presented by world class performers. It is a deeply personal story for Mark Howett who draws on his own experiences as the son of a veteran. “In creating Good Little Soldier my aim was to develop a physical dance based on my personal experiences of growing up as the son of a war-damaged soldier. I wished to investigate veterans’ families common experiences and how it affects and infects the families of those afflicted with the burden of PTSD.”
Mark brings a decade of theatre and dance experience in Europe and has teaming up with renowned international dance makers Gavin Webber and Grayson Millwood to reprise their Berlin roles of a damaged soldier and the ghost he has brought home from the front. Bringing the work home to country allows an investigation of indigenous perspectives on inter-generational PTSD after 200 years of trauma as brilliant Nyoongar actor/director/dancer Ian Wilkes plays a second ghost that has come home from war. The team is completed by the Perth-based musicians Dale Couper, Matthew de la Hunty, Laurie Sinagra (who create a live “industrial” band) and the dramaturg of the Berlin show, Phil Thomson, Company Dramaturg for Ochre Contemporary Dance Company.
Don’t miss Good Little Soldier at the Subiaco Arts Centre at 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm from Thursday July 20 – Sunday July 23 and Wednesday July 26 – Sunday July 30.
To win tickets to any of these shows up until Sunday July 23 simply email us here at [email protected] with GOOD LITTLE SOLDIER in the title with the show of your choice in the copy. Don’t forget to like the X-Press Facebook page and sign up to the newsletter to be in the running!
Competition closes 4pm July 21. Please only enter if you wish to attend.
