NOSABE: A MULTI-CULTURAL TALE

May 2, 2006
Wansolwara Online

SUVA: Imagine a play performed in four languages using dance, puppets and storytelling.

That was the experience when watching performer Catherine Dinevan in her recent solo performance called Nosabè at the Fiji Institute of Technology’s (FIT) School of Arts, Culture and Design in Raiwai, Suva.

Catherine is of Vietnamese origins although she was born and schooled in Vanuatu.

Pulling on her different cultural backgrounds and experiences, she creates a fairytale like story that captures the mind of the audience.

“I speak four languages: Vietnamese, French, Bislama and English.”

Catherine has been performing for seven years and during those years she has performed over 10 plays in French.

“My original script for this play was written in French and this is only my second time to perform in English.”

Catherine added that her first performance of Nosabè in English was done at the 2004 Pacific Arts Festival hosted in Palau.

The play includes modern day issues like education, women’s rights, family planning abortion and even racial ethnicity.

The Alliance Française in association with UNICEF and FIT brought the theatrical piece to Fiji.