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Through the eyes of a migrantElissa Blake
January 6, 2010
Magical paper birds, boats made of old suitcases and giants squashing terrified citizens - these are just three of many strange and wonderful images in Red Leap Theatre's production of The Arrival, which opens as part of the Sydney Festival next week.
Adapted from the graphic novel by the Perth artist and author Shaun Tan, The Arrival is the story of a man who leaves behind his wife and child in search of a better life. He arrives in a strange land where everything is odd yet weirdly familiar.
''Sometimes the performers play parts of the set and then move into characters or they start manipulating a puppet,'' says the creator, director and performer Kate Parker. ''It's a way of showing how displaced a migrant can feel when everything around them is strange.''
Tan was inspired to write the story by a number of migrant experiences he absorbed, including the history of the Chinese in Perth and the story of his father's arrival from Malaysia in 1960. He also researched the wave of mass migration to the US in the early years of the 20th century.
Tan made 3-D scenes out of cardboard in order to get the perspective right, a technique also used by Red Leap Theatre, an Auckland company, which spent three years faithfully adapting the book for the stage.
''We made the sets out of fridge boxes and workshopped the whole world of the play with paper animals and creatures,'' Parker says.
''I was inspired by the fragile and papery world of the book but in the end it wasn't durable. Cardboard falls apart after a few uses but we still have some paper birds that I remake every time we travel.''
Parker says the show is aimed at adults rather than children: ''Children can come but it does have some strong themes.''
The Arrival is at CarriageWorks, Eveleigh, from January 10.