It is an epic tale, a source of pride for its people, yet a story little known by Australia at large. On a single day in 1968, in the scorching Pilbara heat, 137 men – mostly from the Torres Strait – smashed a world record when they laid, spiked and anchored seven kilometres of railway track in 11 hours and 40 minutes.
Now recreated on stage at Brisbane festival, this feat, part of a nine-month project to build 400km of rail line from Mount Newman to Port Hedland, has received its overdue celebration in the joyous musical Straight from the Strait, presented by Opera Queensland, the Yumpla Nerkep Foundation and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
The 15 performers and six-piece band are all Indigenous, some directly descended from the rail workers. The story created here centres on three brothers – eldest Kusa (Harold Pascoe), middle brother and narrator Pinau (Vaughan Wapau), and youngest brother Boyor (Paul Isakara Williams) – who journey across the sea because of lack of employment on their (unspecified) island home.
A giant earth-coloured suitcase on stage cleverly shapeshifts to a house, a lugger at sea, and finally the railway stores, while the music digs deep and ambitiously wide, from the rousing opening hymn Baba Waiar – a blessing song widely known across the strait’s five major island clusters – to much traditional dancing that prompts the audience to whistle loudly with approval.
There are numerous new compositions in English, poking good-natured fun at gospel, country and the romantic idioms of musical theatre. In between, there are generous bursts of harmonising in Meriam Mir, Kala Lagaw Ya and Torres Strait Creole; sounds that would have been heard on the railroad itself.
Composer, co-librettist, music director and arranger Rubina Kimiia has spoken of aiming for a “raw sound, the sound of the islands” with this musical, “rather than a refined sound”. It’s true, there are occasional wrong keys and the odd flat note, but the spirit, authenticity and cheer of the work still swept me away.
It put me in mind of the late Jimmy Chi’s Bran Nue Dae, which grew out of Broome, or the more recent Big Name, No Blankets, charting the story of the Warumpi Band from the Northern Territory. And yet, it was also its own thing: Torres Strait islanders having a rare musical theatre moment, showing the power of the sea is equal to the power of land.
Straight from the Strait was first presented in a concert version tour in 2022, but has been decades in the making, growing out of an oral history project in the 1990s. Subsequent community storytelling and workshops led to a work-in-progress musical theatre script by non-Indigenous playwright John Romeril, who stepped away from the project in 2012, allowing Torres Strait creatives such as writer and co-librettist Aunty Norah Bagiri to take full control and reshape it with greater authenticity.
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Director Nadine McDonald-Dowd and co-choreographers Patricia Pryce and Cleopatra Pryce have drawn charismatic performances from the three brothers, notably Williams as Boyor, who is charmingly funny in his wooing of Isobel (Georgia Corowa), a descendant of Islanders forced into labour in sugar cane fields. Boyor fights with his eldest brother, Kusa, because the latter has gambled away the family inheritance. Both men come to lead their own railroad work gangs, but the pleasure is watching the pair dexterously dance across the stage together.
There is a harsh economic story behind this musical – a melancholy that the Torres Strait men do not know when or even if they will be able to return home to their loved ones – but what this musical generously wants to focus on is sharing its stories, knowledge and culture, its characters never allowing disadvantage to define their being.
Kimiia insisted that this musical be performed with no fewer than 15 performers, because Island singing is all about ensemble, and this one sings with undeniable power. I hope that a national tour of Straight from the Strait will follow, for this living monument to a historic achievement and thriving cultures is utterly joyful.
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Straight from the Strait is at the Playhouse at QPAC, Brisbane until 31 August. Steve Dow travelled as a guest of Brisbane festival