The Nargun and the Stars - 2009 - Perth International Arts Festival

AUSTRALIA
photo: prudence upton
The Nargun
and the Stars
A Perth International Arts Festival and Sydney Festival Commission
presented in association with barking gecko theatre company
ERTH–Visual & Physical
From the novel by
Adapted by
Directed by
Featuring
Puppeteers
Produced by
Associate Puppetry
Director
Set Design
Puppet Design
Composer
Audiovisual Artist
Lighting Designer
Patricia Wrightson
Verity Laughton
Scott Wright and Wesley Enoch
Bill Young, Annie Byron, Tom Green
Colin Sneesby, Sharon Kerr,
Jacob Boehme, Jo Clancy, Josh Bond
Performing Lines
Colin Sneesby
Steve Howarth
Bryony Anderson
Phil Downing
Samuel James
Bernie Tan
This adaptation is informed by ERTH’s ongoing consultation
with the original story-owners, The Gunai/Kurni, Monaro and
Boon Warrung communities of East Gippsland
WHERE
Regal Theatre
WHEN
Thursday 19 February
– Sunday 1 March
Preview Wednesday 18 February
This performance lasts for
1 hour 10 minutes with no interval
CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S
PROGRAM PARTNER
INDIGINEOUS PROGRAM PARTNER
supported by
This project has been assisted by the
Australian Government’s Major Festivals
Initiative, managed by the Austr alia
Council, its arts funding and advisory
body, in a ssociation with the Confeder ation
of Australian International Arts Festivals.
perthfestival.com.au

photo: prudence upton
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Plot
The Nargun and the Stars is the story of a shocked and lonely boy named
Simon who is restored to life and health through his engagement with the
ancient dreaming creatures of the landscape and the careful, quiet acceptance
of his elderly relatives, farmer Charlie and his kind yet matter-of-fact sister,
Edie. It seems Simon is the one who must restore the upset balance of the
natural world when he confronts the Nargun, an ancient stone dreaming
creature that has left its ‘right place’ and invaded another country. He does so
and in the course of his adventures finds a new sense of identity and a safe
place of the heart.
Origins of the story in
Indigenous Culture
Many Aboriginal stories about Narguns exist in the Gunai / Kurnai, Monaro and
Boon Wurrung communities of East Gippsland in Victoria, but The Nargun and
the Stars is not an Aboriginal story.
It is said that the Nargun appears as stone but she can also appear as a hairy
woman. Stories of Narguns have been used by Aboriginal people for tens of
thousands of years to keep children from wandering at night. It is said that
she is always looking for children to keep as her own and that spears and
boomerangs cannot harm her.
Narguns are sometimes known by other names and can be anywhere – in
caves or in deep holes in the ground. The Den of Nargun – located in Mitchell
River National Park, Victoria – is a sacred women’s site used for initiation and
learning ceremonies rather than being the lair of the Nargun. The traditional
Aboriginal custodians of the area where the Den is located ask that visitors do
not enter the Den due to the cultural significance of the site.
The Potkoorok, Turongs and Nyols who feature in The Nargun and the Stars
are also creatures from the stories of Aboriginal nations in Victoria. Patricia
Wrightson has drawn together some of our most magical Aboriginal creatures
to tell a delightful and educational children’s story.
By Jo Clancy, Aunty Ruth Mullets and Aunty Carolyn Briggs – 1 / 12 / 08

photo: prudence upton
Synopsis
The prologue.
The Nargun, the great old dreamer of stone and earth, wakes from centuries
of slumber. She ventures beyond her dreaming centre – her Nargun’s Den
– and past a waterfall to gaze on the beautiful exotica of the stars. She is
disturbed by the aggressive mechanical noise of earth being moved, carved,
changed. She leaves her safe haven and sets out, travelling across the
land until she comes to Wongadilla, a farm in the mountain country that is
reminiscent of her original home.
And the human story begins.
Simon is a 12-year-old boy whose parents have been killed in a car accident.
He comes to Wongadilla to live with his second cousin Charlie, who farms the
acreage with his sister, Edie. They have both grown up here. They are almost
part of the land. Simon is raw, angry, wounded. He trusts no one.
Charlie drives Simon home to Wongadilla. As they drive through a gully,
Simon notices a bulldozer and a grader clearing some forest. He also notices
an enormous stone. Edie welcomes Simon to his new home. A moth-eaten
Old Ewe wanders past. Simon goes to bed.
As he sleeps the ancient Turongs lean in at his window.
The next morning Simon goes exploring. In the gully he writes his name on
the enormous stone he had seen the night before. At the swamp he meets
the Potkoorok, an ancient water creature and a trickster. The Potkoorok sees
him deal kindly with a dead frog. Henceforth Simon will be Frog Boy. The
Potkoorok tells Simon that a storm is coming (out of a clear sky) and that the
‘yellow machine’ – the grader that killed the frog – is at risk.
Charlie comes past, scoops Simon up on the tractor and takes him home.
Simon and Edie hear a strange high howling.
That night there is a storm. Simon runs out into the storm. He sees the
Potkoorok and the Turongs sink the grader in the swamp. On the way home
he is threatened by a scary presence, the Nargun. As he runs from the
Nargun, there is a most terrible sound. Something is dying.
In the morning Edie cannot find the Old Ewe.
Simon returns to the swamp. He discovers that the Potkoorok may have
disposed of the bulldozer as well as the grader. Simon asks about the dark
and scary thing that lives in the gully. The Potkoorok tells the mysterious
thing is a Nargun, but says nothing more. Simon goes to the gully to
investigate.
Up in the gully he discovers that the stone on which he had written his name
has moved. And he realises that it is the stone that is both the dark and
scary mystery and the Nargun. Then he discovers the body of the Old Ewe.
He calls Charlie. Together they try to find out a bit more about the Nargun
via a series of attempts to make her move. They begin to understand how
dangerous she might be, then return to the farmhouse. Charlie keeps watch
overnight.
Simon dreams. From his dream he understands that help may come best
from the rock people, the Nyols who live inside the mountain, and that the
Potkoorok may be the way to reach them.
Simon speaks to the Nyols. He discovers that the Nyols have stolen the
bulldozer and hidden it inside the mountain. They won’t, however, help
send the Nargun away. But they do let slip that the Nargun won’t tolerate
loud noises. Simon, Edie and Charlie decide that if they make a loud noise
at the farmhouse via the tractor and a loud noise via the bulldozer inside the
mountain, they may perhaps drive the Nargun away from Wongadilla.
It doesn’t work out like that. The Potkoorok, via a monumental act of
dreaming helps them to lure the Nyols away from their mountain cave
long enough for Charlie to start up the bulldozer and leave it working, but
… the Nargun attacks the tractor (driven by Edie) and destroys it utterly.
Emboldened, the Nargun hears the noise of the bulldozer inside the
mountain and goes to destroy that, too.
The end
There is an almighty battle. The battle ends when a landslide caused by
the Nargun’s destruction of the bulldozer entraps her inside the mountain
with the Nyols. They tend her joyously. Back at the farmhouse, Simon,
restored to wholeness and with real trust in Charlie and Edie, begins his
new life at Wongadilla.
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The Nargun and the Stars –
Creature Details
All descriptions are based on The Wrightson List by Patricia and Peter
Wrightson, published by Random House, 1998. All sketches by Bryony
Anderson (Puppet Designer).
Pot-kurok / Potkoorok
Area: Central Victoria
Group: Kulin [nation]
(Bunurong, Jaara, Katubanut,
Kurung, Minjambuta, Ngurelban,
Taungurong, Wathaurung,
Wurundjeri)
Pot-kuroks are mischievous
spirits who inhabit
watercourses and play
tricks on fishermen.
Nargun
Reference: Massola, Aldo: Bujils Cave (p154)
Area: Victoria, Gippsland area (especially Mitchell River and Lake Tyers district)
Group: Kurnai [nation] (Brabiralung, Braiakalung, Bratauolung,
Krauatungalung, Tatungalung)
Narguns are monsters, described as being half human and half animal, either
wholly of stone or stone except for the breast, arms and hands. No more
detailed descriptions can be found.
Narguns frequent the east Gippsland area of Victoria, particularly the Mitchell
River valley and Lake Tyers area. They inhabit dark caves and holes in the
ground and drag people who venture near into their lairs – eating them. They
have the power to turn back whatever is thrown at them, and for this reason or
because of their stone bodies, they can’t be killed.
In the 1880s at Lake Tyers, a woman (Lillian Cortwine) allegedly defeated a
Nargun in wrestling, but nobody knows how she managed it. This is the only
known case in which a Nargun has been defeated by a human.
Reference: Massola, Aldo: Bujils Cave (p155); Brough Smyth, R: The Aborigines
of Victoria (p456)
Nyols
Area: Victoria, South East
Group: Kurnai [nation] (Brabiralung, Braiakalung, Bratauolung,
Krauatungalung, Tatungalung)
Nyols are little people who live in underground caverns. They are powerful
wrestlers.
Turong
Area: Victoria
Group: Kulin [nation] (Bunurong, Jaara, Katubanut, Kurung, Minjambuta,
Ngurelban, Taungurong, Wathaurung, Wurundjeri)
Turongs are spirits that inhabit the bush. They are mischievous and play tricks
on hunters.
Reference: Massola, Aldo: Bujils Cave (p154)
A hunter described how – putting his foot in a hole between rocks – he was
drawn down into a cave filled with strange light. Inside the cave were many
small people who demanded he wrestle with them in turn. These small
wrestlers were extremely powerful. Exhausted, he was given rugs to rest on
and strangely delightful grubs to eat and was left in the charge of a Nyol who
showed him the way home.
In another incident, an apple picker was pounced on from behind and put into
a skin bag. He asked the Nyol for a drink and then complained that the offered
water was not clean. The gullible Nyol left the bag to find cleaner water and the
victim escaped.
Nyols have a very wide range and live in their own world, very much as humans
do. They are rarely seen by mortals.
Reference: Massola, Aldo: Bujils Cave (pp74-5, 159)
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photo: Heidrun Löhr
Co-Director's Note
Australian children probably know more about what a fairy looks like and
what one does than what a Bunyip looks like and where one comes from.
The Nargun and the Stars puts its foot firmly in the ring to announce that the
introduced mythologies such as fairies, trolls and dragons are redundant.
Australians need to embrace the Indigenous stories that come from the land
and in turn better understand the landscape they inhabit.
ERTH is launching its most significant work to date and it comes from
inspiration that has haunted the company since its inception. I personally
hold The Nargun and the Stars as one of the most influential stories read to
me as a child. It made me want to find these creatures whenever we went
camping or bush walking. I would constantly check my peripheral vision just
in case I caught sight of a mysterious creature scampering away or watching
from a safe distance.
I only hope that our version of Nargun inspires another generation of children
to embrace the mysteries and magic of the bush.
The journey for me has spanned almost my entire life and has led me to great
people from whom I have learnt many more things, especially respect, care
and the importance of story. As part of our process with this show we have
revisited the communities and people that Patricia collected her original
source material from. In her words, ‘it is so important to get it right’, and the
importance of regaining permission has been such a valuable lesson. This
is amplified when you consider that in Patricia’s time of writing The Nargun
and the Stars, as a white author, she was a pioneer who saw the value of
Indigenous folklore as vital to the culture of future Australians.
One discovery we made with our research was that Narguns are female. And
that the place that they are known to inhabit – The Den of Nargun – was a
traditional site for a women’s ceremony of initiation.
I want to thank Aunty Rachel and Aunty Caroline.
Perth Festival has been a major contributor to making this show a reality and it
is a great honour to be part of a fantastic program for 2009.
Scott Wright
Artistic Director, ERTH
Adaptor’s Note
What is wonderful in all Patricia Wrightson’s work is the way she uses
language as one of the drivers of the action.
Her language is dense, allusive, poetic, practical and absolutely a product
of Australia. She uses it in such a way that the poetry of it pushes us to halfknowings,
intuitions and sudden understandings of time and place and action.
So. This may be a writerly preoccupation but I saw the single biggest task
of adapting Wrightson’s beautiful book to the stage as being faithful to her
use of language.
She set herself a number of tasks, it seemed to me. The first was to give life
to the mythology of this land and its original inhabitants in a way that was
absolutely respectful but that also drew newer inhabitants – most of this
audience – inside its net.
The second was to depict how a child who suffered an unfixable trauma
nevertheless found a way to contain that tragedy and went on to build a
new life.
And the third was to weave a spell through language. The Nargun and
the Stars, one of the great classics of 20th-century children’s literature,
is the result.
In our stage adaptation of The Nargun and the Stars we hope we have
honoured both Patricia Wrightson’s intentions and her achievements. We
wanted to create a world in which the folk elements are in balance with the
human ones, where the Place is an active participant in the lives of the people
and where beauty is an integral and unsentimental part of everyday.
Nevertheless, finding a way to incorporate the language, dialogue and overall
tone of the writing of such an exemplary stylist was, for me, the key.
It’s been a ten-year obsession of Scott Wright, one of the founding directors
of ERTH and co-director of this show, to bring this story to the stage. I’m the
lucky person who got the chance to have a go along with designers (sound /
light / video / stage), puppet makers, actors, puppeteers, producers, directors,
musicians and the composer. We all hope you enjoy it.
Verity Laughton
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photo: prudence upton

Company Biography:
ERTH-Visual & Physical Inc
ERTH brings the impossible to life. ERTH is dedicated to creating original new
Australian visual performance works, providing audiences with eye-popping
visual experiences. Giant puppetry, stilt-walkers, inflatable environments and
aerial and flying creatures – ERTH is all these things and more.
Founded in 1990 in Ballarat, Victoria, and now housed in Sydney’s newest
contemporary arts complex, Carriageworks, the Company builds its own
repertoire while also generating work for other resident performance
companies and commissions for external organisations.
Their work spans from roving-style street theatre to larger scale, site-specific
productions and theatre shows. These include Incubator, Gargoyles,
Waterheads, Caution, Bushfire, The Garden and most recently Gondwana and
The Petting Zoo.
Their new work is an adaptation of Patricia Wrightson’s classic novel The
Nargun and the Stars, written by Verity Laughton and co-directed by acclaimed
Indigenous director Wesley Enoch. Nargun was commissioned by Sydney
Festival and Perth International Arts Festival and premiered at the Sydney
Festival in January 2009.
ERTH has built a national and international reputation for its work, regularly
touring to major Australian and international festivals. These have included
the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide festivals, Hong Kong Fringe, Galway Arts
Festival, Stockton Riverside Festival in the UK, Singapore Arts Festival and the
Festival of Arts and Ideas in Connecticut, USA. ERTH undertakes community
workshops, cultural development projects and mentorships and its workshop
studio custom-builds for many clients. Past clients include the Sydney Opera
House, Sydney Olympic Organising Committee, Centenary of Federation and
Opera Australia.
Increasingly ERTH is bridging the gap between cultural and theatrical
institutions by bringing physical theatre and puppetry to museum
environments. Successful roving and aerial performances at Melbourne
Museum, Old Parliament House in Canberra and Auckland Museum have led
to commissioned design, construction and performance programs that span
several years each. This list also includes Powerhouse Museum and Australian
Museum in Sydney and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, California.
A small core team of artists manage dozens of freelancers. They come
from diverse disciplines such as sculpture, painting, costume design and
mechanical engineering and the performance arts of musical, physical, circus
and aerial theatre. ERTH provides valuable development opportunities for
established and emerging artists.
ERTH is a non-profit organisation – an association incorporated in NSW – and
receives project funding from Arts NSW and the Australia Council for the Arts.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Scott Wright
CO-DIRECTOR / MANAGER
Sharon Kerr
CO-DIRECTOR / DESIGN COORDINATOR Steve Howarth
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Phil Downing
artist Biographies
Patricia Wrightson
AUTHOR
Patricia Wrightson has written more than 15 books for children and a novel
for adults and has edited several collections of stories for children. She uses
Aboriginal folk-spirits to enrich her children’s fiction, which she categorises
as contemporary Australian fantasy. She believes that fantasy can be used as
a means of exploring the ‘other’ point of view, which, in turn, she hopes will
stretch the reader’s understanding and facilitate independent thinking.
Patricia Wrightson has received many honours and awards for her fiction over
four decades, including the Australian Children’s Book Council Book of the Year
Award for The Crooked Snake, The Nargun and the Stars, The Ice is Coming
and A Little Fear, which also won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award. She was
awarded the Dromkeen Children’s Literature Foundation Medal in 1984 for
overall excellence in her field. In 1986 she became the only Australian writer
to win the Hans Christian Andersen Medal.
Verity Laughton
WRITER
Verity Laughton writes for most forms of theatre.
Her work includes main-stage adult drama,
a promenade community event, a musical,
adaptations, plays for child and family audiences,
work for dance, puppets and theatre of image
and a ‘neutral script’. Her plays include The
Lightkeeper (AWGIE for Community Theatre, 2004)
(Mainstreet Theatre and national tour), The Snow
Queen (Windmill Performing Arts), Burning (Griffin Prize, 2001), Carrying Light
(STSA and Vitalstatistix) and The Mourning After (three productions: Playbox
Theatre Company and national tour, Riverina Theatre Company and Interplay
Productions, NZ). Verity’s radio play Fox, created for ABC Radio National, won
the 2004 AWGIE for Best Radio Play. Recent work includes Gondwana for
ERTH-Visual & Physical and Davy and Moon Door for ABC Audio Arts. Sweet
Thing, her latest play for adults, was shortlisted for the Griffin Award, Croydon
Warehouse Theatre (London) International Playwriting Award and the Rodney
Seaborn Prize. She is a member of the 7-ON group of playwrights, with whom
she is writing a stage adaptation of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Scott Wright
CO-DIRECTOR
Scott Wright is the Artistic Director and co-founder
of ERTH-Visual & Physical Inc and trained as a
dancer and choreographer in Victoria for three
years prior. He is a multi-skilled artist incorporating
puppetry (one of his greatest loves), movement,
acting, aerial, stilts and pyrotechnics. He has
directed most of ERTH’s successful touring shows,
including Gargoyles, Garden, Bushfire, the
infamous Waterheads and the epic Gondwana.
Scott has worked with a large variety of professional companies and
institutions, individual artists and community groups both nationally and
internationally. Over the years he has been a mentor to numerous young
emerging artists throughout the country and has freelanced as a director and
performer to broaden his experience and enhance his professional credentials.
Personal highlights include a sell-out season with 42nd Street on Broadway,
acting as a research and development consultant for the Sydney Olympics,
performing for the Japanese royal family and recently directing a show with
over 200 community participants in which an aria was performed by six hotrod
cars and three opera singers.
Wesley Enoch
CO-DIRECTOR
Wesley Enoch is the eldest son of Doug and
Lyn Enoch, who hail from Stradbroke Island in
Queensland. He is Nuccual Nuugi.
Wesley has written and directed extensively for
the stage, working with most of Australia’s state
theatre companies and major festivals. He has
been artistic director of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous
Performing Arts and Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Theatre, an associate artist with the Queensland Theatre
Company, resident director at the Sydney Theatre Company and director of
the Indigenous section of the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth
Games. He is currently an associate artist at Company B and a trustee of the
Sydney Opera House.
In 2008 he was the artistic director of Australia’s delegation to the Festival
of Pacific Arts in American Samoa and directed Dallas Winmar’s Yibiyung for
Company B Belvoir. In 2007 his The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table was
directed by Marion Potts for the Griffin Theatre Company, having won the 2005
Patrick White Playwright’s Award.
In 2003 Wesley directed Eora Crossing, a spectacular outdoor event for Legs
on the Wall, Museum of Sydney and the Sydney Festival. He directed Riverland
in 2004 for Windmill Performing Arts and the Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane
7

international festivals and directed The Sapphires for Melbourne Theatre
Company, a play remounted for the 2005 Sydney Festival. These works were all
nominated for Helpmann awards with Riverland winning Best Children’s Work
and The Sapphires winning Best Production and Best New Australian work. He
was also nominated as Best Director for Riverland.
Wesley directed Howard Brenton’s Paul, Alana Valentine’s Parramatta Girls,
Rainbow’s End, Bitin’ Back, Headhunter, Black Medea, The Sunshine Club,
Black-ed Up, The Cherry Pickers, The 7 Stages of Grieving, The Dreamers,
Conversations with the Dead, Stolen, Romeo and Juliet, Shrunken Iris,
Radiance, A Life of Grace and Piety, Murri Love, Capricornia and Maralinga.
Steve Howarth
SET DESIGNER
As a co-founder and full-time member of ERTH,
Steve Howarth designs or coordinates the design
elements for most of the company’s productions.
Outside of ERTH he also designed and performed
with the Australian / Indonesian collaboration Theft
of Sita, directed by Nigel Jamieson. He was puppet
doctor on tour with the stage adaption of The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe, directed by Nadia
Tass. He also mentors final-year design students as part of the Sydney College
of Fine Arts professional placement program.
Bryony Anderson
PUPPET DESIGNER
Bryony Anderson is a designer, inventor, maker
and exhibiting artist who has been working with
puppetry and circus companies in and out of
Australia since 1997. Puppetry work includes
projects with ERTH, Theatre of Image, Puppetvision,
Polyglot, My Darling Patricia, Born in a Taxi and
museums in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and
Los Angeles, as well as numerous festivals. Circus
work has included Circus Monoxide, Riggerous, Acrobat and The Flying Fruit
Fly Circus. While a scholarship student at the University of Wollongong in
1995, she was accepted as trainee puppetmaker at Skyworks Studio and later
returned to complete her Visual Arts degree. Her sporadic career as a fine artist
includes three solo exhibitions: Pets and Livestock, 1997; Scape-o-matic II,
2004; and Sick People, 2008. She lives and works in Pappinbarra, NSW, in a
shed in the bush.
Colin Sneesby
ASSOCIATE PUPPETRY DIRECTOR / PUPPETEER
Since graduating from Acting at Victorian College
of the Arts, Colin Sneesby has worked as an actor,
dancer and puppeteer with companies such as
Polyglot Puppet Theatre, Snuff Puppets, Dance
Exchange, MRPG, ERTH and Terrapin Puppet
Theatre. He has worked with choreographers such
as Russell Dumas, Jude Walton and Phillip Adams.
Most recently he co-wrote and performed in
Terrapin’s Frankenstein and performed in Jessica Wilson’s Dr Egg and the Man
with No Ear at Sydney Opera House and The Arts Centre, Melbourne. He has
toured extensively with 5 Angry Men and Windmill Theatre’s Twinkle Twinkle
Little Fish, has performed in Europe, America and Japan and received funding
to study in New York.
Phil Downing
COMPOSER
Phil Downing has been performing and recording
music for 20 years and has designed and created
a number of unique musical instruments in that
time. Since 1995 he has performed live with these
instruments at venues throughout Sydney under
the name Philophonic Orchestra. He performed
and toured with contemporary band Dogbuoy
from 1996 to 1999 and with Faker from 2005 to
2007, gaining experience in the recording studio and establishing skills as a
producer in his own right. From 2000, as musical director for ERTH, Phil has
created live soundtracks for the numerous productions and toured with the
company extensively. In 2001 he gained funding from the Australia Council to
run a music program at Cobham Juvenile Detention Centre.
Samuel James
AUDIOVISUAL ARTIST
Samuel James works as a projection designer
for contemporary performance companies and
independent dancers, mainly in association with
Performance Space. His main focus is collaborating
with independent dancers and making projections
for live works, installations and dance films. This
practice has developed since 1995, with over 150
credits in that time. His work includes theatre,
new media installation and filmmaking for Quietly Collapsed (Rosie Dennis)
on ABC TV and Nun’s Night Out (choreographer Julie-Anne Long), a production
that won Best Australian Dance Film at the Australian Dance Awards in 2006.
He has worked with a diverse range of companies – from the Sydney Dance
Company to Frumpus – and regularly has his videos screened in international
dance film festivals.
Bernie Tan
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Bernie Tan has worked extensively across a
variety of genres, including dance, drama, opera
and musicals and theatrical productions. He has
worked with Theatre of Image, ERTH, La Boite
Theatre Company, NORPA, Griffin Theatre Company,
Pinch Gut Opera, Sydney Conservatorium of Music,
State Opera of South Australia, Performing Lines
and Sydney Theatre Company. His work includes
Small Poppies, I Am My Own Wife, Twinkle Twinkle Little Fish, The Ring Cycle,
Great Expectations, Gondwana, Macbeth and Cosi Fan Tutte to name just a few.
Mark Haslam
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Mark is a Sydney-based director, designer and
production manager with credits in the UK and all
over Australia. He seems to attract large, ambitious
projects, having recently managed Performance
Space’s mammoth LiveWorks program and Tess
DeQuincey’s epic The Stirring at CarriageWorks. He
was also assistant director to Nigel Jamieson for
Gallipoli at the STC. He has lit some of the world’s
biggest DJs, including Fatboy Slim, Sasha and Carl Cox and currently lectures in
Theatre at the University of Wollongong.
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Actors
Stephen Klinder
STAGE MANAGER
Stephen Klinder graduated from UWS Theatre
Nepean in 1995. Since then he has worked in
Australia, the UK and the US in a number of
positions. He has stage managed for independent
theatre, musical events, dance and arena
spectaculars, yet this is only a very small chapter
in the enigmatic life of Stephen ‘National Treasure’
Klinder. Google him.
Bill Young
PERFORMER
Bill Young is one of Australia’s busiest character
actors with over 20 feature films under his belt,
a wealth of television experience, an impressive
array of theatre credits and a reputation for being a
much sought-after voiceover artist. Recent feature
film work includes Superman Returns, Japanese
Story, You Can’t Stop the Murders, Chopper, The
Nugget, The Matrix and The Road to Nhill. Recent
television work includes ABC TV’s The Cut, The Hollowmen and The Prime
Minister is Missing, the Spielberg / Hanks mini-series The Pacific, as well
as the Logie Award-winning dramatised documentary The Bridge, in which
he played the role of Jack Lang. Theatre performances include roles in Don’s
Party, Spinning Into Butter and Broadway Bound. He is the founder, producer
and director of the Kirribilli Pub Theatre. He also directs film, theatre and
television. His 1994 feature film The Roly Poly Man picked up a number of
international film festival awards, most notably the Vincent Price Audience
Award at XVth Fantafestival in Italy. He has been a member of MEAA (Actors
Equity) since 1975.
Annie Byron
PERFORMER
An actress for over 30 years, Annie Byron’s work
has taken her all over Australia and the world. She
has most recently appeared in Yibiyung at Belvoir
St Theatre and Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne.
Prior to that, she performed in The Age I’m In
for the Sydney and Adelaide festivals 2008 and
Small Things at Downstairs Belvoir. She recently
shot a short film called Glory for Metroscreen and
the feature film The View from Greenhaven Drive. Other recent work includes
Embers and Hedda Gabler for Sydney Theatre Company, as well as the
telemovie Stepfather of the Bride for ABC TV. She received an AFI nomination
for her role in Doin’ Time for Patsy Cline and the AFI Award for Best Actress in a
Supporting Role for her work in Fran.
Tom Green
PERFORMER
Tom Green began working professionally as an
actor in 2007. He played the lead role of Zac in
the telemovie Emerald Falls, directed by Peter
Andrikidis, and made his stage debut as Phillip in
Lockie Leonard for Merrigong Theatre Co. In 2008
Tom brought lead character Kaden to life in The
Ground Beneath, a 25-minute short film directed
by Rene Hernandez that was nominated for the AFI
Best Short Film Award. He starred as Vafa in the AFTRS short film Cross-over
directed by Amin Palangi and shot the comedy pilot Too Far in 2008, playing
the lead role of Tom alongside Peter Rowsthorn and Corinne Grant, with
directors Matt Peek and Cam Ford.
Puppeteers
Sharon Kerr
PUPPETEER
A trained school teacher majoring in Drama,
Sharon left teaching to perform with Barnstorm
Theatre and Graffiti Dance Theatre before
co-founding ERTH. She has experience in
improvisational movement, having trained with
Al Wunder and Lynden Nicholls, a teacher best
known for Animotion – work based on animal
movements. She has worked with a range of
people, from the very young (teaching aerobics) to the aged in care. Within
ERTH Sharon is a performer, prop maker, costume maker and manager /
producer and contributes creative and performance directions. She has toured
to Ireland, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, New Zealand and
England and throughout Australia, including to the Melbourne International
Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and the openings of both the Melbourne and
National museums. She also appeared in an aerial pyrotechnic spectacular for
the opening of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She has performed on the sails
of the Sydney Opera House, the spire of St Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne and
from the 24th floor of the Nge Ann building in Singapore.
Jacob Boehme
PUPPETEER
Jacob Boehme is a Melbourne-born artist of
Narangga (Yorke Peninsula, SA) and Kaurna
(Adelaide, SA) heritage. He trained in dance
at NAISDA, Australia’s leading institute for
Indigenous performing arts and is a choreographer
and puppeteer. For the past ten years he has
worked with Indigenous youth in remote areas
creating visual theatre that combines traditional
and contemporary dance and puppetry techniques. He recently completed
a masters in Puppetry at the Victorian College of the Arts with a successful
season of his show Idja (which means ‘skin’ in Narangga), a work that explores
the collaborative possibilities between Indigenous storytelling conventions
and Western theatre methodologies. Jacob’s artistic practice keenly focuses on
education and the celebration of Indigenous culture within both Indigenous
and broader communities and enhancing contemporary theatre practices
through cross-cultural collaborations with other Indigenous cultures.
Jo Clancy
PUPPETEER
Contemporary Indigenous dancer / choreographer
Jo Clancy is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people
of western New South Wales but was raised and
still lives on Gundungurra and Darug country in
the Blue Mountains. She commenced her dance
training at NAISDA Dance College in 1990 and
went on to the University of Western Sydney
where she became the first Aboriginal person to
gain a Bachelor of Arts in Dance in NSW. From 2005 to 2007 she was head
of dance at NAISDA Dance College. She is currently the artistic director of the
Wollemi Aboriginal Dancers and is also working with ArtsOutwest to deliver
contemporary Indigenous dance and performance professional development
to Aboriginal communities in central-west NSW. In July 2008 Jo developed the
first stage of a new contemporary Indigenous dance work entitled Yarringan
(which means ‘like clear water’ in her language group) through the support of
the Australia Council for the Arts dance board.
9

photo: prudence upton
10
Joshua Bond
PUPPETEER
Joshua Bond hails from Tasmania and has
worked professionally in the performing arts for
12 years, primarily in circus but also in dance
theatre, physical theatre and more recently
puppet theatre. He graduated from NICA and has
worked with companies around Australia and
internationally, including Lunar Circus & Bizircus
(WA), Circus Monoxide (NSW), Trix Circus (QLD)
and Cirque Cric in Barcelona. He is passionate about imparting his skills to
young Indigenous people, having travelled, performed and taught extensively
in remote communities. With Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Circus Oz and at NAISDA
Dance College he has used the physical language of acrobatics as a medium to
create and develop new ways of translating Indigenous material in a way that
correlates to dance choreography.
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Puppet design and construction
Set design and construction
Storyboard
Puppets
Inflatables
bryony Anderson
Steve Howarth
Ferdinand Manalangsang
chris Covich
Marty Jay
Construction:
Hannah Rauwendaal, Matina Moutzouris, Chloe Stanford, Kristen Alcock,
Herbie Peppard, Peter Skirrow, Georgina Buchanan, Evie Meikle, Govinda
Webster, Ana Roman, Rachel Buchan, Max Meyer, Hedge, Meg Roberts and
Gemma Lark-Johnson, Marc Trunk.
Painters
COFA Intern
University of Wollongong Intern
Frou Frou Loco, Emma Johnston,
laura Wilson
niki Bernado
emma Lockhart-Wilson
THE REGAL THEATRE
Owned by the People of Western Australia through
THE BAKER THEATRE TRUST
Trustees:
Richard V Diggins, Ian J Hocking, John C Thornton
Ian Lyon, John J W Thornton
REGAL THEATRE MANAGEMENT
INTERSTAR PTY LTD
474 Hay Street Subiaco
Western Australia 6008
Phone (08) 9388-2066 Fax (08) 9388-2860
Email : regal@iinet.net.au
Website: www.regaltheatre.com.au
TICKETEK BOX OFFICE 1300 795 012
24 hour booking service: www.ticketek.com.au
GENERAL MANAGER
john C Thornton
ADMINISTRATOR
Stan Bird AASA
ASSISTANT MANAGERS
Tim Thornton
Ken Smith
BOX OFFICE SUPERVISOR (TICKETEK) Sonya Hayden
TECHNICAL MANAGER
barry Brody
MERCHANDISING
jivon Enterprises
Cameras and Recording equipment are prohibited in the Theatre without
written permission from the management. The management reserves the
right to alter the program or replace artists without notice. The management
reserves the right to refuse admission to the Theatre. Latecomers may only
be admitted at the discretion of the Management. Ticket holders enter the
venue at their own risk. The Management accepts no liability whatsoever or
howsoever caused for any injury to persons or property while on the premises
or within the precincts of the Theatre.

Barking Gecko Theatre Company is Western
Australia’s leading professional theatre
company performing for young people 5-17
years and families.
Gecko is committed to providing the best
of the best theatre for our local audiences
and ERTH-Visual & Physical’s The Nargun
and the Stars will be the spectacular of
spectacular. A show for young people with
such large-scale production values is an exciting event and one we wanted
our Gecko audiences to experience. Bringing this type of production to life,
and to Perth, requires the support of a whole host of people, companies and
organisations. Barking Gecko is proud to be a presenting partner for the Perth
season of The Nargun and the Stars by ERTH-Visual & Physical.
Barking Gecko is dedicated to providing quality and adventurous theatre for
young people and their families and is proud to produce new works that focus
on contemporary issues. When we are not touring to remote corners of WA,
visiting local schools and collaborating with national and international artists,
Gecko thrives on the challenge of creating our own theatre that engages young
people and, simultaneously, broadens their understanding of the world. Since
1991 Barking Gecko has earned an international reputation for excellence and
innovation, with over 50 new Western Australian plays for young people.
Look out for Fatty Wombat when he explodes onto the Barking Gecko stage
in the October school holidays 2009!
Barking Gecko Staff:
Jeremy Rice
artistic Director
Katherine McLean
General Manager
Eleri Evans
Marketing Manager
Kate Hancock
education and Touring Coordinator
Joy Crocker
Financial Administrator
Board of Directors:
Michael Mitchell
chair
Michael Laurance
Company Secretary / Deputy Chair
Beau Deleuil
Drew Dymond
Glenn Hall
Myriam Leonardy
Jennifer Ridgwell
Tony Scampoli
Ainslie Van Onselen
Barking Gecko Patron:
barkinggecko.com.au
Professor Fiona Stanley
AC Msc, MD FFPHM, FAFPHM, FRACP, FRACOG, FASSA, Hon Dsc.
PERFORMING LINES
www.performinglines.org.au
administration@performinglines.org.au
5/245 Chalmers Street Redfern NSW 2016
02 9319 0066
Performing Lines develops, produces and tours new Australian performance
nationally and internationally — across genres including physical theatre,
circus, dance, indigenous and intercultural arts, music theatre, hybrid work,
and text-based theatre.
General Manager
Producer
Producer
Producer (WA)
Producer (TAS)
Producer (Sound Travellers)
Associate Producer
Office Manager
Accounts
Wendy Blacklock AM
harley Stumm
Fenn Gordon
Fiona de Garis
Annette Downs
Joanne Kee
Kar Chalmers
hannah Sanders
linda Luke
Performing Lines is assisted by the Australian Government through the
Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Barking Gecko is supported by
11

the Festival Wishes to thank
FOUNDER
PARTNERS
PRINCIPAL SPONSORS
PREMIER SPONSORS
MAJOR SPONSORS
PUBLIC FUNDING PARTNERS
INTERNATIONAL FUNDING PARTNERS
Government of Western Australia
Department of Local Government
and Regional Development
Government of Western Australia
Department of Culture and the Arts
Government of Western Australia
Department of Education and Training
THE AGENC Y FOR CULTUR AL AFFAIRS
GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN
SPARKLING WINE SPONSOR
MEDIA SUPPORTERS
MEDIA PARTNER
suppoRtING
spoNsoRs
303 Group
Friends of the Festival
Good Reading Magazine
St john of God health care
The Marketing centre
spECIAL
tHANks to
albany advertiser
albany chamber of commerce and industry
albany Public library
bankwest
box deli
brett & annie Fogarty
carillion city
devilles Pad
Fletcher jones
Fremantle Press
Fonterra brands australia –
connoisseur ice cream
Goethe institut
harpercollins australia
hbF
howard + heaver architects
insight Publications
jordano
just jeans
Kansai electric Power australia
Katies
Maggie T
Mink
Murdoch books
Must Winebar
Myer
osaka Gas australia
Pan Macmillan
Playhouse Theatre
Politix
Random house nZ
Resort Report
RM Williams
Scribe Publications
State library of Western australia
Target
The albany and Great Southern Weekender
The brisbane hotel
unSW Press
vodafone / First Mobile
Water corporation, albany
Western australian Museum, albany
writingWa
ME dIC I
doNoRs
Peter & Tracey bacich
Zelinda bafile & adrian iredale
clive & barbara brans
Peter & Robin briggs
dr charles bro & anne Marie brittain
Peter & yvonne burns
dr david cooke
john & Sarah d’onofrio
Marco d’orsogna
Murray & louise etherington
adrian & Michela Fini
brett & annie Fogarty
Graham Foreward & jackie Gilmour
derek Gascoine & dale harper
Peter & chris Gilmour
Mack & evelyn hall
Peter & Sue harley
Maxine howell-Price
adam lenegan
Sandy & Michele MacKellar
john & elizabeth Mair
Michael & Sallie Manford
bettina Mangan
Murray & Suzanne McGill
ian & jayne Middlemas
david & dawn Morgan
Professor Gerry o’driscoll & dr halina burmej
john & helen owenell
Mimi Packer
Richard Payne & cim Sears
dr Michael Prichard & beniza Panizza
Pearl Proud
Marijana Ravlich
bill Repard & jane Prendiville
dr Sam Rogers
Sally Savini
Rosemary Sayer & Terry Grose
leo & virginia Seward
jackie & Gary Steinepreis
dr Phillip & jill Swarbrick
Peter & jane Thompson
Rodney & Penny Thompson
Frank & Rachael Torre
joe & debbie Throsby
Tim & chris ungar
ian & Margaret Wallace
Melvin yeo
ashley & anita Zimpel
pRIVAtE GIVING
pRoGRAM
jonathan akerman
emeritus Professor cora baldock
bernard & jackie barnwell
in memory of dr Stella barratt-Pugh
Sue boyd
ellen broerse
janette brooks
coral carter
dr barry cassidy
dr Michael & Rose chaney
craig colvin
dr david cooke
joanne cruickshank
Marco d'orsogna
isobel Glencross
david Griffiths
Patricia & dr des Gurry
dorothea hansen-Knarhoi
james & Freda irenic
nina & ashley jones
jennie Kennedy
dr vivienne lawrence
Peter & lynne leonhardt
Peter Mallabone
Sophie Mark
Gaye McMath
leo Moran
Mary napier
alison o'dwyer
Wayne & Pam osborn
andrea Shoebridge
Prof Fiona Stanley
Prof Karen Simmer
Suzanne Strobel
Tuite Family
j. van der Merwe
enrico versteeg
diana Warnock
justice christine Wheeler
dr heather Whiting & Richard hatch
Margaret Whitter
ann Whyntie
associate Professor Michael Wise
brigid Woss
anonymous (14)