{"id":8482,"date":"2011-11-16T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=8482"},"modified":"2011-11-16T09:00:04","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T09:00:04","slug":"personal-revolutions-raven-kalianas-fragilesacred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2011\/11\/16\/personal-revolutions-raven-kalianas-fragilesacred\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal (R)Evolutions: Raven Kaliana’s Fragile\/Sacred"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people talk about art changing lives, I think Raven Kaliana<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s work is the kind of thing they mean. Using a mixture of live actors and puppetry, her company Puppet (R)Evolution<\/strong><\/a> uses ingenious staging to show what cannot be shown in live action.<\/p>\n

The first play of Kaliana\u2019s I saw was Hooray for Hollywood<\/strong><\/a> a while back. It told the story of her own horrific childhood in the child sex industry. The play showed adult actors from the waist down (just jean legs, skirts and overheard dialogue) and focused on the level \u2013 both emotionally and physically \u2013 of the children, who were portrayed with puppets.<\/p>\n

I first saw Hooray for Hollywood<\/strong> in July 2010 and wrote about it then for feminist mag Fat Quarter<\/strong><\/a>. More recently an abridged version of the play has been filmed for wider distribution and showed at an event on ending child pornography held at Amnesty International Headquarters. The work is powerful, brave, and through ingenious staging conveys what it would be near-impossible to bring out for open discussion any other way. Frequently Hooray for Hollywood<\/strong> is played with a talk afterwards, hosted by various child protection charities.<\/p>\n

Puppet (R)Evolution\u2019s current play, Fragile\/Sacred<\/strong>, was on as part of the Suspense<\/strong> puppetry festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n