SugarMan is a 'work in progress', a cross cultural community performance/demonstration of sacred art, music and theatre from Central Australia. SugarMan is a reply to Aboriginal people asking for the 'Story of Grog' (alcohol) to help them understand and heal substance abuse and dependence. SugarMan is a poetic adaptation (written by Craig San Roque) set to music and movement, of the Greek myth of Dionysos, exploring issues of separation, desire, addiction, madness and the healing to be found at the core of the human Psyche. SugarMan is a lesson for all times, a teaching story for everyone, a response to alienation.
SugarMan was first presented, following 5 years of development and six months of intensive workshops and preparations, at Intjartanama Outstation (120km from Alice Springs) August 24/25, 1996 to an invited audience that included Aboriginal and European people from various communities in Central Australia.
A highly successful event, SugarMan has provoked much thought, comment and reaction along with ongoing evaluation and discussion with further events to follow. The initial proceedings and performance were documented by a video/sound crew from Sydney for future presentation on TV in Australia and a series of follow-up workshops have already begun in Alice Springs.
a woman is sitting by a fire
the grandmother is sitting
the first mother
she does not move
the rivers move
the mountains move
she does not move
she is sitting where everything begins
she is sitting where everything comes out
everything comes out from her
smoke, mosquitoes, lizard,
fish, snake, bird, kangaroo, dogs, people
they all move
tongues move
but she does not move
she laughs
she smiles
she cries
but she does not move
everything moves
in and out of her
but she does not move
she breathes
she sucks things in
they pass through her.
stars, motor cars,
me
