The Scarecrow & Waa
Monash University Peninsula Campus
$20 - $55
World Premiere
The Scarecrow & Waa is a Blak comedic circus tragedy crackling with wit and danger. Suspended above the audience, Waa the cheeky crow and a restless scarecrow looking to find his purpose, clash over inheritance, responsibility and renewal. In a world on the edge of collapse, what must burn to begin again?
Cracking jokes all the way to the incinerator.
Drawn from stories of Kulin Country, The Scarecrow & Waa is a world premiere performance from Narrm/Melbourne-based Na Djinang Circus.
In a landscape slipping toward extinction, Scarecrow falls into a reluctant friendship with Waa: the magic man, the protector, the healer, the cheeky crow. Confronted by this would-be interloper, Waa must choose: hand over his responsibility or destroy Scarecrow.
With performers suspended above the audience on a mobile counterweight apparatus, circus and witty dialogue meet in a dynamic back and forth that could swing either way. What begins as an absurd duet opens into a question more exacting, more dangerous. What does it mean to become? To inherit? To burn? To be made anew?
The Scarecrow & Waa continues Na Djinang Circus’ commitment to re‑imagining the circus as a living, Blak cultural practice, one that can laugh, burn and begin again.
Directed by Wakka Wakka circus artist Harley Mann, the work is devised by Johnny Brown, Bridie Hooper, Jackie Sheppard, Carly Sheppard, Amy Sole, Gemma Truong, Nicci Wilks, and Mann. Supported by Cultural Dramaturge Isobel Morphy-Walsh and Cultural Consultant N’arwee’t Professor Carolyn Briggs AM.
This comedic circus tragedy unfolds in a precise, stylised world designed by Zoe Rouse, and lit to heighten its sharp, syncopated physicality by Jenny Hector.
Na Djinang Circus is a First Nations Circus company, creating bold work that is centred around the stories, ideas and opinions of young First Nations people.
Kindred People is an Indigenous‑led gathering held on Boonwurrung Country, guided by Elders and an Indigenous Steering Committee. Each event sits within a broader program of ceremony, performance and knowledge exchange, grounded in respect for Country and the sharing of living Indigenous knowledges. These works invite audiences to listen deeply, learn together and come to the gathering with care.
This work was commissioned by Monash University, and supported by Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and the City of Melbourne.
