Peddling dreams

SXNews.e-p.net.au

The tragic life of author Eve Langley is explored in an original dance/theatre piece by 75-year-old Elizabeth Langley. She spoke with Katrina Fox.

“I have dedicated this work to all whose eccentricity, creativity and freedom has been denied, repressed or betrayed, especially women,” says Elizabeth Langley of her solo show Journal of Peddle Dreams, which is a Mardi Gras Theatre Initiative.

Eve Langley (1904-1974) lived in a climate where the above were not encouraged in women and as such suffered a tortured life, despite her first book The Pea Pickers being considered a classic in Australian literature. After cross-dressing as a young woman, Eve later struggled to be a wife and mother and was institutionalised in a mental hospital for seven years where she was diagnosed as schizophrenic.