Yanagai! Yanagai!

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Event Yanagai! Yanagai!
Venue Alnwick Playhouse, Alnwick, Northumberland, England
Umbrella Event Undergrowth Australian Arts UK 2006
First Date 11 October 2006
Last Date 11 October 2006
Dates Estimated No
Status Professional
World Premiere No
Part of a Tour Yes
Description Yanagai! Yanagai! brings together a clan of Aboriginal storytellers and musicians to celebrate their survival as an Aboriginal nation. Presented by Melbourne Workers Theatre, a group renowned for powerful, professional theatre produced for, with and about working class people, this is a passionate and compelling theatrical event.
Set on the banks of the River Murray, music, puppetry and touches of magic realism blend Aboriginal dreaming and memories of Australia's colonial past with the present. Children and elders, spirits and ghosts, dingoes and min-min lights are threaded together in these tales of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal people, their deep connection to their land and their struggle in a Melbourne courtroom to prove a claim to it.
The land rights struggle of the Yorta Yorta people continues today as a critical issue in contemporary Australia. Working closely with her father’s people, writer and director Andrea James was prompted to create Yanagai! Yanagai! (meaning war cry) when the court declared that a "tide of history" had washed away any connection between the Yorta Yorta people and their land. The result is a visually stunning and powerful piece of storytelling that transports audiences to a place where past, present and future exist as one.

Presented in conjunction with Arts Victoria, Creu Cymru, Wales, Arts Council Wales, Arts Council England.
Description Source Website
Primary Genre Theatre - Spoken Word
Secondary Genre Drama
Indigenous
Music
Puppetry
Subjects Indigenous Australia
Land rights
Organisations
Contributors
Name Function Notes
David Adamson Actor
Bryan Andy Actor
Lou Bennett Actor
Tony Briggs Actor
Lisa Maza Actor
Lou Bennett Composer
Adrienne Chisholm Designer
Andrea James Director
Patricia Cornelius Dramaturg/e
Philip Lethlean Lighting Designer
Andrea James Playwright
Katrina Gaskell Puppet Designer
Phillip Millar Puppet Designer
Sarah Kriegler Puppetry Consultant
David Franzke Sound Designer
Resources
Works
Text Nationality Australia
Production Nationality Australia
Further Information Part of a tour of regional Victoria (Australia), Wales and England.
Event Status Completed
Data Source
Source Description
Newspaper
Web Archived program Undergrowth Australian Arts UK http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/52292/20060907-0000/www.undergrowth.org.uk/artists/melbourne_workers_theatre/default.html
Data Set AusStage
Event Identifier 81076