Missing Felicia

Chloe Greaves

We invited Chloe Greaves to undertake an Impossible Task. She attempted to find out what happened to Felicia Melzak, her great aunt who disappeared in the holocaust. 
"The most impossible thing I could imagine was to discover the fate of my great aunt and namesake Felicia Melzak, who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto in 1941 and was never seen again. 
My grandfather - who was 12 years old when the Holocaust ended - spent his life trying to find her. There is no documentation in my family's possession that proved she lived beyond his memory. The only offical document I was able to find was a missing persons report he filed 20 years after her disappearance.
Felicia was a victim of a political ideology, under a democratically elected government that not only murdered their citizens, but also destroyed any documentation that proved they lived.
The missing have a haunting effect on the human spirit. Their loss reverberates and can hunt us for generations. 
As my grandfather pointed out in an interview he did in 1997 with The Survivors Of The Shoah Visual History Foundation (the only time he spoke of his experience of the war), "The Holocaust did not end with the holocaust. We are witnessing its continuation today in Africa, Yugoslavia and the Middle East.” 
I would add that we have seen many ethnic conflicts throughout history and today, including the Australian Stolen Generations and the so-called "boat people" the Armenian massacres,  the Sri Lanka rival war, the treatment of the Uyghur peoples, the East Timorese, the Chechens, and many others.
My grandfather had hoped the the sacrifices of millions of people would result in theses atrocities halting, but it hasn’t. It was not able to eliminate hatred.  
It is with this generational haunting I pick up his search - 6 years after his death, and 79 years after Felicia’s disappearance. Like all the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of victims of political systems and power-hungry men, I sense those men have created a world where it is almost impossible that I will ever find the answer.
If you have any information on the disappearance of Fela (Felicia) Melzak please contact missingfela@gmail.com ." 
ST JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS

Chloe Greaves
Company: La Boite Theatre Company
Year the project commenced: 2019
Year it became impossible: 2020
Audience not reached: 388 a night.
www.chloegreavesdesign.com​​​​​​​
The Impossible Project dreams big. The very nature of impossibility assumes an imagination bigger than what reality can afford. That is often the burden of the artist and the activist, that they are (and should be) wedded to aiming high. With such aspiration driving it, when impossibility hits it often does so on several levels at once. Designer Chloe Greaves never got the chance to test her ideas for St Joan, a theatre production of the Brecht play adapted by Mark Rogers and directed by Sanja Simić which was to be presented at The Roundhouse by La Boite Theatre Company. Originally programmed for what became the height of the first Covid-19 wave in Brisbane, the project was cancelled a week before Greaves was due to present her final design. If the project had proceeded however, Greaves is not convinced her idea was actually possible.

Mechanical tests in the face of Impossibility.

Adapted by Mark Rogers 
Director - Sanja Simić 
Set & Costume Design - Chloe Greaves 
Composition & Sound Design - Anna Whitaker 
Lighting Design - Christine Flemingham 
Set Builder - Andrew Mils 
Production Manager - Daniel Sinclair
Technical Track Development - John Flemingham

NEW TASKS AND IMPOSSIBLE OUTCOMES ARE BEING ADDED EVERY WEEK. COME BACK SOON.



↑Back to Top