Part mystery, part documentary, part forensic investigation, this performance work-in-progress explores the experiences of three generations of women from 1920s Budapest to Western Sydney today.

Sleeplessness is a fractured matrilineal history that spans time and place, written and performed by interdisciplinary artist Karen Therese, Artistic Director of PYT Fairfield, and produced in collaboration with The National Women’s Arts and Cultural Centre. Therese’s work has been called “Profoundly moving and fiercely ambitious”.

The presentation will be a research development showing.

 Supported by Creative Practice Lab, School of the Arts and Media, UNSW

Karen Therese

Karen is an interdisciplinary artist who grew up in Mt Druitt in Western Sydney. Her performance
practice is focused on community building, and she is also Director of the PYT Fairfield. Part mystery, part documentary, part forensic investigation, her new work, Sleeplessness maps a remarkable Australian story, revealing the impact of migration,
institutionalisation and transgenerational trauma on families. It explores a fractured matrilineal
history that spans time and place, encompassing the experiences of three generations of women
from 1920’s Budapest to Western Sydney today.