Each year 1,600 people are listed as long-term missing persons. Some might walk to the store, go out for a drink, or leave for work as usual, and simply never return. For their family and friends, this can mark the beginning of years of hellish uncertainty.
Theatre company Version 1.0’s new production The Disappearances Project captures the crushing limbo for those left not knowing. “It focuses on the experience of those left behind in long-term missing persons cases,” says co-deviser and performer Yana Taylor. “We are channeling the voices of people’s accounts and experiences of… losing someone mysteriously.”
Real-life statements are woven from police reports, documents, interviews with family and communities around the cases to form a snapshot of their pain and frustration. “The worst thing,” says one family member, “is not knowing.” A chilling soundscape from Paul Prestipino combines with video imagery to form an immersive and haunting mosaic of this dark state of suspension.
May 3-7, Track 8, Performance Space, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh, free, performancespace.com.au
That there be trouble 