“In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out into the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry…” Ben Okri 1991
the ferryman and his wife is a surrealist short film set in a hazy imagining of our colonial past. It showcases Sanctum Theatre’s idiosyncratic brand of large scale puppets.
The ferryman and his wife step out of emptiness and into the projectionist’s small, earthen room. The projectionist conjures their souls out of the darkness and projects them onto his wall.
the ferryman is about shedding old skins. When the puppeteers escape from the puppets they must first face their past before finding freedom in the river.
the ferryman grew out of my 2010 artistic residency at Montsalvat – Australia’s oldest artist colony established in Eltham, Victoria, in the 1930s.
