Strait talking – new Islander musical is on track!
Straight From The Strait – a musical that tells for the first time the heartwarming and true story about the Torres Strait Islands’ Railway Men – is about to premiere at this year’s Brisbane Festival
An opera with reggae music? You’d like to see that? You will.
Brisbane audiences will be treated to a world-first at Brisbane Festival – a musical from the Torres Strait Islands.
Straight From The Strait promises to be a very special and refreshingly different experience – a Brisbane Festival treat staged at QPAC’s Playhouse, August 28 to 31.
The musical is based on the remarkable true story of a group of Torres Strait Islander workers who in 1968 broke the record for laying the longest piece of railway track in a single day while working in Western Australia.
The section of track they laid, spiked and anchored was 7km long. The previous record, held by the US, was 4.6km. As mechanical machinery was introduced soon after the WA record was set, that record remains unbroken, cementing the Torres Strait Islanders’ achievement in the history books.
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Led by a team of First Nations professionals, creatives and cultural advisors, Straight From The Strait is presented by Opera Queensland, Yumpla Nerkep Foundation and QPAC for Brisbane Festival. Meticulous consultation has ensured everything from script workshops through to lighting and choreography were devised to protect cultural tradition.
The musical – more than 20 years in the making – weaves together several aspects, from ancient traditional Torres Strait Islander music and dance to contemporary music (including a bit of reggae) and songs.
Aunty Ruth Ghee, the daughter of what is known as a Railway Man, was a cultural advisor to the project.
“I wanted to tell my Dad’s story,” she says. “That’s how it started. But in telling my father’s story I’ve had to tell a community’s story. It’s Australian history that’s never been told. This musical invites audiences to celebrate this historic moment through our traditional languages, music and dances.”
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The production is performed in the languages of Meriam Mir, Kala Lagaw Ya and Torres Strait Creole (with English surtitles).
Creatives include writer/co-librettist Norah Bagiri, composer/co-librettist Rubina Kimiia, director Nadine McDonald-Dow, choreographer Cleopatra Pryce and co-choreographer and cultural ambassador Rita Pryce (her mother).
Performers include Ghenoa Cela and Harold Pascoe, a recent Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts graduate from Bamaga on the Cape York Peninsula.
The story honours not only the men who left their families to travel to the Australian mainland to work hard for long periods, but the women and families left behind. The workers forged much of the railway infrastructure that spans the Top End of this country and which still remains.
Senior producer Gabby Gregory sings the show’s praises.
“This is an important work in the Australian cultural and arts landscape,” Gregory says. “As a multicultural nation it needs to be celebrated that we have such diversity in our First Nations peoples. The moment I started to hear these performers speak and sing in their native tongue I was struck by how there’s something spiritual and enigmatic when you hear these languages that have existed for so long.
“These men worked really hard but they had a brotherhood and they created a family, including with other men from Australia and other nations as well. It’s such a joyful show.”
Gregory wants to encourage people to see Straight From The Strait because it is so different.
“There is so much in this show,” she says. “There are jazz moments, Afro beats, other island tropical beats melded together. There’s drama and tension but no devastation or heartbreak. It’s just beautiful.”
Straight From The Strait plays the Playhouse, QPAC, August 28-31.
qpac.com.au