The Story

Synopsis

The show opens with Joel visiting his former singing teacher, Connie, in the present day. Their reunion unfolds as an open and somewhat philosophical conversation between two old friends, eventually turning into an impromptu singing lesson. The music they share acts as a gateway, transporting the audience across time and space to follow the stories of three generations of the Parnis family.

We see Emmanuel and Josephine arriving in Australia from Malta in 1962, adjusting to a new life with their children. We follow Mario and Robyn in the early years of their marriage and parenthood, navigating cultural differences, relocations driven by career, and the challenges of raising a family. Joel’s own story unfolds from his childhood in Ballarat through to adulthood, as he grapples with his identity—queer, Maltese, Australian—and searches for a sense of belonging both within his family and the wider world.

The musical moves fluidly between these timelines, with songs acting as signposts to guide the audience through changing eras and locations. The present-day scenes with Connie and Joel serve as an anchor, providing context and reflection on the family’s evolving story.

The musical concludes with Joel establishing a new life in Malta—returning to the country his Nannu once left—while Mario and Robyn remain in Australia, and Josephine drifts between past and present as her dementia blurs the borders between memory and reality.

Artistic Vision

Duel Citizen is a meditation on what it means to belong—not just geographically, but within a family, a culture, a body. It asks whether home is a physical place, a set of inherited values, or something we carry within us. It explores how the need to adapt—to new countries, new cultures, new versions of ourselves—shapes both where we live and who we are allowed to become.

The musical’s structure mirrors the fluidity of memory, moving seamlessly between naturalistic conversations and richly lyrical internal monologues, where characters narrate their own lives from both within and beyond time. Inspired by the storytelling techniques of Ragtime–both Flaherty and Ahren’s 1998 musical and E.L. Doctorow’s 1975 novel–and the evocative, poetic dialogue of Mike Flanagan’s series Midnight Mass (2021) and The Haunting of Hill House (2018), where personal trauma and larger existential questions bleed into poetic, reflective monologues. The play invites audiences into a shared family album—one that blurs past and present, truth and memory.

The form allows the audience to experience the story through two lenses at once: the immediacy of natural conversation, and the heightened intimacy of internal memory, where the characters’ most vulnerable truths—often those they cannot say aloud—emerge.

The interplay of men’s choices and women’s sacrifices—the quiet reshaping of lives by mothers, wives, and daughters in response to decisions made for them—sits alongside the queer search for home, where personal and cultural belonging often seem at odds. The audience is invited to sit inside these emotional and cultural conflicts, with humour, heartbreak, and contemplation woven throughout.

Themes & Story

Duel Citizen blends the personal with the universal and the past with the present to explore a variety of complex themes, including;

Migration and Displacement: The piece tracks the ripple effects of leaving one’s homeland and the sacrifices made by those who left and those who stayed.

The Role of Women in Migration and Family-Building: The play explores  how women—like Josephine, Robyn, and others—are often required to upend their lives due to the decisions of men, with little voice in the matter. It considers how these women carry cultural memory, hold fractured families together, and bear silent witness to the passage of time and identity across generations.

Queer Identity and Belonging: Joel’s story highlights the search for cultural and personal acceptance, both within his family and within the places he calls home. As a queer son, his own search for identity echoes the women’s silent struggles: both are driven to carve out their own space within systems not built for them.

The Fragility of Memory: The play interrogates how memory—both personal (through aging  and dementia) and cultural (through migration and assimilation)—shapes identity, leaving future generations to reconstruct meaning from fragments.

Generational Cycles and Repetition:  Each generation either reinforces or challenges the choices of the last—tearing down inherited blueprints and rebuilding them in their own image.=