Cultural Entertainment

Creating Intercultural and Intergenerational connection points. A performance presentation on the 'Red Dust' by Marian St Theatre for Young People.

Nathan Gilkes

Marian St Theatre for Young People

About the presentation

The RED DUST is a cross cultural collaborative theatre event that premiered in July 2022. 16 Mandarin speaking dancers aged over 65 from the Chinese Australian Services Society collaborated with 10 young actors from Marian St Theatre for Young People alongside musicians from the Australian China Institute for Arts and Culture to present a new Chinese / Australian theatre work.

The RED DUST is set in the near future, against the backdrop of a climate change affected Sydney, where a red dust blow in form the central desert, perpetually covers the city. We meet a young girl Talia, a young girl growing up in both Chinese and Australian cultures. Talia’s mother, a climate scientist, goes missing in the storm, and Talia embarks on a journey, to walk to the Blue Mountains, to try and find her.

Along the way, she discovers many things about herself ultimately trying to see through her Hong Chen – the red dust of living. With one foot in each of Chinese and Australian cultures, the show grappled with notions of cultural identity, of growing up, of place and how we acknowledge our ancestry.

About the presenters

Nathan Gilkes is an award-winning musician and artistic director working across disciplines of theatre, music and performance, and the current Artistic Director of Marian St Theatre for Young People. He has worked extensively with national and international companies including Arena Theatre Company, Big hART and the Sydney Opera House and is a currently completing his Masters in Cultural Leadership at NIDA. www.nategilkes.com www.mstyp.org.au