In Marrugeku’s raw and evocative work Cut the Sky, the earth is on the brink, poisoned by mining and the extraction of gas. A kangaroo-human is consumed by smoke, spiraling butterflies search for water while humans live precariously, unmoored in a dark, dystopian world. They seek shelter, survival and answers.
Told through poem, song, and visionary choreography, Cut the Sky is a lament for Indigenous lands, a call to arms and an acknowledgement of those who have spoken up before.
A ragtag of climate refugees, grapple with the ruination of land and sky across time in the north west of Australia. Shape-shifting through crocodiles who once were human, memories of protests past and contemporary conflicts of consumption they summon their dreams and nightmares to bring the rain. Together they cut the sky, soaking skin and dirt.
With the epic perspectives of Nyikina and Walmajarri poet and artist Edwin Lee Mulligan, the songs of Ngaiire and Tanya Tagaq, and Marrugeku’s unflinching artistry, Cut the Sky asks is there another way to dream a different future together?
Images by Prudence Upton and Heidrun Lohr.
The World Premiere of Cut the Sky was at Perth International Arts Festival
27 February – 1 March 2015
2026
2025
YIIRRAMBOI
Malthouse Theatre | Melbourne
9 & 10 May
2024
Sydney | Carriageworks
4–13 July
2018
The Alexander Kasser Theater | Montclair State University | New Jersey | USA
15–18 November
Harborfront Center | Toronto | Canada
23 & 24 November
2016
Waan Pacific Dance Festival
Centre Culturel Tjibaou
Noumea, New Caledonia
16-18 September 2016
Performance Climates Festival Psi22
Meat Market Arts House
Melbourne
6 – Sun 10 July 2016
Sydney Festival 2016
Sydney Opera House
14-17 January 2016
2015
EUROPEAN TOUR 2015
Theater Im Pfalzbau
14 & 15 October 2015
Ludwidshafen, Germany
Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
20 October 2015
Luxembourg
Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg (KVS)
22, 23 & 24 October 2015
Brussels, Belgium
WA REMOTE TOUR 2015
The Boardwalk Theatre
7 & 8 August 2015
Mandurah Performing Arts Centre
Ormsby Terrace, Mandurah
Pigram Garden Theatre
14–16 August 2015
Broome Civic Centre
Broome
Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre
22 August 2015
Ardyaloon Community
27 & 28 August 2015
WOMADelaide
7 & 8 March 2015
Stage 2
Adelaide
Perth International Arts Festival
27 February – 1 March
World Premiere
Regal Theatre, 474 Hay Street, Subiaco
Cut the Sky is collaboratively created by:
Concept: Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain with Patrick Dodson
Director: Rachael Swain
Choreographers: Dalisa Pigram and Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Cultural Dramaturg: Patrick Dodson
Dramaturg: Hildegard de Vuyst
Poems: Edwin Lee Mulligan
Additional Text: Dalisa Pigram and Miranda Wheen with Rachael Swain
Media Artists: Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya
Musical Director and Sound Designer: Matthew Fargher
Songwriter: Ngaiire
Set and Costume Designer: Stephen Curtis
Lighting Designer: Damien Cooper
Associate Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee
Co-devising Performers 2025:
Samuel Hauturu Beazley, Emma Harrison, Edwin Lee Mulligan, Dalisa Pigram, Taj Pigram, Miranda Wheen
Richard Cotter
5 Jul 2024
A white canvas, as big and thick as the universe backdrops the performance space, which is dominated by some sort of industrial contraption, a steampunk carbon emitting emblem of the befouling of the atmosphere era that has hastened climate change. In choreography commensurate with the chaos of climate catastrophe, performers, many wrapped in plastic, battle
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Justin Clarke
5 Jul 2024
Blackout. A rush of haze cascades into the space. A slow rhythm hums and drones. White lights slowly rise on an oil drill, pumping minerals offstage. Gasping breaths take over the soundscape as our eyes adjust on the bodies in space, contorting and writhing on their feet, leaning impossibly backwards without falling. Cut the Sky cascades
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Vicki Van Hout
5 Jul 2024
My second activity in the lead up to NAIDOC week was the attendance of Marrugeku’s Cut the Sky, a remount over ten years in the making. Yes, you saw that right, Cut the Sky’s illustrious extended world tour was, like everything else, cut off at the knees by that pesky COVID virus. Cut the Sky
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Margaret Mercer
2 Mar 2015
Broome-based company Marrugeku’s new production Cut The Sky mixes contemporary and traditional music, poetry, contemporary dance and visual media in an entertaining seventy-minute performance. With esteemed Yawuru man Patrick Dodson as cultural adviser, Cut the Sky draws on indigenous knowledge systems to contemplate climate change, land rights, and an uncertain future. Promoted as ’genre defying,’ the
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Terri-Ann White
5 Mar 2015
The world première in Perth of a new work from a Broome-based performance company was an event of considerable note. Twenty-one years of productions made in West Arnhem Land and then in Broome turns conventional wisdoms upside down in Australian terms. Many people still hold that sophisticated cultural work is made in cities and that
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Alison Croggon
6 Mar 2016
There’s no getting around the fact that climate change is the issue of our time. It’s a problem that encompasses every facet of our lives, from our domestic habits to global politics. One of the reasons why it’s difficult to process, quite apart from the difficulty of extending our individual senses of mortality to imagining
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Carol Flavell Neist
3 Mar 2015
Seventy minutes of mind-blowing intercultural and interdisciplinary performance! This was a huge endeavour, involving many, many people. The six performers were just the tip of an enormous iceberg, although when considering a work created by people whose home is in the desert, perhaps iceberg is an inappropriate metaphor. The company, collectively called Marrugeku, hails from
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Cut the Sky was commissioned by Theater Im Pfalzbau (Germany), Carriageworks (Australia), Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg – KVS (Belgium), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Centre Culturel Tjibaou (New Caledonia).
Cut the Sky has been funded by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts, Australian Research Council, Australian Government Attorney General office — Ministry for the Arts, Department of Foreign Affairs, Arts Tasmania and Arts NSW and City of Sydney.
“…Our feeling inside and how do we come together? Despite all of these horrific things
that happen and have happened to people, how do we as human beings, find some
centre around which we can take pride in whom we are and not only celebrate the
uniqueness of our humanity but then to start to listen to what we do to the country, the
environment – and start to change our ways?”
– Patrick Dodson, Patron & Cultural Advisor (Marrugeku)
Listen to Country
Marrugeku’s Listening to Country documentary.
https://vimeo.com/146606504
Care for Country
In choices you make every day, consider our environment a family member you deeply love and want to look after.
https://martuwarra.org/storytelling
Clock your Carbon Contributions to Country
Do your best to change emission volumes in your everyday life.
https://carbon-calculator.climatehero.org/
Practical ways to Take Action
Divest: Money talks & bullsh*t walks they say. Stop funding fossil fuel companies and invest in renewables: you can do this simply by changing who you bank with and where your super goes. Work for Climate.
Watch what you waste: Switch to reusable food & drink containers (including straws), cook more home-made meals, composting scraps and fixing electronic devices instead of buying new ones are a great start but upcycling your clothing and furniture or buying second hand can make a huge difference.
Be energy conscious: Walk, ride or catch public transport/rideshare where you can, grow native plants and gardens that use less water, get rid of your lawn, use high star energy rated appliances, insulate your house, send less emails, limit your online searches, turn off anything not being used — from the source. If you have the choice, choose renewables to power your home.
Donate: To organisations that speak up to protect Country.
Marrugeku
Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council
SEED Mob
Environs Kimberley
Frack Free WA
