Melbourne’s acclaimed Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm embarks on a unique collaboration with East Timorese companies Galaxy and Liurai Fo’er, in DOKU RAI (you, dead man, I don’t believe you).

Created over two months in an abandoned colonial hotel on a remote island off Timor-Leste, and directed by Thomas M Wright, DOKU RAI boldly defies limitations, as the first international theatre production to be created in East Timor. Conceived during the filming of Balibo, DOKU RAI is a shared fiction, a narrative drawn from all the artists’ own stories and references.

Independent company Liurai Fo’er uses found objects and detritus to create installations and performance in contemporary forms; while Galaxy are Timor-Leste’s most renowned band, rising out of the ashes of the struggle for national independence. Their collaboration with the Black Lung is framed and documented by the work of award-winning filmmaker Amiel Courtin-Wilson (Hail, Bastardy, Cicada).

Created upriver and at the end of the road, DOKU RAI is born of an improbable union of artists, drawn together by their need to eat, sleep, to work with one another and the bare materials – and to walk out of the wilds with intense and consuming theatre.