Skeleton Woman
Skeleton Woman
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19
January, 2007
MEDIA RELEASE
Skeleton Woman
SKELETON WOMAN, a performance collaboration between actress Helen Moran, writer Kathleen Gallagher, and director/ theatre artist Jane Prendergast is an evocative performance piece in which Maori elements are interwoven with a stark Eskimo hunting love story, creating startling juxtapositions and images. This solo performance by Helen Moran premiered to an enthusiastic audience at the Storytelling as a Healing Art conference with US storyteller and Psychotherapist Nancy Mellon in Melbourne last July and was highly commended at the 2006 Dunedin Fringe Festival. It can be seen as part of the Wellington Fringe at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre Friday March 2nd 8 pm, Saturday 3rd 4pm and 8 pm and Sunday 4th at 2 pm and 6 pm.
This is a contemporary New Zealand response to the powerful Inuit myth Skeleton Woman, recounted by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women who Run with the Wolves, in which a hunter hooks an unexpected, terrifying entity that pursues him, unable to escape from his fishing tackle. It will resonate with anyone has fallen in love, and then wanted to run, to those who realise they have attracted to themselves what they most deeply fear, and to all of us who are aware of having to face in ourselves and others what we would more comfortable ignore.
Skeleton Woman transcends cultural boundaries and explores the mystery of what it is to be human…The piece draws on the Michael Chekhov training of Jane Prendergast and Helen Moran’s experience as a solo performer and storyteller. Packed with evocative poetry and disarmingly simple songs, Skeleton Woman is a journey of the heart.
ENDS