Cordelia, Mein Kind:
A duet for live body and film that maps a modern Cordelia and her "Lear-like father" onto the bones of Shakespeare's Leah and his silent daughter
Deeply textured, multilayered and savagely poetic work (Real Time Magazine)
A raw, visually rich and moving piece of theatre .Leiser-Moore is a compelling performer (Melbourne.Arts. Fashion) A well honed, tightly woven one woman performance. A gutsy expression by a wonderfully seasoned theatre maker, this work is unique, empowering and totally worth seeing. (Stage Whispers) A multi-stranded narrative that literally pulsates, like an exploded heart, with deep feeling and mystery. (Ari Roth - Theater J, Washington DC) Deborah Leiser-Moore resurrects the tragic gray eminence to moving effect." (San Francisco Chronicle) Harrowing, soulful, intelligent. Leiser-Moore continues to be lauded the globe over." (Britt Farbo, The Advisor, Phnom Penh) A fascinating and accomplished author. Simple and enthralling, always subtle, with the intimacy of good close up magic. (Toorak Times) PRESS: San Francisco Chronicle Real Time Magazine Stage Whispers Toorak Times Greg Veit Photography Cordelia, Mein Kind is a duet for film and live body; a personal exploration of a present-day Cordelia-like character revealed through language, physicality, image and film. Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, the piece combines original interviews (between a contemporary Cordelia and her father, a Yiddish-speaking Holocaust survivor now in his dotage and living in ‘exile’ in the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh), and other visual imagery, with a language that is gestural, poetic, direct and physical. The multiplicity of performance languages weave seamlessly together, creating a challenging and unique performance work. Cordelia, Mein Kind takes Cordelia’s silence as its starting point. It probes beneath the surface, exploding the silence to divulge a psychological inheritance and an emotional core linked to her father’s trauma – his history passed on to her - a history of exile and loss. In this performance work the audience meet Cordelia as they enter - inhabiting the space in a silent ‘stand off’ with her father. She releases an explosive ‘howl’, and is (like Shakespeare’s Cordelia) about to be ‘hanged’. As she slowly descends to the ground, she enters into a netherworld between living and dying. A soundscape fills the space – one that intertwines a classic reading of Lear with her own father’s English/Yiddish cry of ‘howl howl…’ the past inhabiting the body and colliding with the present Cordelia. Cordelia, Mein Kind is a work that doesn’t fit into a box of ‘theatre’ or ‘dance’ or ‘film’. Rather it is a piece that weaves these languages together. The piece is bold and audacious… it refuses to be pigeon holed. At the same time it remains intensely personal. Cordelia, Mein Kind weaves language (a mix of direct address to audience with more poetic and ‘performative’ style) and film with real-time performance, intertwining the three parallel journeys of the piece. Concept/Co-Creator/Film and Performer: Deborah Leiser-Moore Co-Creator/Director: Meredith Rogers Choreographer: Sally Smith Developed through Victoria University Solo residency program; Theatre J Incubator Program Dec 2008 (Washington DC); Thanks to La Trobe University |
Performed at:
2014 La Mama Theatre Celebrating Women Festival Melbourne 2013 Festiwal Szekspirowski Gdansk. Poland 2012 Marsh Theatre Berkeley, San Francisco 2010 Searchlight Festival fortyfivedownstairs. Melbourne 2009 Under The Radar@ Brisbane International Arts Festival 2008 Theatre J Incubator Program of New Works Washington DC
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