Black Sequin Dress
The Black Sequin Dress takes us on a journey through the psychic state of a suburban housewife. The audience is taken to the setting of a nightclub where the woman falls and is rendered unconscious. As the play progresses we watch as the main character delves into her own subconscious within the underworld her mind has created. The woman encounters her deep-seated issues in regards to her identity and is also faced with her sensuality and hidden desires (Wright, T. 1996). The audience is taken through an interconnection of her memory and an imagined reality, as the woman in the black sequin dress proceeds through a journey of self-exploration.
The creator of the play was inspired by the artwork of Paul Delvaux, a Belgian artist famous for his surrealist paintings. He mostly painted female nudists and it is believed that she was moved by the elements of both feminism that he incorporated and the distorted way in which he painted (Bradby D & Delgado, M. 2004). In the Black Sequin Dress, the main character is played by four actors. These actors are of similar appearance and are dressed in the identical costume. These actors shift between portraying the different components of the woman’s personality and representing themselves as a uniformed chorus, as they seem to disconnect from the intimacy of certain events throughout the play.
Jenny Kemp, born 1949, is an innovative writer and director based in Melbourne. Her plays were first produced in 1977 and include the works of The Black Sequin Dress, Call of the Wild, Still Angela and Remember. Kemp has received a notable amount of awards and has coordinated a variety of different workshops at tertiary universities around Western Australia. Her main creative processes are based on spatial awareness and the experimental involvement of various elements, such as sound and visual perception and she enjoys including eccentric concepts in her work. It is more common for Kemp to incorporate visual arts in her plays, rather
The creator of the play was inspired by the artwork of Paul Delvaux, a Belgian artist famous for his surrealist paintings. He mostly painted female nudists and it is believed that she was moved by the elements of both feminism that he incorporated and the distorted way in which he painted (Bradby D & Delgado, M. 2004). In the Black Sequin Dress, the main character is played by four actors. These actors are of similar appearance and are dressed in the identical costume. These actors shift between portraying the different components of the woman’s personality and representing themselves as a uniformed chorus, as they seem to disconnect from the intimacy of certain events throughout the play.
Jenny Kemp, born 1949, is an innovative writer and director based in Melbourne. Her plays were first produced in 1977 and include the works of The Black Sequin Dress, Call of the Wild, Still Angela and Remember. Kemp has received a notable amount of awards and has coordinated a variety of different workshops at tertiary universities around Western Australia. Her main creative processes are based on spatial awareness and the experimental involvement of various elements, such as sound and visual perception and she enjoys including eccentric concepts in her work. It is more common for Kemp to incorporate visual arts in her plays, rather
References: * Wright, T. (1996). Edge of Reality. Herald Sun, printed on Friday, March 22, 1996. pg 1-2 * Bradby, D. & Delgado, M. (2004). Contemporary theatre review, vol. 14. University of British Columbia Press, Pg 25 * Minchinton, M. (1998). Landscape of the Psyche: The dream theatre of Jenny Kemp. Routledge publishers, pg 75-87 * Rundle, G. (1996). Sure-footed elegance. The Age, printed on 21st march, 1996. Pg 1