Explore The Dispute
There are more than two sides to an argument
Thursday 27 May – Saturday 5 June
Thu 27 – Sat 29 May, 6.30pm
Wed 2 – Sat 5 June, 6.30pm
When children are given the chance to speak, they’re rarely asked anything serious. Kids say the darnedest things, right?
Not in The Dispute.
An emotionally rich experiment across two continents, The Dispute began in France when theatremaker Mohamed El Khatib interviewed more than 100 children of parents who had divorced or separated.
In both France and Australia, there’s a taboo around discussing divorce in the open – doubly so in front of the kids. But El Khatib found his young subjects not just willing and able to speak of their experiences, but brimming with surprising thoughts on the emotional lives of their elders.
The results were filled with unexpected depths of insight and openness, and in time he asked whether the children would be comfortable performing their thoughts as theatre.
Now Australian artist Jackson Castiglione has brought the work to Australia in a new interpretation to be performed by local children. Stuffed with humour, profundity and straight talk, it’s a view on relationships from an angle most adults rarely consider.
Whether you’ve no experience of separation or if the subject feels too raw, The Dispute will give you new ways to think about a common – yet rarely discussed – fact of human existence. Audiences familiar with Jackson Castiglione through works like Fringe: Kids Vs Art will know they’re in safe hands.
Click here to listen to a RISING interview with The Dispute‘s Castiglione and Mohamed El Khatib – conducted by two of the children, of course.
Read more about The Dispute in this article from The Age
Read more about the show from Melbourne Magazine
Image: Yohanne Lamoulère
