Featured image- Jodee Mundy performing her poignant piece PERSONAL as part of the Unwrapped Festival at the Sydney Opera House. Production photography by Anna Kucera.
UNWRAPPED was a new Festival presented by the Sydney Opera House which took place between the 9th and the 13th May.
I spoke briefly to Fiona Winning, the Festival’s Artistic Director, who said the Festival was created to showcase the work of some of Sydney’s finest contemporary fringe rather than mainstream artists.
I managed to catch two of the shows whilst the Festival was on – one of them I enjoyed a great deal, the other I was disappointed by.
First to the disappointment, the cleverly titled TWO JEWS WALK INTO A THEATRE. The show saw director and performer Brian Lipson and dancer-choreographer Gideon Obarzanek perform a fictional meeting between their two difficult fathers.
Much more interesting, imaginative and poignant was PERSONAL. This was a lovely, very theatrical autobiographical piece by Jodee Mundy describing her experience growing up as the only hearing person in her family of origin. It blew my mind with all the different feelings and sensations Jodee felt growing up in such an environment. Seeing this piece brought back memories of seeing the French comedy classic The Belier Family, though Mundy’s piece had a much deeper vein to it.
