Based on our research about the 1965 genocide in Indonesia, Papermoon Puppet Theatre dedicates our performance Mwathirika to the victims and missing family members of this tragedy—as well as the many other tragedies caused by political turmoil in our world.
Mwathirika is our most widely toured work. In 2016, it was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Southbank Centre, London; the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; and Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff as part of the British Council’s “Discover Indonesia” program. It was also presented by the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide, Australia.
In 2012, Center Stage, the cultural exchange program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs, brought Mwathirika to five states and seven cities in the United States. Additionally, the show was part of the Darwin Festival, Australia and the ASEAN Puppetry Festival in Singapore that year.
“Mwathirika is a deeply moving, beautiful, and important piece of work. This piece is truly international, as it doesn’t rely on text or language but uses the power of sound and visual image to touch our hearts.”
—The Clothesline; Adelaide, Australia; 2015
“Delicate and moving, Mwathirika opens our hearts as well as our minds to the pain of war.”
—InDaily; Adelaide, Australia; 2015
****
—The Scotsman; Edinburgh, Scotland; 2015
“Papermoon Puppet Theatre brings home the tragedy of those years in an hour, far better than any books or pages of academic analysis, or facts and figures.”
—BroadwayWorld.com, 2015
****
—TheReviewsHub.com, 2015
“… this high-quality piece drags us in a poignant slipstream.”
—David Pollock, WOW247.co.uk
“Papermoon’s puppeteers need no words and minimal sound to communicate the motions of the characters, and with an exemplary musical accompaniment and the intensity of the storyline itself, this is almost enough to make a grown woman cry.”
—NY Social Status, 2012
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