ADA AND FLORA – THE PIANO

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2025 – “Ada and Flora – The Piano” by Juliana Areias & Geoffrey Drake-Brockman, featuring Lilas Areias.

After the 1993 film masterpiece “The Piano” – by kiwi writer/director Jane Campion, starring Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin. With this movie, Campion became the first female director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film also won Academy Awards for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay; three BAFTA Awards, and eleven Australian Film Institute Awards.

“The Piano” is a multi-faceted gothic drama set in colonial-era New Zealand. It depicts a wilful and unconventional Scottish woman named Ada, who has not spoken since age six, and communicates by playing her piano. Ada travels to a remote beach to meet her husband by arranged-marriage. After a series of transgressive erotic encounters – she instead falls in love with a settler who has adopted Māori custom.

The complexity of the characters in the film reach well beyond victim and villain stereotypes. Mother and daughter  present almost as a single persona – playful, irresponsible, and rebellious – that asserts itself despite the regulation of a patriarchal colonial world. A world that seeks to tame and that ultimately mutilates Ada – severing parts of her body, her voice, her passion. Ada flirts with death and the abyss, but contrary to the received trajectory of heroines who dare to transgress, she lives-on to fully embrace her desire and eccentricity.

In our tableau vivant we have transported the defining scene of “The Piano” from a stormy Karekare Beach, Waitākere in Piha (close to where Juliana and Lilas once lived in Aotearoa) to sunny North Cottesloe, now our “home” beach in Perth, Western Australia.

HYPATIA

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2024 – “Hypatia”, by Juliana Areias & Geoffrey Drake-Brockman.

Hypatia of Alexandria was a scholar, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who is considered the first notable woman in mathematics. She lectured on the writings of Plato and Aristotle and published mathematical and astronomical research. Despite her scientific accomplishments and reputation as a wise counsellor, Hypatia was caught up in political and religious rivalries of her time and was stoned to death, quartered and burned by Christians on 8 March 415 – which is now coincidently International Women’s Day.

From a European perspective, Hypatia is sometimes attributed as the last champion of science and intellectual free-inquiry before the long medieval decline. According to social campaigner Dora Russell, “Hypatia was a university lecturer denounced by Church dignitaries and torn to pieces by Christians.” Location: Hackett Hall, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth, Western Australia.

CORALINE

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2023 – “Coraline”, by Juliana Areias & Geoffrey Drake-Brockman featuring Lilas Areias & Lua the cat.

After the 2009 stop-motion animated feature film “Coraline” – written and directed by Henry Selick, based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name. The film tells the story of a girl, Coraline, who wishes that her parents were more perfect, attentive and fun – like the idealised “other parents” she encounters in an alternate universe behind a secret door in her dull new home. Gradually Coraline realises that these ominous doubles with buttons sewn over their eyes are too good to be true – as they attempt to trap Coraline forever and replace her eyes also with stiched-on buttons.

The Coraline story is a modern fable tale about choosing between finding the beauty in an imperfect but real world or becoming trapped in a false and dangerously perfect alternative. Is the grass truly greener on the other side…? Is the virtual universe more fulfilling than the real?

“Coraline” has been Lilas’s favourite movie for many years. As she turns 18 in 2023 Lilas finally got to adopt a cat. “Lua”, the cat, is Lilas’s childhood dream come true. Thank you big brother Jobim Areias da Mata, for helping us to get the best shot. Location: Our home kitchen, John Street, Cottesloe, Perth, Western Australia.

COVID CARMEN

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2022 – “Covid Carmen” by Juliana Areias & Geoffrey Drake-Brockman.

Born in Portugal, Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) moved to Rio de Janeiro at the age of one and went on to become one of Brazil’s most iconic cultural exports – a globally renowned Samba singer and Hollywood star. A hat designer herself, she adopted elaborate fruit hats as her instantly-recognisable trademark. Her vibrant, generous and colourful personality helped to popularise Brazil as a friendly, festive and culturally rich country worldwide.

One wonders what elements Carmen might put into her hat in 2022, after the Covid Pandemic,… Sadly, many have perished and suffered worldwide due to Covid, and Brazil has been one of the worst affected countries – with around ten percent of the world’s official Covid death-toll. In Australia, due to management of borders, isolation measures, vaccination programs and clear government messaging, Covid deaths per million have been kept relatively low. Australia is a rich island nation and its experience cannot fully translate elsewhere, however the comparison with Brazil could not be more stark. Brazil, under its current President, did not implement a strong Covid response at Federal level, with a resultant huge cost in human lives and a pandemic death-rate amongst the highest in the world.

Our 2022 Covid Carmen tableau vivant pays respect to all lives lost. You will always be remembered. Location: Karakatta Cemetery, Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia.

NED KELLY AND MARIA BONITA

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2021 – “Ned Kelly & Maria Bonita” by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman & Juliana Areia.

Ned Kelly and Maria Bonita are the iconic outlaw hero and heroine of Australia and Brazil respectively. Both Ned and Maria are part of the “Robin Hood” mythologies of their nations – rebellious characters who stole from the wealthy while returning to the poor. Both were ultimately captured and put to death for their crimes. Since then, their reputations have grown to become cultural icons, their legends meshed into the fabric of national identity.

Ned Kelly was the most notorious of the great bushrangers. After shooting dead three policemen who were hunting him, Kelly eluded police for two years, with the support of an extensive network of sympathisers. Famously, he wore a suit of bulletproof armour during his final battle with police in 1880.  He died at the gallows at the age of 25 – asked if he had any last words, he responded simply; “such is life”.

In 1930, 29-year-old Maria Bonita dared to leave her husband to become the partner of Lampiao – Brazil’s Ned Kelly – being the first woman to join his gang. She was not afraid of being unconventional and was determined to live out her wildest dreams. Lampiao and Maria Bonita defied the police together for eight years, leading a gang of 100 people, until both were captured and killed in 1938.

In this Tableau Vivant, Ned’s pistols have been substituted with the artistic tools used the create the backdrop to the scene – a battery-drill and a spray gun.  Maria’s ammunition belts are filled not with bullets but with the crayons used to detail the set. The background to the Tableau is inspired by the 1945 painting “Kelly in the Bush” by Sidney Nolan. Location: Geoffrey’s Art Studio, Government Rd, Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia.

MARIA – METROPOLIS

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2020 – “Maria – Metropolis” by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman & Juliana Areias – after Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film masterpiece “Metropolis” – written by Thea von Harbou and starring Brigitte Helm. The film’s story revolves around a woman named Maria, leader of the workers in the underground city, who is captured by the scientist Rotwang in order to unleash an evil robot that he transforms into her image. Metropolis was not well received on its initial release, and was subsequently almost lost in its original form due to heavy editing and censorship, only being fully restored to its premiere cut in 2010. Metropolis is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. Location: Geoffrey’s Art Studio, Government Rd, Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia.

FRIDA KAHLO

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2019 – “Frida Kahlo” by Juliana Areias & Geoffrey Drake-Brockman, after Frida Kahlo’s “Broken Column” painting from 1944. Frida was a Mexican surrealist artist famed for the unflinching honesty of her autobiographical self-portraits. Her work depicts a woman’s perspective on her own body, personal suffering, femininity and national identity. Location: The Pinacles, Western Australia, – a landscape of extraordinary formations of uknown origin.

JOAN OF ARC

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2018 – “Joan of Arc” by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman & Juliana Areias – Jeanne d’Arc, (Joan of Arc) was burned at the stake in 1431 for the heresy of talking directly with God and dressing and fighting as a man. Jeanne was one of thousands of people (mainly women) burned as witches in medieval times. Location: Karakatta Cemetery, Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia.

FRANKENSTEIN

Tableau Vivant for Halloween 2017 – “Frankenstein” by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman & Juliana Areias

“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley was first published in 1818. In the novel the scientist Victor Frankenstein gives life to a male creature, who resents his loneliness and demands that a female creature also be made. Frankenstein is considered by some as the first true science fiction story. Thank you Lilas Areias for helping us to get the best shot. Location: Geoffrey’s Art Studio, Government Rd, Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia.

THE MAGRITTE LEAP

Tableau Vivant 2013 – “The Magritte Leap” by Geoffrey Drake-Brockman.

“The Magritte Leap”, after Rene Magritte’s iconic surrealist painting “Golconda”. Location: Blackwall Reach (Jenalup), Swan River, Bicton, Perth, Western Australia.