![Marrugeku's 'Jurrungu Ngna-ga [Straight Talk]'. Photo by Prudence Upton.](https://dancemagazine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Marrugekus-Jurrungu-Ngna-ga-Straight-Talk.-Photo-by-Prudence-Upton.jpg)
Merrigong Theatre Company will present Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from 29 to 31 August.
Throbbing with sadness, anger, joy and resistance, Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] is a powerful and provocative new dance, sound and installation work that interrogates Australia’s capacity to lock away and isolate that which we fear.
Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] confronts Australia’s shameful fixation with incarceration, connecting the outrageous levels of Indigenous imprisonment to the indefinite detaining of asylum seekers. Exceptionally talented dancers draw on cultural and community experience to move deftly between horror, truth-telling, and bodily resistance.
On programming this work for the Merrigong 2024 Season, Simon Hinton, Merrigong Theatre Company’s Artistic Director / CEO, said, “Jurrungu Ngan-Ga [Straight Talk] is one of the most extraordinary works of contemporary dance and physical theatre to be made in Australia in the last few years. I was blown away seeing its initial season at Sydney Festival, and felt it was important for Wollongong audiences to be able to see a work of this calibre that speaks so clearly to issues of critical importance at this moment in our history. The incredible cross-cultural creative process underpinning this work means that its voice isn’t only that of First Nations artists, or indeed of any one specific group, rather it speaks to the experience and tragedy of incarceration in Australian society all its forms. Despite its serious subject matter, the piece is incredibly engaging, entertaining, and even at times humorous, and stunningly original.”
Jurrungu Ngan-ga is inspired by perspectives on incarceration shared with Marrugeku by Yawuru leader Patrick Dodson, Iranian-Australian scholar-activist Omid Tofighian as well as Kurdish-Iranian writer and former Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani.
This mesmerising multimedia dance theatre piece designed by leading West Australian visual artist Abdul-Rahman Abdullah combines movement, spoken word, installation and a powerful musical soundscape to ask: who really is in prison here?
Marrugeku Co-Artistic Director Rachael Swain said, “Jurrungu Ngan-ga brings attention to Australia’s creation of dehumanizing spaces without due process of law and the necessary social support and respect. The show reveals how this unique dialogue between Indigenous, settler and refugee perspectives can address the burning issues of our times, investigating that which Australia wishes to isolate and lock away from view.”
Marrugeku Co-Artistic Director Dalisa Pigram said, “Marrugeku is committed to bringing each production we make to regional communities. Tackling complex current issues that we all face together in this country, we know how important it is to bring shows like Jurrungu Ngan-ga to share our cultural and artistic perspectives on interrogating the issue of incarceration.
Searing truths blend with dark humour, fear, sadness and courage to shine a light on new ways to resist and abolish. Brutally beautiful, it will arrest audience’s attention, daring them to look away, and dream of the day they will know solidarity in difference.
Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] will be presented 29 – 31 August at IMB Theatre – Illawarra Performing Arts Centre. For bookings, visit merrigong.com.au/shows/jurrungu-ngan-ga-straight-talk.
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