Stepping into the early 20th century of Qiu Jin’s conquest to liberate Chinese women.
Beijing 1903. Having moved to the capital Qiu Jin’s days are filled with looking after her children and dealing with her conservative husband. Dreaming of liberating Chinese women from foot-binding practice, arranged marriages and achieving equality in education she teaches her once illiterate and quite naïve maid to read and write.
Not until she meets a fellow writer with a secret past, her fight has finally begun but soon discovers initiating change is not easy. At the same time a charismatic and ambitious revolutionary leader offers her an alternative path… a more practical one and for sure, more dangerous.
Melka Stansah is a Chinese-Indonesian writer and playwright. Her short stories, monologues and plays have been published by Hammonds House Publishing/UK, produced in Melbourne Fringe Festival, and 1812 Theatre amongst other venues. Read more about it here.
Wolf Heidecker’s production company WHAM has a long history with La Mama, touring some of the productions he directed which premiered at Carlton Court House and HQ nationwide, e.g. B. Clancy’s “Foxholes of the Mind”.
Designer Richard Lyford-Pike is not only a prolific artist working for the stage but animated several award winning animated short films which are still travelling through Film Festivals around the world. One of which in 2020 has earned him an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Animation.
Content Warnings: Domestic violence
Written by Melka Stansah
Directed and produced by Wolf Heidecker
Performed by Isabelle Wang, Fanny Hanusin, Lansy Feng and Jamie Vu
Sound and visual design by Richard Lyford-Pike
Children’s voices: Cheeray/Theodore W.
Image by Darren Gill
Access Information:
Visual rating 50%: Events are partly subtitled or include dialogue, background music and/or sounds, so d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences can have some engagement with the event.
Aural Rating 50%: Has both sound and visual components, but sight isn’t essential to be able to engage with the event.