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Warning: show contains a language surprise |
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Saturday, 16 June 2007 |
Patrick Donovan welcomes the Ngaparjti Ngapartji company to Melbourne for the work-in-progress showing of the work in October 2005.
By Patrick Donovan
Music Writer
October 10, 2005
VARYING degrees of commitment are required for shows at this year's Melbourne International Arts Festival.
Most performances simply require the purchase of a ticket. This year the festival even provides the Red Shoe Delivery Service — a mobile art installation with sparkling red shoes for the passengers — to get you there.
But the Ngapartji Ngapartji show requires a higher level of engagement. Audience members must participate in a language course and attend five consecutive sessions from Tuesday.
It sounds like a big commitment, but most tickets were snapped up.
"It's a bit of an experiment having a work in progress over five nights, but it was the fourth show to sell out at the festival, which demonstrates that people are up for making a bigger commitment," says Ngapartji Ngapartji creative producer Alex Kelly.
For city slickers who have never been to the Red Centre, it will give them some insight into the Aboriginal way of life.
The evening begins with a language lesson, before moving on to traditional singing, Western songs sung in the Pitjantjatjara language, storytelling, theatre, ceramics and video footage. Themes of family, the land, Dreamtime and the Cold War permeate the performances.
The show is a work in progress, with audiences expected to make an even bigger commitment — a six-month online Pitjantjatjara language course (it is the Central Desert language spoken by a number of Aboriginal communities) before seeing the final production in 2006.
A limited number of tickets are on sale from the box office each night. |
2008 Ngapartji Ngapartji