Choreographer Alice Topp
Set and Lighting Designer Jon Buswell
Costume Designer Aleisa Jelbart
Dramaturgical Consultant Ruth Little
Composer Jessica Wells after Giacomo Puccini
Principal Conductor Jessica Gethin
with West Australian Symphony Orchestra
ACT I
Set in regional Western Australia, young medic and part-time army reservist, Charlie, falls in love with local lad Jordan. We see their heady love unfurl ahead of their big wedding day, their local lives a great distance from growing conflict and tension abroad. We watch Charlie in all facets of her relatable daily life: in the quiet, intimate moments with Jordan, witnessing her cherished friendship with her best friend Katie, and contemplating the vulnerability of the unknown – her fears, fights and flights. We watch as she transforms into a beautiful bride on her big day ahead of shifting into operational work mode. We see Charlie become a first-time mum, welcoming young Maddie into the world before an opportunity presents itself, a sliding door moment where Charlie must make a decision that will have dramatic outcomes. Choosing a crisis relief mission over the safety and comfort of the known, Charlie abandons her general practice to partake in a peace-keeping mission abroad where she feels the call to help those less fortunate. Torn between caring for her own family on safe ground and helping a mass of others in volatility, Charlie feels the pull to be of service where she can have the greatest impact. The decision leaves fractures on home soil as the Act ends with Charlie leaving the safety of homeland for the fragility of the unknown abroad.
ACT II
Act 2 opens with a juxtaposition of settings a year on: Charlie in a compound abroad and Maddie growing up at a home where her mother’s absence is felt. As the scenes morph through time and space, we see the home life now with Jordan doing his best solo-parenting with the great support of Katie, who has become a growing female presence in Maddie’s formative years. A group of friends, Jordan, Katie and Ben, building a network around the young child whilst her mother fights for the lives of others overseas.
As we shape-shift from home to abroad, the lines blur between where the battle begins and ends with the impact of Charlie’s choices present in both spaces. We witness Charlie, fuelled by adrenaline as she risks her life in turbulence and chaos. The fragile ground sees soldiers and civilians alike bleed, victims of a battle they were born into, fights started long before their years. The moment overwhelms as casualties amass and Charlie finds herself on the long return journey home, geographically, and emotionally. Invisible wounds bind as Charlie wrestles with the lives she could not save, with post-traumatic stress disorder and with a home she no longer relates to, a wealth of distance between her and Jordan, the anguish of the unsaid and unseen, and the pain of her daughter not recognising her. Isolated in her prism of fear and shame, angry at the world and trapped in a chamber of paranoia, Charlie no longer feels at home or safe in her own surrounds.
Finding her way back home into her own skin, questions arise, and fly, as the butterfly effect continues, and wings of hope for those finding their way forward, flutter…