MARROW

 

MARROW

Concept and Direction, Daniel Riley, Choreography Daniel Riley with Australian Dance Theatre’s Company Artists.Artistic Associate Brianna Kell. Project Elder Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner AM. (Kaurna/Ngarrindjeri). Design and Lighting Matthew Adey of House of VnHoly. Costume Design Ailsa Paterson Sound Design James Howard (Jaadwa). Production Manager/Puppet Maker. Ninian Donald.  Stage and company manager Katya Shevtsov. Technical manager Ellen Demaagd.  Performers Joshua Doctor, Yilin Kong, Zachary Lopez, Karra Nam, Patrick O’Luanaigh and Zoe Wozniak. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. July 31 – August 3 2025. Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Karra Nam in Australian Dance Theatre's MARROW

 

I first saw Daniel Riley’s compelling dance work Marrow at the 2024 Adelaide Festival in the intimate Odeon Theatre. Last night’s opening performance in the Canberra Playhouse was a startling revelation. The performance has lost none of its intensity and integrity. It continues to confront the challenges that face the marginalized, the oppressed and the neglected people in our society. The bone marrow of the human body produces the blood cells that feed the skeletal system of the body. The smoke of the smoking ceremony, performed by First Nations people offers spiritual ,cultural and physical healing. Marrow restores healing to a nation and a people still hurting from the bitter rejection of the Voice in the 2023 referendum. Time has passed but the pain persists and Riley’s work expounds the anger and the defiance at past wrongs with a promise of hope for the healing power of reconciliation and compassion. 

On the Playhouse stage the work has matured. James Howard’s composition reverberates with percussive force. Matthew Adey’s lighting magnifies the evocative impact of the dance. Riley’s dancers are sinewy and lithe, muscular and flexible. The dancers are members of the original production and their ensemble work is mesmerizing. Bodies intertwine, separate and reunite. Riley’s patterns of separation, unison, rejection and attraction create a sculptural landscape of changing emotions,  conjuring images of power and oppression and shifting images of contrasting status that give rise to the struggle. The choreography is inspired, an intricate and lucid tapestry of the human psyche underscored by Howard’s incessant rhythms and pounding percussion and Adey’s use of colour and stark spotlighting. Marrow is a gripping display of technical brilliance and choreographic storytelling. 

Marrow holds you in its thrall. It challenges the intellect, inviting visceral response to the anguished dance, the moments of  bonding, the alienation and the restoration of hope. It is a swirling kaleidoscope of human need and the search for identity and hope. As smoke soars upwards and the  red lighting creates a border on the stage we are reminded that where there is smoke there is fire and where there is fire there is cleansing and with the cleansing comes the healing. Marrow reminds us of past darkness and eventually offers hope for the future.

Artistic director Riley and his outstanding ensemble of beautiful dancers and creative team of Howard on sound design, Aisla Paterson on costumes and Adey on lighting have created a work that is testament to the stature and significance of Australian Dance Theatre in its Jubilee Year. Marrow is a must see experience.     

  In 2024 I wrote in summary”

“Australian Dance Theatre’s   production of Marrow is born of a burning passion. It is a dance work that is both raw and complex. Artistic director Daniel Riley once again brands his work with anger, with grief, with loss and the cry for change. James Howard’s opening sound design pulses with unrelenting protest, loud and forceful, echoing through the theatre as the dancers appear driven by an inner obsession and then, contorted, writhing, ghosts of the past, spectres of torment and victims of history. Riley’s choreography is uncompromising, compelling in its anguish as a pattern of interactive movements and solo moments express a struggle that is eternal. His dancers move in perfect concord with a theme of spiritual resurgence. The grim vision of a hanging black figure and Karra Nam’s long solo performance to restore life to the wrongs of the past and the perils of the present offers a glimpse of hope for a better future.”

 

           Tonight’s performance presents a company, assured in its mission, highly accomplished in its artistry and worthy of the accolades that are rightly attributed to a company of commitment and spellbinding talent. Marrow reminds us of the wrongs of the past but offers the promise of hope for the future.  He all too short season of this impressive work by Australian Dance Theatre is an experience that is not to be missed,

 PHOTOS BY MORGAN SETTE