The Louis Joel Arts and Community centre (LJAC) in Altona is an appropriate place for the new play Ivy and Sylvia to be performed.
Not only is it a production by Altona-based theatre company Dramawerkz, but Louis Joel sits on the site of the old Altona District Hospital where the two nurses the play is based on, Ivy Weber and Sylvia Koch, once worked.
And as Dramawerkz chief executive and Ivy and Sylvia writer and performer, Mia Boonen explained, being given a working space at the LJAC was how she found out about them.
“Last year the final medical centre parts of the Louis Joel centre were given back to the community and we (Dramawerkz) were given a room in the centre and decided to explore its past and all the kind of ghosts that might be there,” Boonen said.
“We heard from the pathology clinic that the old matron haunts the hallways. We started to look into her and we discovered Ivy Weber and Sylvia Koch. They were nurses in the 1920’s and 30’s and the backbone of health in Altona.”
The play is an imagined conversation between Ivy and Sylvia, and tells the story of two women with vastly different approaches to their shared goals: providing healthcare in Altona during a time of economic recession and prioritising women when many others refused.
“It’s a story about local history with a lot of themes that are still relevant now like women’s health care and community fundraising and shared resources,” said Boonen of the play which has a preview performance on Thursday, March 20, before its official opening night on Friday, March 21.
Ivy and Sylvia closes on Sunday, March 30.
Details: events.humanitix.com/ivy-and-sylvia?discountcode%3DBUSH-HOSPITAL1932
Cade Lucas
