Purgatorio (2014)

Purgatorio won the Residency Prize to the Wexter Center for the Arts in the USA at the 19th Festival of Contemporary Art Sesc Videobrasil in October 2015. With references such as the 1980s/90s PBS television specials of Sondheim musicals, The Threepenny Opera by Brecht and Weills, and Kafka's The Trial, Purgatorio sits between video art, theatre and parable. Purgatorio is an Orwellian musical retelling of Dante's Purgatorio from The Divine Comedy, relating it not only to current Australian asylum seeker policy but to global issues with seeking asylum and the idea of 'processing people'. The work focuses on the Kafkaesque bureaucracy that ensues, and runs on a loop, so the character of the 'Applicant' (or Dante) must relive his musical interrogations again and again. The Brechtian Master of Ceremonies, 'The Guide' (based on the character of Virgil in the Comedy), leads the 'Applicant' through the levels of purgatory as a dapper people smuggler. A chorus of nine performers play multiple all-singing and dancing parts including the roles of politicians, border security, and case workers. Purgatorio was created during a residency at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW, between April and July, 2014, and was developed through interviews with Macarthur Diversity Services Initiative, local asylum seekers, refugees, refugee advocates, the UNHCR, and people from the public relations division for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. The libretto was written through these interviews by Mata Dupont and set to music by her frequent collaborator, composer Ash Gibson Greig.