Joy Hester reimagined: a visual poem of love, loss and belonging, Emma Louise Pursey in association with Cicero’s Circle and fortyfivedownstairs presents Where Is Joy? from 30 October 2025.
Where Is Joy? is a new one-woman show by actor, writer, and producer Emma Louise Pursey that draws artist Joy Hester from the margins and places her centre stage.
Where Is Joy? boldly reimagines the life and work of Melbourne modernist Joy Hester – the only major woman artist of the seminal Heide Circle – described by Sasha Grishin in the Sydney Morning Herald as “just so much better than Albert Tucker.”
Redressing the gender bias that sees women artists subsumed by their male counterparts, Where Is Joy? is a surreal and soaring portrait of a passionate woman whose life was consumed by her love for art, making the ordinary, extraordinary.
An essential figure of the modernist literary and artistic movement, the Angry Penguins and the Heide Circle (now the Heide Museum of Modern Art), Hester was critically dismissed and marginalised during her life, working against the gender disparity and ableism of her time.
Her evocative ink drawings conveyed a deep psychological interiority and emotional intimacy, often undercut by a stark, confronting brutality. Following her death from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1960 at the age of 40, Hester’s work was ultimately recognised and celebrated, though she is still not a household name.
Like Hester, Pursey has endured multiple complex health challenges and profound personal loss, having been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at 27 – a tumour beneath her left eye – an uncanny parallel to the artist, whose portraits were defined by their eyes.
A later re-diagnosis of the rare and often fatal Amyloidosis led to a miraculous outcome, mirroring Hester’s unexpected remission. Pursey’s challenges continue, navigating chronic pain from scoliosis, spinal fusion and endometriosis, as well as grief from the sudden loss of her fiancé, Grant McLennan (The Go-Betweens) in 2006.
Pursey continues to be inspired by Hester’s life and work, motivated across 20 years (original creative development in 2004 through Arts Queensland with co-writer Amy Hyslop) to write, produce and perform Where Is Joy?
“This is a deeply personal work about life, love and belonging. I’ve tried to draw Joy’s inner world out, just as she drew the interior in her art,” says Pursey “The play asks Where Is Joy? – by the end, I hope you’ve found her, through me and in yourself.”
Drawing on nearly 30 years of Suzuki Method training, Pursey delivers a visceral and physically charged performance, collaborating with renowned director Susie Dee (Bad Boy, fortyfivedownstairs and Truth, Malthouse) to finally bring the production to fruition.
“I was immediately captivated by Emma when I first saw a reading of Where Is Joy? – not only is she a fine nuanced performer but her writing is poetic, bold and visceral,” says Dee. “These qualities are a gift to a director! And Joy Hester — such a brilliant and complex female artist. She and Emma are both forces of nature!”
Boasting an exceptional woman-led creative team and providing historical context for one of Australia’s greatest, yet underacknowledged modern artists, Where Is Joy? promises to intrigue, delight, and challenge audiences.
In addition to composing the score, acclaimed singer-songwriter and visual artist Sarah Mary Chadwick – whose own practice centres on paper and ink, like Joy Hester’s – will create original artworks for the production’s projected visual design. These pieces, made in direct response to Hester’s work, will bridge decades between two artists bound by the same raw and expressive medium.
Director: Susie Dee | Actor, Writer & Producer: Emma Louise Pursey | Sound and Visual Designer: Sarah Mary Chadwick | Lighting Designer: Amelia Lever-Davidson | Design Consultant: Lindy Macauley | Original Co-writer: Amy Hyslop (2004-2005 Creative Developments)
Where Is Joy?
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 31 October – 9 November 2025 (preview: 30 October)
Information and Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
Image: Emma Louise Pursey – photo by Amber Schmidt