The Australian version,for example,critiques the bathroom options available now that a child’s parents live in two different homes.
But it doesn’t pull punches,either. In a “truth-telling” scene near the end,a child addresses the audience:“By having a kid,you have made a promise to protect them”.
The cast ofThe Dispute with director Jackson Castiglione.Credit:Chris Hopkins
Another,recalling the day he was told his parents were leaving each other,says it feels like “two people are leaving the child”.
Director Jackson Castiglione is recreating El Khatib’s work in Australia. In February there was a first round of “research interviews” with families who had been through parental separation with children aged 8 to 12. They were told the interview questions “will be carefully crafted to ensure the conversation is from the child’s point of view,exploring their perception of this event”.
After an “easy and gentle audition process”,the successful cast members were chosen.
Castiglione says one of the joys of the play is that it challenges preconceptions:it turns out,for example,that children often prefer their divorced family to the one before.
“It was the vulnerability of the children,and the courage,and also the humour,” he says,that blew him away.
“As soon as I saw the children connecting with the story,the lightness and resilience in which they talk about this subject matter,I was like … Oh my God,[El Khatib] is really able to capture the courage of childhood,this indestructible innocence,where they don’t judge things in the way that adults do. Their problems are far more immediate – and in some ways the resolutions are as well.”
He says the process has been “enabling and empowering” for its cast and others he interviewed;some children went away with questions for their parents that they’d thought about for a long time but never asked because they didn’t know they were able to.
But he has also had to be very aware that he’s playing with dynamite. A child welfare officer was in the room at all times,and he’s made it clear to the kids that they could always “opt out”. The production has a child psychologist attached,and it consulted Stepfamilies Australia.
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“In most instances,the kid has done a lot of thinking and a lot of talking,or there’s been enough time between the separation and this process to be able to reflect on it in a way that’s not triggering or traumatic,” Castiglione says.
In many ways,children find it easier to talk about parental separation than their parents do. And that,for Castiglione,is another strength of the work. He feels a taboo around talking about separated families needs to be overcome.
“I think part of our society is afraid of children finding things difficult in their lives,” he says. “Life is difficult,and it’s not the difficulties but how the adults respond … that’s really important.
“We don’t trust children to own their own stories. And it’s been a real privilege to be working with these children and families to make this show.”
The Dispute runs from May 27 to June 5 at Arts House.