In folded rooms and shadow plays, childlike innocence transforms into courage.
In an unfolding papier-mâché dollhouse, nine-year-old Juniper is playing with her dolls to work through her guilt about a domestic worker hired by her parents. Through whispered memories and shadow games, this interactive VR tale reveals the power dynamics at play in our most intimate spaces.
Like Alice tumbling through the looking glass, Juniper's journey in The Dollhouse starts with innocent play but soon transforms into a profound crossing. The experience places you in the liminal space where childhood ends; where dolls become silent witnesses and a simple button holds the weight of freedom. Through theatrical staging and shadow puppetry on bedroom walls, directors Charlotte Bruneau and Dominic Desjardins craft a delicate yet piercing portrait of the way children absorb and eventually question their parents' prejudices and actions. This is the essential rite of passage: the moment we recognise complicity and choose whether to perpetuate or break the cycles we've inherited.
