The Dark Matter of Usulal
The Jo Ze spArks
World Premiere
Presented by Arts House and the Jo Ze spArks
Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 November 2026
Thu – Sat, 7:30pm
Sun, 5pm
70 mins, no interval
Auslan interpreted performance
Saturday 14 November, 7.30pm
Available on request – book by Thursday 5 November
Post-show artist talk for all ticket holders
Fri 13 November
Tickets
Standard $40
Reduced $25
BLAKTIX $15
Companion Card Free
A small transaction fee will be charged per order.
Content Advice
Suitable for ages 15+
This performance contains themes of grief, pregnancy loss, medical trauma, family, and environmental change. It also features low-frequency sound, immersive audiovisual effects, and periods of darkness.
An Access Guide will be available for download prior to the event.
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
521 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne
Wheelchair Accessible
Quiet Space Available
Assistance Animal
Companion Card
Assistive Listening
Visual Rating 50%
Aural Rating 50%A powerful solo performance of body, bloodline and a world already in motion.
The ground beneath WOMXN is shifting.
Her child speaks of moon lilies, black holes and a treehouse in the sky. A black cockatoo appears at the kitchen window. Beneath the ordinary rhythms of everyday life, something begins to hum.
Then WOMXN falls through the world.
As the cracks begin to widen, what was always there begins to emerge.
Through a rich interplay of movement, sound, motion-capture imagery and spatial design, The Dark Matter of Usulal asks what holds when the ground shifts, and what continues long after the ending has already been declared.
The Dark Matter of Usulal emerges from an entrusted relationship with the Ait Koedal Clan story of Usulal, and an instruction given to creator, director and performer Margaret J Harvey through her Saibai Island bloodline: “Go and interpret.”
The work follows Harvey’s continuing relationship with that entrustment; an intimate and expansive encounter with a world that was always here.
About the artists
Artist statement
It has become part of how I live, create and move through the world.
The Dark Matter of Usulal does not retell that myth. It lives within that relationship.
What followed was a long practice of listening - to the body, to where stories are stored, to motherhood, grief, the lived realities of the Saibaian diaspora, and the living cosmologies of Saibai Island.
Over time I realised the story was not waiting to be found.
It was already moving.
Grounded in Caring for Story, my practice understands story as a living entity.
Story is not content. It is one of the ways knowledge is carried, renewed and brought into relationship across generations. The question is not what a story means. The question is what it asks of us.
My practice is shaped by continuing relationships across Saibai and Bamaga - my bloodline, my Ama, Elders, ancestors, more-than-human kin, grief, motherhood, and my longstanding relationship with the Ait Koedal myth of Usulal.
Within this living field, The Dark Matter of Usulal brings together performance, sound, movement and digital visual ecologies to create an encounter with a world already in motion.
The work attends to continuance: the movement of story through body, place and relation.
The audience arrives late.
The field is already running.
- Margaret J Harvey
Artistic credits
Featuring the voice of: Zey Harvey-Connellan
Associate Director & Dramaturg: Danielle Micich
Digital Visual Design: Desmond Connellan
Lighting & Spatial Design: Jenny Hector
Sound/Composition Design: Marco Cher
Stage Manager / Production Manager: Genevieve Davidson
Cultural Acknowledgement:
Margaret J Harvey acknowledges Awa Walter Waia, senior Ait Koedal knowledge holder, who gifted her the living myth of Usulal.
Details
World Premiere
Presented by Arts House and the Jo Ze spArks
Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 November 2026
Thu – Sat, 7:30pm
Sun, 5pm
70 mins, no interval
Auslan interpreted performance
Saturday 14 November, 7.30pm
Available on request – book by Thursday 5 November
Post-show artist talk for all ticket holders
Fri 13 November
Tickets
Standard $40
Reduced $25
BLAKTIX $15
Companion Card Free
A small transaction fee will be charged per order.
Content Advice
Suitable for ages 15+
This performance contains themes of grief, pregnancy loss, medical trauma, family, and environmental change. It also features low-frequency sound, immersive audiovisual effects, and periods of darkness.
An Access Guide will be available for download prior to the event.
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
521 Queensberry St,
North Melbourne
Wheelchair Accessible Quiet Space Available Assistance Animal Companion Card Assistive Listening Visual Rating 50% Aural Rating 50%Supported by –
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body; the Victoria Government through Creative Victoria; Arts Queensland; Malthouse Theatre; and the City of Melbourne through Arts House.
Image credit: Danielle Micich
Image description: A performer lies on a dark stage floor looking toward the audience. Glowing blue digital figures appear suspended behind her within a dark visual landscape.
