Indigenous performing arts company Bangarra Dance Theatre will bring its production Dark Emu to Perth this month.
The show is based on Bruce Pascoe’s 2014 book published by Magabala Books, Western Australia’s oldest independent indigenous publishing house.
Dark Emu will feature a number of WA locals, including lighting director and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate Sian James-Holland.
Performers Tara Gower and Rika Hamaguchi both grew up in the state’s north, and have toured nationally and internationally with Bangarra.
After performing the title role in the company’s recent production of Bennelong, Beau Dean Riley Smith returns to his early training ground of Perth.
A graduate of WAAPA’s Aboriginal Theatre course, Mr Smith was named best male dancer at the recent Helpmann Awards.
Bennelong received a total of seven Helpmann awards, including best new Australian work.
Dark Emu is the latest in an ongoing series of performances at the State Theatre Centre, after OUR Land People Stories (2016), and Patyegarang (2014).
The show will run from August 2 to 5 at the State Theatre Centre of WA, Heath Ledger Theatre.
