Throbbing with sadness, anger, joy and resistance Jurrungu Ngan-ga is a powerful and provocative dance, sound and installation work that interrogates our capacity to lock away and isolate that which we fear. Jurrungu Ngan-ga confronts Australia’s shameful fixation with incarceration by connecting outrageous levels of Indigenous imprisonment to the detaining of asylum seekers. Set within “the prison of the mind of Australia” the exceptionally talented dancers perform as figments of the Australian psyche. Individually and collectively they draw on cultural and community experience to move deftly between horror, truth telling, and bodily resistance. Marrugeku’s unique intersectional choreography channels the impact of ‘denial under pressure’, colonial haunting and government sanctioned brutality. Searing truths blend with dark humour, fear, sadness and courage to shine a light on new ways to resist and abolish.
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?
Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] received a 2023 Green Room Award for Best Ensemble (Dance). The Awards recognise outstanding achievements in Australian arts based primarily on artistic merit. Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] received two 2024 Performing Arts WA awards for Best Production (Dance) and Outstanding Choreography. The Awards celebrate the professional live performing arts in Western Australia.
Jurrungu Ngan-ga images Sydney 2022, Photographer Prudence Upton
2021
Broome Civic Centre | Broome
30 April – 1 May
2022
Hamburg, Germany
International Summer Festival Kampnagel
Exile Today — Production Residencies for Artists
17–20 August
Berlin, Germany
Tanz im August
Haus der Berliner Festspiele
5–7 August
Venice, Italy
BIENNALE DANZA 2022
Arsenale — Teatro alle Tese (III)
30 & 31 July
Arts House, Rising Festival | Melbourne
1-11 June
Carriageworks
27–29 January
Free Community Performances
Kununurra Picture Gardens | Kununurra
7–8 April
Fitzroy Valley District High School | Fitzroy Crossing
13–14 April
Derby Recreation Centre | Derby
20–21 April
2023
Adelaide Festival | Adelaide, Australia
Dunstan Playhouse Adelaide Festival Centre
10–12 March
Perth, Australia
Heath Ledger Theatre @ Black Swan State Theatre
15–23 September
2024
Canberra Theatre Centre | Canberra
Fri 23 & Sat 24 August
Wollongong | Merrigong Theatre
Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
29 – 31 August
Jurrungu Ngan-ga is collaboratively created by:
CREATIVE AND CULTURAL TEAM
Concept: Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain with Patrick Dodson
Choreography: Dalisa Pigram with the performers
Direction: Rachael Swain
Performance Dramaturgy: Hildegard de Vuyst
Cultural Dramaturgy: Behrouz Boochani, Patrick Dodson, Omid Tofighian
Music: Sam Serruys, Paul Charlier and Rhyan Clapham (aka DOBBY)
Lyrics: Beni ‘Bjah’ Hasler
Sound Design: Sam Serruys and Paul Charlier
Scenic Design: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah
Costume Design: Andrew Treloar
Lighting Design: Damien Cooper
Additional Choreography: Krump Army: Stacy Peke aka Red Ladybrui5er
CAST
Co-devising Performers: Mostafa Azimitabar, Czack (Ses) Bero, Luke Currie-Richardson, Gusta Mara, Taj Pigram, Bhenji Ra, Feras Shaheen and Miranda Wheen
Co-devising Performer (2018 – 2023): Issa El Assaad, Emmanuel James Brown, Chandler Connell, Macon Escobal Riley
Co-devising Performer (2018 –Jan 2022): Zachary Lopez
Angela Conquet
23 Jun 2022
Three years in the making, Rising’s much-anticipated first edition brought to Melbourne’s festival-deprived audiences a rich program featuring 225 events. With former Chunky Move founder and choreographer Gideon Obarzanek as co-director, it was only natural to expect a dance-heavy presence with eight local and international productions. The works ranged from incredible local performer Jo Lloyd
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Alison Croggon
11 Jun 2022
Last week, on the coldest day of the year to date, I queued up outside the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and eyed with surprise a line of die-hard Melburnians in scarves and beanies. At 5pm it was already dark and the wind was arctic, but here was a bunch of families, some pushing prams, eager
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Deborah Jones
30 Jan 2022
The straight talking that gives Marrugeku’s new work its title gets a solid workout in the hands of Bhenji Ra. She demands a platform to strut on and special lighting, which Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s marvellously economical set fortunately can provide. You have some opinions about Ra? Well she has some about you and won’t take a
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Jill Sykes
28 Jan 2022
Rating: four and a half stars. Diversity is a word that gets a lot of use these days. But rarely do we get the chance to see and experience it so convincingly in a performance, as we do in Marrugeku’s Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk]. This is an astonishing work in many ways. It tackles two
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Jo Litson
27 Jan 2022
Dance as resistance. Challenging yet joyful, Jurrungu Ngan-ga — meaning ‘straight talk’— is a provocative new dance theatre work by Marrugeku which confronts Australia’s shameful fixation with incarceration. The mesmerising multimedia production is a frank conversation with the Australian psyche, exposing the deep-seated fears holding us back from truth and justice. Inspired by perspectives on
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Kate Rendell
12 May 2021
A potent, superbly executed work that pulsates with sadness and rage, resilience and joy. It feels almost reductive to put into words an experience as visceral as Jurrungu Ngan-ga, the new production by the intercultural and interdisciplinary company Marrugeku. A hybrid work of contemporary dance, spoken word, multi-media and sound design, Jurrungu Ngan-ga is a
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Commissioning Partners
Jurrungu Ngan-ga [Straight Talk] was co-commissioned by Carriageworks, International Summer Festival Kampnagel, Hamburg (in the frame of “Exile Today – Production Residences for Artists” by Kampnagel and Körber-Stiftung), the City of Melbourne through Arts House.
Funding Partners
Marrugeku is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Indigenous Language and Arts Program, and is supported by the WA State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and Create NSW, the Nelson Meers Foundation, the Körber Foundation and the Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation.
