Shining a light on emerging artists

DALIA SABLE

IT is set to be a big week for performer Deborah Leiser-Moore. Teaming up with Melbourne theatre venue fortyfivedownstairs, Leiser-Moore’s production company Tashmadada will co-host the second annual five-day Searchlight Festival for which she will perform a play that she also developed, co-wrote and for which she produced video elements.

“It’s exciting because there is a really amazing mix of artists coming together for the festival,” Leiser-Moore says in a brief moment of calm. “It is because of the success of last year that we decided to do it again.”

Leiser-Moore will stage her work, Cordelia Mine Kind on Sunday, February 21. Comprising live performance and video, the play draws on Shakespeare’s King Lear, as well as a lesser-known Yiddish version.

It shows the relationship between father and daughter, in this instance an ageing Holocaust survivor and a modern-day version of Shakespeare’s Cordelia, represented by Leiser-Moore herself.

Using film elements, including an interview of her father, Leiser-Moore says it is as though there are two characters on stage.

“It has a happier ending [than Shakespeare’s]. It looks at the silence but there is a catharsis that explodes this silence,” she says.

Leiser-Moore will be one of more than 18 artists appearing at the Searchlight Festival, which features performances from theatre and cabaret to physical performance.

The festival’s aim is to showcase the very best emerging and established artists who are pushing boundaries.

“The idea was originally to create a context for independent artists who don’t often get a context to perform their work,” Leiser-Moore explains.

“We wanted to unearth these works, to shine a light on the artists and bring the works to life.”

Cordelia Mine Kind will be performed on Sunday, February 21. Enquiries: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com;
For the festival program, go to searchlightfestival10.wordpress.com.