By Jesse Graham
UPPER Yarra Arts Centre will host a one-woman performance exploring a disappearance, murder and shocking revelations on Saturday, 12 November, with Waking Up Dead opening for one night only.
The show, performed by Caroline Lee, follows a woman whose husband disappears and is murdered – with his double life as a swinger revealed in the aftermath, shattering her perception of their relationship.
Ms Lee’s character investigates her husband’s secrets using a large white drawing board on the stage, drawing and making notes as she fleshes out the couple’s years together.
“I guess what’s going on is her looking back and sort of examining with the use of drawing … and through drawing things and recalling things and going through significant memories, she goes through how could this happen and who is she, who was she, who was he, how did this happen and then how does she continue on?” she said.
“I guess one of the great things about the play is that many of us have had to experience betrayal, and … she’s working through what that betrayal is and how that makes her feel.”
Over the course of the play, the drawing board becomes full of notes, memories and drawings that take on new meanings and flow together to form a picture of the couple’s life together, as well as the life the wife never knew about.
Ms Lee said the play also discussed whether or not the husband’s infidelity changed the memories of him as a loving husband and father, and how media attention after a tragedy could affect those involved.
The play is a fictionalised account of the death of Herman Rockefeller, who was found to have a double life as a swinger after his body was found, and how the details of his life emerged afterwards.
“The other strong theme in it is just how things can be sensationalised by the media and how that impacts on the individual,” Ms Lee said.
“The media stakes out outside her house and she was just hounded by the media and their whole world was dissected publicly and everyone had an opinion about it.
“How does that impact on a human being who’s trying to personally manage that as well?”
The show has been performed around Melbourne, and will be performed at the Upper Yarra Arts Centre at 3409 Warburton Highway, Warburton for one night only on 12 November.
Doors open at 7.30pm, and tickets are $28, $24 for concession holders or $20 per person for groups of six or more.
For more information, call 5966 4500 or visit ach.yarraranges.vic.gov.au.
