Deceptive Threads

A singing spy, a hawker's lie... How do you reconcile a family history littered with secrets? Deceptive Threads tells the extraordinary true stories of David Joseph's grandfathers - one a Tivoli singer turned ASIO spymaster who vetted 'unwanted' arrivals, the other an early Lebanese immigrant who had to lie about his birthplace to gain Australian naturalisation. In this award-winning solo show, Joseph explores race, belonging, history, and national identity to theatrically illuminate the personal in the political. Deftly untangling the threads linking his family's connection to Australia's racist past and its present dilemma over asylum seekers, he explores the nexus between the government control of immigration and the 'unwelcome' immigrant.