OBSERVER: Gugu Dindi Gunyah
After more than two years in limbo, the newly refurbished Ian Potter State Theatre at the Arts Centre opened with a wonderful night of celebration.
The audience experienced a more accessible space, with cherry-stained, blackbutt floors, newly upholstered, raspberry velvet seats, and state-of-the-art acoustics, sound, and climate control.
The celebrations opened with Gugu Dindi Gunyah (Many Rivers, One Home), Mutti Mutti, Nari Nari, and Yorta Yorta songman Kutcha Edwards’s wonderful weave of songlines, dance, and music, showcasing a dazzling array of First Nations talent.
This stirring world-premiere, performed entirely in the language of Song Keepers from across Victoria, left its audience spellbound.
Edwards, an imposing figure centre stage, was flanked by six outstanding performers, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Wayne Thorpe, Alice Skye. Stacie Nicholson-Piper, Neil Morris and Boorook Brett Clark.
Framed around rivers and waterways, each performed their piece in Indigenous language spoken and sung.
Designer Tegan Murdock grounded the multi-disciplinary performance, weaving a fish trap on stage.
After each performance, artists presented her with reeds to weave into her basket.
Musicians led by Aaron Choulai accompanied each performer, linking the artists as they collectively recovered their power through story and shared history.
Cinematographer Cam Matheson’s sweeping video panels of Country captured the changing seasons of Australia’s waterways, superimposed by animator Michael Carmody’s evocative line sketches.
These simple white sketches not only represented the Australian landscape but also traced the darker history of colonialism, at one point depicting a First Fleet barque.
At the same time, dancers Teena Moffatt, Phil Egan and Brent Watkins writhed in chains.
A well-deserved and sustained standing ovation followed this spectacular and moving event.
Review by Kathryn Keeble