This Saturday past, just after nightfall in Yellagonga Regional Park, about 30 minutes drive from Boorloo (Perth's city centre), air raid sirens pierced the air as high-beam spotlights menaced a patch of bushland lining the shore of Lake Joondalup.
Who amongst the 10,000-odd punters watching on, from picnic blankets scattered on the grassy slope, could help feeling a twinge of primal fear; the sense — however fleeting — of being imperilled?
Good art can do that to you: push your buttons.
The audience was there for Djoondal: A 30-minute spectacle of story, sound and light created by a First Nations-led team for Perth Festival's opening weekend, where it drew a combined audience of more than 20,000 over three consecutive nights.
Taking its cue from this year's theme of Djinda ("stars"), Djoondal was inspired by a Noongar story about a spirit woman with long white hair who created the Milky Way.
Narration of this story was interwoven with synth-heavy musical breaks featuring singing in language, the voices of birdiya Noongar (elders), and archival audio — including a stirring reading of the Imagination Declaration from the 2019 Garma Festival Youth Forum.
Djoondal also paid homage to both Orson Welles's radio adaptation and Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds, a late 19th-century novel by H.G. Wells in which alien invasion serves as an allegory for British imperialism and colonisation.
During the aforementioned sequence with sirens and spotlights, a booming voice narrated a version of War of the Worlds' iconic lines:
No one would have believed, in the early years of the 19th century
That we were being watched from the timeless worlds of space
No one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinised
As someone with a telescope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water
And yet across the gulf of space, men with weapons immeasurably superior to ours
Regarded this boodjar with envious eyes
And slowly and surely they drew their plans against us.
Elsewhere, narration was distorted by static or overlaid with the fuzz of radio interference, as if we were listening to a communication from deep space.
There was joy, too — including an electro-pop musical break at the show's climax, sung in Noongar and accompanied by lasers and a dancing, shimmering constellation of choreographed drones in hues of pink, blue, purple and green.
It's an aesthetic that lead creative and director Ian "Moopa" Wilkes describes as "Noongar futurism" — though he's quick to point out that Djoondal touches on urgent contemporary issues, too.
Dr Roma "Yibiyung" Winmar, a member of Perth Festival's Noongar Advisory Circle and a cultural consultant on Djoondal, told ABC Arts: "There's a whole bit of history in there if people were listening. And some might pick up on snippets [they're hearing] and think 'Oh!' — it gives them an opportunity to think, reflect.
"With art, or with anything, everyone comes from a different perspective. Me and you could be looking at the same thing, but it affects you in a different way than it does to me — maybe because of the journey that I've travelled already. And it might be a new discovery for you."
Supernovas and local heroes
Just as Perth Festival opened with the creation of the stars, it will close with a supernova: Björk, presenting the Australian premiere of her immersive audiovisual concert spectacular, Cornucopia — exclusive to Boorloo/Perth.
As the Djoondal team were putting the finishing touches on their show, across the city in Langley Park construction was underway on the purpose-built 5000-seat pavilion that will house the Icelandic artist's magnum opus, across four nights.
There are parallels between Djoondal and Cornucopia: their futuristic aesthetic; their environmental concerns; their harnessing of digital technology to speak of primal concerns such as connection to country; the communal philosophy and methodology behind each work.
On a pragmatic level, they exist in a symbiotic relationship, one creating the kind of box office dividends that allow the other to exist.
As artistic director Iain Grandage points out, the 2023 Perth Festival box-office target of $6.23 million is the highest ever — and as of Wednesday, had been met.
But in the meantime, with the exception of Björk, this year's program was notable for its dearth of big international shows and artists.
Imported works were small-scale and judiciously programmed with an eye to both excellence and community. On opening weekend: Happy Meal, a trans rom-com for the millennials; and Bikutsi 3000, an Afrofuturist tale blending video with live dance.
The international program was impacted by more than just a Björk-sized hole in the budget: astronomical freight costs, in the wake of COVID, are affecting programming across the arts industry (and beyond).
Going forward, Perth Festival faces an additional challenge: energy company Chevron Australia announced in October it would terminate its 18-year sponsorship arrangement following this year's event, in the wake of criticism of fossil fuel companies by artists including Tim Winton.
"The festival will by necessity be smaller, unless we find enough ways to [plug that hole]," Grandage told ABC Arts.
Australian work won't be squeezed out by any belt-tightening, Grandage says, citing a "commitment to invest in the local community, which is integral to our brief and integral to my philosophy about what the festival should be".
This year, top-tier Australian content includes Stephanie Lake's festival hit Manifesto; Sydney Theatre Company's dazzling feat of cine-theatre, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; and the gorgeous family show Hide the Dog, co-written by palawa playwright Nathan Maynard (trawlwoolway pakana) and Māori writer Jamie McCaskill (Ngāti Tamaterā, Te Ati Haunui a Pāpārangi, Ngā Puhi), and directed by Noongar man Isaac Drandic.
Local heroes are represented via Perth Festival-commissioned works Wonderbox, by internationally acclaimed children's theatre company Sensorium; Seven Sisters, by WA Youth Theatre Company; and Equations of a Falling Body, by choreographer Laura Boynes.
"As the world opens up, our team was determined not to leave the local sector that we'd had such a tight and trusting relationship with across the COVID times behind," Grandage says.
"So there's a very strong local program, and a very strong lean into Noongar storytelling skill."
Noongar excellence
Barry McGuire, a respected Noongar cultural leader with Balladong and Wadjuk heritage, has described Perth Festival as "one of the best festivals in Australia" in terms of its longstanding engagement with the community.
Grandage doubled down on this commitment following his appointment, inviting Noongar writer, director, actor and language advocate Kylie Bracknell (aka Kaarljilba Kaardn) to take up the new role of Perth Festival Associate Artist, and following her guidance in setting up the Noongar Advisory Circle (which features four women and two men, including McGuire).
For the opening week of his first festival, in 2020, Grandage and his team exclusively programmed Indigenous work — including Hecate: a re-imagining of Macbeth in Noongar language, adapted and directed by Bracknell for Boorloo/Perth's Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company.
Grandage and Bracknell set the stage for a flourishing of Noongar excellence within the festival — and without realising it at the time, planted the seeds for Djoondal (among many other works).
Ian "Moopa" Wilkes, director and lead creative on Djoondal, and Rubeun Yorkshire, who contributed illustrations and collaborated on the soundtrack, were both in the cast of Hecate.
Wilkes says it was a turning point in his creative practice, without which he wouldn't have made the transition to directing this year's large-scale opening event.
"The gift from that [show] was [learning] Noongar language, and Noongar singing and song and feeling and energy," he explains.
"Within Noongar culture, our stories are our songs, our songs are our dances — one cannot exist without the other. They're all one thing. I've been a dancer, an actor, a creative director — I've grabbed hold of any medium to be able to tell the story. … And Noongar language was the one that was missing."
Having first been part of Perth Festival in 2013 (performing Shakespeare's Sonnets in Noongar) and directed and performed in shows in the years since, Wilkes 'levelled up' after that 2020 season of Hecate: In 2021 he joined the festival as Artistic Associate, and was co-writer and performer of the interactive walking tour Galup, which shared the story of a culturally significant site (called Lake Monger by settler colonists) and a massacre that took place there in 1830.
In 2022, he worked with Bracknell to co-curate the family friendly cultural festival Noongar Wonderland, at Perry Lakes Reserve.
"Noongar Wonderland was a joyous event that held language and songs and was a small step towards [saying] 'We are modern Noongar too,'" Wilkes says.
"[It was showing] 'We've got language — we've got this show [Hecate] that we did with language and Shakespeare — but we can also put language within dance and rhythm and culture.'
"And now, with Djoondal, we don't have any live aspect: It's all up in the sky, and the drones are the dancers … the lights are the characters."
Djoondal represents a different kind of 'spectacle' for Perth Festival, which has previously opened with large-scale events such as puppet-led street theatre The Giants (2015) and monumental sound and light show Boorna Waanginy: The Trees Speak, in Kings Park (2017 and 2019) — drawing crowds in the hundreds of thousands.
Chloe Ogilvie, a Yamatji Nanda woman who was a key creative and lighting designer for Djoondal (and is an alumnus of previous festivals) says she's observed "a shift that's happened in the arts, especially in conversations with Perth Festival that we've had, talking about 'What does large-scale mean?'
"They've been really supportive of the idea that we can tell a story of scale but the scale comes from our culture and our stories rather than anything else."
Perth Festival runs until March 5.
The writer travelled to Perth as a guest of Perth Festival.
