BIJOU’S SECRET

$5.40 – $15.00

Sandra is a talented visual artist attempting to navigate her way through the pain of her maternal relationship. She is grateful for her artistic practice, the connection with her father and her country of origin. She is a first generation Australian.

Mireille, her mother, is an urbane middle-aged, middle-class Australian woman who decides to leave her academic job, her comfortable home and her constant husband. We follow her on her travels as she seeks answers and finally oblivion, when she dies in a public hospital in Barcelona 'from causes due to chronic alcoholism.'

Bijou, her mother, is a European camp survivor of World War II, who came to Australia with Mireille, as a very small child. She had been a Parisian cabaret singer during the time of German occupation in France. Now an elderly and dying woman with dementia, she unburdens herself of the secret that she has kept for 60 years. The man who she loved, who was her daughter's father, was a German officer.

"The emotional devastation is leavened by music and the dry wit of the women. Mireille in particular is a superb creation, ruthlessly judgemental on one level, and yet sensual and passionate.... This is an intimate and entertaining piece of theatre."—Australian Stage

APT