TONG TANA – cabaret as structured improvisation composed and performed by Andrew Garton in collaboration with the South African trio, Benguela and visualist, Andrew Parker.

TONG TANA (Penan for “into the forest”) is a series of metaphorical stories inspired by the diminishing forests of the world, deep concerns for their rapid urbanisation and the dispossession from land that troubles all continents. No country appears immune.

TONG TANA draws direct influence from the indigenous peoples of Sarawak (one of two states of Malaysia on the island of Borneo), struggling to maintain their customary right to the land that feeds them, that they protect and have lived with for countless generations.

One musician claims to retain twenty-seven generations of music for the sape alone, all of which were composed and performed in the forests of Bakun where the largest, and most controversial, hydro-electric dam in the southern hemisphere is being built. Two students remain to learn not only his skills, but the entire musical heritage of his people.

TONG TANA, a journey into the forest, the communities that have grown there and the fragility of their culture in the face of modernity and the collapse of a life interwoven with nature.