Tracker

Tracker is an impressive, all-Indigenous collaboration between the Australian Dance Theatre in Adelaide and the Ilbijerri Theatre in Melbourne, co-directed by their two ADs, respectively, choreographer Daniel Riley and Rachael Maza, for the Sydney Festival.

Three dancers and one actor, as Riley himself, artfully track through the early twentieth story of his great-great uncle Alex “Tracker” Riley and the remarkable cases he helped solve as a Wiradjuri Elder serving in the NSW Police Force. 

He even tracked down another Wiradjuri man, the famed bushranger Roy Governor; but after 40 years Alex Riley went unrewarded for his 40 years of service, and was denied a pension.

Abbie-Lee Lewis plays the young Riley.  Script in hand, she’s stepping in for Ari Maza Long who had to resign the role following the death of his grandmother (widow of the notable Indigenous theatre-maker, Bob Maza, and mother of Rachael).   

And Lewis makes a fine fist of it, following the tracks of each shocking murder across the stage,  reading aloud old newspaper accounts and sharing her own ancestral memories; we are with her as her own discoveries of Riley unfolds on his country. 

So are the three silent dancers, watching, and dancing, sometimes overly generalised, but at other times powerfully painful and beaten as Lewis articulates the devastation of Riley’s people. 

Backed by a varied score from live musician Gary Watling (with co-composer James Henry), the dancers are especially evocative when entwining around Lewis and passing her into the air.

With Lewis’ script still in hand, some narrative transitions lack clarity and (for now) her storytelling can slip from the wit, wonder and discovery in Ursula Yovich and Amy Sole’s script into unnecessary declamations.

Thrilling in this production is the set design by Jonathan Jones with artist Merindah Funnell, with the stage encircled by two tracks of transparent curtains, painted vividly in the greens and reds of rich country.  We are sometimes peering through them as this journey is tracked.  As the dancers (Tyrel Dulvarie, Rika Hamaguchi and Kaine Sultan-Babij) draw us in, their costumes of double layered, torn denims by Ailsa Paterson suggest some deconstructed prison or country wear.  It all makes up a show well worth tracking down.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Pedro Greig