As her monumental play Lacrima comes to Australia, writer/director Caroline Guiela Nguyen tells Steve Dow why she likes interweaving different narratives – in this case, as a way to reveal the human cost stitched into every seam at a Parisian fashion house.

A scene from Lacrima. Photo © Jean-Louis Fernandez

In India, ageing master embroiderer Abdul is virtually enslaved and slowly going blind. In the epic play Lacrima, he is sewing thousands of pearls onto the 200-metre train of a silk and lace wedding dress for an unnamed British princess.

Health dangers “are very, very common for the lacemakers and indeed for the embroiderers of pearls, there are risks from eye fatigue,” says French writer and director Caroline Guiela Nguyen of her play. Created for the Théâtre...