Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk]

Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA presents Marrugeku's: Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk]

Set within ‘the prison of the Australian mind’, Marrugeku’s Jurrungu Ngan-ga twists and turns its way through Indigenous and refugee stories, cutting into the raw nerve of government sanctioned brutality in prisons and detention centres. After a successful world tour, it’s time for Perth audiences to be swept away by Jurrungu Ngan-ga’s visual feast for the senses with hypnotic storytelling that gives victims a face, and interrogates our capacity to lock away and isolate that which we fear.

This provocative new dance theatre work designed by leading Western Australian visual artist Abdul- Rahman Abdullah fuses complex choreography, searing dialogue and a blood-pumping musical soundscape. Co-created with Yawuru leader, Patrick Dodson, former Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani, and Iranian- Australian scholar-activist Omid Tofighian, this is an exquisite work of great sophistication that throbs with sadness, anger and joy.

Brutally beautiful, Jurrungu Ngan-ga arrests your attention, dares you to look away, and dreams of the day we will know solidarity in difference.

"For all the sadness and anger at its heart, Jurrungu Ngan-ga burns with ferocious, life-affirming passion." The Australian

CHOREOGRAPHERS Dalisa Pigram with the performers Czack (Ses) Bero, Emmanuel James Brown, Chandler Connell, Luke Currie- Richardson, Issa el Assaad, Zachary Lopez (previous), Macon Escobal Riley (present), Bhenji Ra, Feras Shaheen & Miranda Wheen

DIRECTOR Rachael Swain

PERFORMANCE DRAMATURGY Hildegard de Vuyst

CULTURAL DRAMATURGY Behrouz Boochani, Patrick Dodson & Omid Tofighian

MUSIC Sam Serruys, Paul Charlier & Rhyan Clapham

LYRICS Beni (Bjah) Hasler

SOUND DESIGNER Sam Serruys & Paul Charlier

SCENIC DESIGNER Abdul-Rahman Abdullah

COSTUME DESIGNER Andrew Treloar

LIGHTING DESIGNER Damien Coope

APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME 1 hour 20 minutes (no interval)

RECOMMENDED 15+