The Island presents a pearcing gaze on the world from the viewpoint of the East-Indian Mira and her mother Julia. After the Police Actions in Dutch East India, Mira and her mother landed in the Netherlands. After years of difficult contact, Mira asks her mother all sorts of questions about that era and the events afterwards. Julia does not want to talk about that and would rather forget. She cherishes the emptiness and silence, as if she had never left her coffee plantation. Mira continues to question her. She does not let go. Standing besides Mira and Julia, a story teller, who relates the past events as recorded in the autobiography. The play highlights an important moment in Dutch history through the mother-daughter relationship, while at the same time touching upon issues of today concerning migration and integration.

I saw Julia, who cherishes the emptiness, silence and inertness, to feel as close as possible to her coffee plantation on the island, as if she has never left it. I saw the distance between mother and daughter. I saw and decided: “This must be presented as a play”. That will be my show of love for Julia and Mira, the beginning of my artistic responsibility.

play: Tatiana Radier, Lottie de Bruin, Michael Driebeek van der Ven

text and director: Patrizia Filia
translation: Jeanne Hulsman
lights: Natasja Giebels
costumes: Thea van Loon
produced by: de LuiaardVrouwe

impresario: Ricardo Burgzorg

committee of recommendation: Ester Captain, Hedy d’Ancona, Adrian van Dis,
Job Lisman, Willem Nijholt, Lambert Giebels

advisors: Kim Lie Paliama, Eelco Heijmering, Yvonne van den Berg, Arthur Beem

with thanks to: Indisch Platform, Stichting Pelita, Frank van der Berg, Frans Broeseliske, Paulette Smit, Gerard Mosterd, Nel Lekatompessy, Ghislaine Pierrie, Martijn Apituley, Pim Vlug, Roderik de Man, Rob Scholten, Britt Arp, Albert Vijge, Margreet Lefeber Karres, Alessandro Vermeulen, Fenny Vlietstra, Hans Arends, Ima Spanjaard +

The Island is made possible by the Cultural department of the city of Dordrecht

The Island - the beginning

A friend invited me one day in the 2002 to read the autobiography of Merapi Obermayer, called “Insulinde’s Daughter”. After having discussed with him theatre and humanity, he made the assumption that the principal character and her life story would very much appeal to me as a creator of theatre. I started to read and realized this. First I envisioned a movie then a play. What I saw was emptiness, silence and inertness. The woman wrote: “I was standing in my room in front of the window and peered at the sea”. I also read: “Wholly absorbed in oneself”. This is the beginning as well as the ending of the book. I saw her write, the pain of doing so, it gripped her, merciless. I saw it and cried.

On the cover of the book is a photo of a mother and her small daughter. The mother is of a transparent, delicate beauty. We do not know to where she looks with her large eyes, just those are large. The gaze is like a wall. Her right hand rests on a high stool on which her daughter sits. Of her left hand, one sees only 3 fingers, which caress the left arm of her child. The child has puffy cheeks. Her eyes look in the same direction as her mother’s. Her look is one of curiosity, determination, a look that can pierce the world. The mother is called Julia, her daughter is called Mira. Motherhood from Java.

I saw Julia, who cherishes the emptiness, silence and inertness, to feel as close as possible to her coffee plantation on the island, as if she has never left it. I saw Mira, who travels around the globe, to leave everything behind, to forget. Very much later will she re-discover her garden and island, then to write about. That distance between mother and daughter… In my imagination I saw two actresses in an empty space. I saw and decided: “This must be presented as a play”. This will be my show of love for Julia and Mira, the beginning of my artistic responsibility.

The Island It is a universally humanly recognizable. Recognizable from the perspective of the world of Indonesia. From the perspective of Indonesian history.

Patrizia Filia