Black Swan State Theatre Company of Western Australia acknowledges the Whadjuk people of the Nyoongar Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live.

First Nations People have been telling stories on this country for many thousands of years, and we acknowledge their incredible contribution to the cultural and environmental landscape we reside in.

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Season 2023

Jurrungu Nana-ga [Straight Talk]

Past Show - Season 2023

15 Sep - 23 Sep

Heath Ledger Theatre

A visual feast for the senses with hypnotic storytelling that gives victims a face.

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

The Australian

Jurrungu Nana-ga [Straight Talk]

A MARRUGEKU PRODUCTION

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.

Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] was commissioned by Carriageworks, International Summer Festival Kampnagel, Hamburg with Körber-Stiftung and the City of Melbourne through Arts House.

Marrugeku is funded by the Australian Government through the Australia Council its arts funding and advisory body, the Government of Western Australia through the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries, Create NSW, the Australian Government through the Indigenous Language and Arts Program, the Nelson Meers Foundation, and International Summer Festival Kampnagel, Hamburg (in the frame of “Exile Today –Production Residencies for Artists” by Kampnagel and Körber-Stiftung).

Dates

15 Sep - 23 Sep

Venue

Heath Ledger Theatre

Duration

1 hour 20 minutes (no interval)

Content Warning

Mature themes, coarse language, partial nudity, depictions of violence, racial abuse and police/border security brutality, references to self-harm and use of low-level strobe light and haze effects. This performance contains the names of people who have passed away.

Wheelchair accessible venue

Use the calendar below to view the dates of accessibility services available for this production. Further access information and seat guides can be found via the Accessibility Page.