Item HT 56401 Programme - 'Carmen Jones', Eoan Group, South Africa, 1970

Summary

Souvenir programme for the musical 'Carmen Jones', presented by the Eoan Group in 1970. Sylvia joined the Eoan Group in 1966 and performed in a variety of operas in the chorus. She met her future husband, Lindsay Motherwell, through the Eoan Group's production of 'South Pacific'. Sylvia left South Africa in 1969 and migrated to Australia in 1970.

Sylvia Boyes (a South African-born orphan) and Lindsay Motherwell (a Melbourne-born drummer) met in Cape Town, South Africa in 1967 through their theatre connections. They fell in love but due to apartheid laws were forced to leave South Africa to marry in London. They subsequently relocated permanently to Melbourne in 1970.

Physical Description

Programme with front cover with pink and purple artistic design. The front page has a list of credits for the main actors and backstage participants. Inside the booklet is a message from the Eoan Group Trust, a foreword from the Chairman, and photos of the directors and actors. There is also a timeline of highlights of Eoan Group activities. The centrefold displays a synopsis of scenes, list of chorus members and dancers, musical sequences and credits. There is also a synopsis of the play, photos of backstage workers, and photos of the performance itself. There are also advertisements throughout the booklet.

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection provides a significant opportunity to represent political and personal freedom as a motivation for migrating to Australia within the international context of both apartheid in South Africa and the end of the White Australia policy in Australia. The personal narrative is well documented and the objects provide a material way to follow the lives of both Lindsay and Sylvia, both separately and where they coincide in South Africa and onwards together to Melbourne. While this is ultimately a love story, it plays out through the collection against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, sixties London and an increasingly multicultural Australia.