Whispers in the Heart

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Event Whispers in the Heart
Venue The Performance Space (1983-2007), Redfern, NSW
First Date 27 July 1989
Last Date 26 August 1989
Dates Estimated No
Status Professional
World Premiere No
Description Whispers In The Heart implicates the human sciences popular in the 19th century (Social Darwinism, Anthropometry, Craniometry and other disciplines that informed early anthropology) as a form of scientific racism that continues to inform white notions of indigenous peoples well after the sciences themselves are discredited or at best seen as pseudo sciences.

The set for the show is a kind of museum cyclorama popular in the days of the British empire where the public could view distant lands and exotic subjects. The show's scenes are constructed as moving tableaux allowing the narrative to move freely in time and place.

The loose comic narrative follows the journey of a zealous young British (human) scientist who makes the perilous journey to Australia soon after it has been established as a penal colony. He is searching for a tribe of 'pristine savages' that he believes will shed light on the origins of civilisation. His mission is to rescue knowledge of them before their 'inevitable extinction' following contact with a 'superior civilisation'. After many years of exploring in the wilderness he captures a 'specimen aborigine' and returns triumphantly to England where he exhibits his 'exotic specimen' before the Queen. On the verge of being made made a Knight of the Empire for his services to the human sciences, his specimen is exposed as a fraud (he is in fact a white convict who has 'blacked up' to get a passage back to England) The young scientist's ecstatic racial superiority crumbles into madness.

Racism, Australian history, colonialism, science, anthropology, Aboriginal, multiculturalism.
Description Source Production Company
Primary Genre Theatre - Spoken Word
Secondary Genre Contemporary
Experimental
Physical Theatre
Installation
Subjects Colonial
Colonisation
Ethnology
History
Indigenous Australia
Multicultural
Racism
Organisations
Contributors
Name Function Notes
Allan Cohen Actor
Kristoffer Greaves Actor
Regina Heilmann Actor
Jai McHenry Actor
Meme Thorne Actor
Raymond Blanco Choreographer
Meme Thorne Choreographer
Peter Wells Composer
Anne Rattey Costume Designer
Kristoffer Greaves Designer
Don Mamouney Designer
Peter Wells Designer
Manuel Arnillas Devisor
Raymond Blanco Devisor
Allan Cohen Devisor
Kristoffer Greaves Devisor
Don Mamouney Devisor
Jai McHenry Devisor
Meme Thorne Devisor
Don Mamouney Director
Barry Gamba Researcher
Resources
Text Nationality Australia
Production Nationality Australia
Further Information First produced in 1988. Manuel Arnillas featured in the 1988 production as Dr Zahra.
Event Status Completed
Data Source
Source Description
Australian & New Zealand Theatre Record July 1989
Sidetrack Archive Box 15
Performance Space Database
Data Set AusStage
Event Identifier 1879