The themes behind 'A Delicate Situation' were first explored in 2008 via an Asialink Performing Arts Residency  at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia.  With a cast of four Malaysian dancers and Sound Designer the work investigated Malaysian superstition through the story of the Pontianak; a female vampire ghost believed to have died at childbirth. The work was then presented at the  Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre.  It was enthusiastically received and nominated for three awards in the Boh Cameronian Arts Awards Malaysia. Although successful, the work was only beginning to link raw ideas, images and concepts together. The performance produced the embryo of a work that, with correct attention, had the potential to be incredibly rich and powerfully dramatic.

 

Personal experiences led to further developments of ‘A Delicate Situation’ and in 2009 a creative period in Adelaide, South Australia, enabled Choreographer Lina Limosani to tease out the strengths of the original ideas behind the story and begin exploring  western attitudes towards death, dying and what lies beyond.  With the aid of costume designer Eve Lambert, Australian performer Carol Wellman Kelly and Australian Dance Theatre,  the team began to investigate the seemingly universal necessity for humans to personify death.

 

In May 2012, performer  Carol Wellman Kelly and  Choreographer Lina Limosani returned to Rimbun Dahan to work closely with original  performer Suhaili Micheline Ahmad Kamil and sound designer Hardesh Singh. Here they expanded upon the initial premises of the work,  drawing parallels to other Asian urban horror such as the chinese “Nǚ Guǐ” (女鬼), the Japanese Onryo,  the Korean Cheonyeo Gwishin (처녀귀신), and the Indonesian Kuntilanak. They also incorporated the significant advances that arose from the 2009 development.

 

July 2012 saw 'A Delicate Situation' undertake a more substantial development via the Adelaide Festival Centre's inSPACE Development Program  supported by Arts Sa and the Australia Council . This development period brought together  the results of the May residency with the full artistic team and advanced the work through a demanding and comprehensive collaboration process.  This process allowed the team to realize the full capacity of 'A Delicate Situation' and offered great scope to assess the best means of achieving the performance outcomes.

 

'A Delicate Situation' premiered at the Adelaide Festival Centre's Space Theatre in May 2014 with rave reviews. The final season was supported by the Australia Council, Australia Malaysia Institute and the Government of South Australia.