TRIBUNAL by PYT | Fairfield

Procession. Performance. Conversation.

TRIBUNAL is an ambitious new participatory performance project that brings together Indigenous Elders, artists, human rights activists, lawyers, young leaders and outlaws. An Australian Truth and Reconciliation Tribunal will be created to interrogate and explore notions of truth and lies around the labels of ‘refugee’ and ‘asylum seeker’.

Western Sydney’s award-winning company PYT | Fairfield presents TRIBUNAL in a new form for MCA’s Conversation Starters . TRIBUNAL addresses Australia’s history by telling the parallel stories of indigenous Australia and newly arrived refugees. Fusing performance with legal procedure, personal history and intimate conversations, TRIBUNAL works to create a parallel democracy for our times.

The event includes traditional Iraqi coffee, tea catered by Fairfield’s Parents Café , a social enterprise acknowledged by the United Nations as one of the best re-settlement programs for refugees in the world.

The collaborators in Tribunal combine PYT’s most exciting young artists with some of Australia’s most significant cultural leaders, including: Indigenous Elder, artist and activist, Rhonda Dixon Grovenor; award-winning young Afghani artist and asylum seeker, Mahdi Mohammadi; actor and recent refugee to Australia, Jawad Yaqoubi; Artists and Human Rights Worker Katie Green, International Human Rights Lawyer Joe Tan ; Dr Paul Dwyer of Version 1.0 and Sydney University; and PYT | Fairfield Artistic Director and arts activist, Karen Therese.

**As part of the Saturday 3 June performance, TRIBUNAL will begin with a First Nation’s welcome for recently arrived refugees from Syria and Iraq, culminating into a performative procession, performance and conversation.

Reviews
“Aunty Rhonda is arresting. The audience stand to attention for her welcome, and in doing so we are transported to a parallel possibility of what Australia could be”. -Time Out

“…unquestionably powerful … theatrical magic” -suzygosee.com

“It’s a must-see of a very special kind” -Ben Neutze Daily Review

ABOUT PYT | Fairfield

PYT | Fairfield, led by Artistic Director Karen Therese, it is an award-winning company with a reputation for making brave and transformative work, impacting and inspiring audiences and artists across Australia. We do this by creating innovative performance and social artistic experiences both in performance spaces and across diverse sites of urban Fairfield, Mt Druitt, broader Western Sydney and Australia. Fundamental to our mission is placing artistic excellence at the centre of everything we do. Recent work includes, WOMEN OF FAIRFIELD ( partner C3_West, STARTTS) Winner Best Arts Program FBi SMAC Awards, JUMPFIRST ASK LATER ( partner Force Majeure) Winner of the 2016 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance. JUMPFIRST has been presented at PYT I Fairfield, Arts Centre Melbourne and the Sydney Opera House. TRIBUNAL has been presented at Griffin Theatre, MCA, and will tour to ArtsHouse, Melbourne in July.

Tribunal Project Credits

Concept and lead artist: Karen Therese
Concept and Collaborator (Human Rights Lawyer): Joe Tan
Creative collaborators/text/performers: Rhonda Grovenor Dixon, Mahdi Mohammadi, Karen Therese, Paul Dwyer, Katie Green, Jawad Yaqoubi, plus guest speakers.
Text Edit Paul Dwyer. Outside Eye Chris Ryan. Human Rights Lawyer & Collaborator Joe Tan. Design Province Studio (Laura Pike and Anne Louise Dadek). Sound Design James Brown. Video Design Sean Bacon. Lighting Design Emma Lockhart-Wilson. Stage Manager Patrick Howard