The Ghost's Child

The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett

Adaptation created by writer/director Sally Richardson

Production Designer: Richard Jeziorny

Composer/performer: Melanie Robinson

Dramaturgy: Chris Bendall, Humphrey Bower (supported by StagesWA)

Puppetry Consultant: Michael Barlow

Producer: Fiona de Garis (Performing Lines WA)

With

Jacob Lehrer
Katya Shetshov
Kazmir Sas
Nicola Bartlett
Michael Barlow

IN DEVELOPMENT 2011/12

The Ghost's Child is an enchanting, fable-like ghostly tale of haunting resonance. Framing the story is an encounter between 75-year-old Matilda, who lives alone with her scruffy dog Peake, and a solemn-faced young man she finds in her sitting room. Who this visitor is, and why he's arrived, become apparent as Matilda, or Maddy as she was known, tells him the story of her life.

The parents of the young Maddy resemble archetypes from folk or fairytale: a materialistic mother who "seemed to teeter forever on the crumbly threshold of fury", and a father preoccupied with money. Posing the question "What is the world's most beautiful thing?" the father reveals a more human side as he and Maddy travel the world, sating themselves with marvels. Maddy finds no definitive answer, that is until she sees a young man holding a pelican on a beach, and believes him to be her soul-mate.
Matilda's guest squirms as she relates falling in love, and setting up home with Feather, as she calls her unworldly partner. But the price Feather pays for Maddy's happiness is to live conventionally, and joy soon fades from their union. The conception of "a nymph, a little elf, a tiny fay" promises a rekindling of love, but the child dies unborn. Left alone, grief-stricken but resourceful, Maddy embarks in a small boat on a long, eventful voyage in search of the remote island where Feather has found sanctuary. She has a question to ask, that only he can answer. Although she understands that "bit by bit some of your sorrow changes into joy. And that's how you go on living", Maddy must learn to acknowledge that this separation is final.

"How does one craft sturdy happiness out of something as important, as complicated, as unrepeatable and as easily damaged as a life?" Maddy wonders as a child. "Is love the answer, or freedom from love?" Can a busy life compensate for searing loss?
His answer might be not what you want to hear. And anyway does a girl who voyaged across an ocean without compasses and maps, who talked to whale, and wind and watched sea monsters war, need an answer from anyone?..Was there any answer to any question that such a girl couldn't answer for herself?
(The Ghost's Child)

First Stage workshop development March 2011

This project is supported by Performing Lines WA and the WA Department of Culture and the Arts with support from Spare Parts Puppet Theatre