New Zealand Arts Review

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

‘I Am a Renaissance’

By Neil Ieremia

A Black Grace Company B Production

With support from Auckland Live

Herald Theatre

Aotea Centre

Until 23 July 2023

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Neil Ieremia is by far one of Aotearoa’s most astonishing and prolific home-based creatives.    His ever-growing body of work has easily and unselfconsciously graced stages in many parts of the world and he is rapidly becoming a one-man export machine.  In part this is because of his perfectionism that never forgets the past, stands firmly rooted in the present and yet finds time to seriously address the future – sometimes simultaneously.

It is to that future that he has generated Company B, presently a dozen emerging dancers with varying levels of dance experience and some production personnel.  They come from diverse walks of life, have successfully endured an exhaustive audition process and now have the opportunity to experience life as professional dancers.  Company B members combine different personal histories, different body shapes and abilities, and different musical and dance backgrounds.  These span the range from hip-hop to traditional, to church and to those with a more traditional bent.  Some may find dance opportunities and develop careers as dancers, while others may drop out completely and still others may be offered work in the areas of producing and production, learning alongside Black Grace management.

Rather amazingly, Ieremia has led them through a mere four weeks of workshopping, teaching, and rehearsal to deliver this fully professional production that is astonishing for its vitality and exhausting in its energy. 

‘I Am a Renaissance’ is structured as a series of vignettes with a strong musical underpinning that ranges from pop to hip hop, coupled with music-scapes that underscore the everyday concerns of young people today.  It leaps from recollections of things past to things that might have been and things that are very much of the present, uses the simplest of props and creates some beautiful moments.  None more so than when each dancer reveals their own mobile phone, which becomes a torch, and then a candle.  

Perhaps wisely, much of the choreography is devised for group work and three full-company Black Grace dancers are included in this production, providing reference points, sustaining the tempi and ensuring the end result works.  Above all, it abounds with energy – endless energy – and is well worth a look-see.

Auckland Live is to be applauded for supporting this initiative.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Chamber Orchestra

Beethoven and More

Raye Freedom Centre

July 16

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Last Sunday’s performance by the Auckland  Chamber Orchestra was the first this year and  a welcome return for the performers led by Peter Scholes whose organisation has presented some of the most innovative programmes on the Auckland music scene over the last two decades.

The first work on the programmes was Janet Jennings “Prelude, Fugue, Variations and Chaconne” which has been one of the most voted for works from Aotearoa in RNZ’’s  “Settling the Score”.

Featuring David Kelly (piano), Rachel Guan (bassoon) and Luca Manghi (flute)  the four sections are based on tradition  musical forms but are given a more contemporary feel with changes in tempo and rhythmic patterns.

The piano provided a flowing , evolving background with images of tinkling water, scudding clouds over which images created by the flute and bassoon were inserted  – flickering light, murmured sounds of birds and the rustle of foliage.

Flute and bassoon engaged in gentle conversations studded with bursts of energy which also suggested different times of the day or the seasons.

At times there was a playful mood at other times there was a sense of nostalgia and reminiscence with the passing time of day reflecting personal moods 

The  performance was notable for the precision and clarity of the individual performers with Rachel Guan’s haunting bassoon, Luca Manghi’s honey-toned  flute and the exactitude of pianist  David Kelly.

Second on the programme was a 1995 work “Three Thumbnails” by Eve de Castro-Robinson. In this absurdist piece of musical theatre, the four musicians (Peter Scholes, clarinet, Sean Martin-Buss, guitar, Eric Scholes bass, Shane Currey, percussion) and the voice performer  Barbara Paterson  were all attired in outlandish circus or commedia dell‘arte costumes.

They employed a wide range of instruments – clarinet, drums, cymbals, squeaky toys, guitars, piano,  klaxon, castanets, tin whistle and pepper grinder. But these instruments were not always used in a traditional manner with the strings on the double bass being hit with a drumstick.

The work used a variety of texts by the founder of modern music Eric Satie, John Cage and Igor Stravinsky. So, in the first “Thumbnail” Paterson, riding a hobby horse announces that “I am not a musician” and then goes on to list Satie’s list of approved dietary foods.

Within her rambling oration / lecture there are references to musical history, theory, and philosophy with statements which are part  stream of consciousness, part theory and part witty observation.

The overall performance owes much to the work of Satie and Cage as well as the theatrical legacy of Edith Sitwell’s  “Façade” as well as rap music,  Brecht / Weill and Marat / Sade . Paterson, who initially appears striding down the aisle of the theatre conducts herself variously in the manner of an automaton, dancer and gymnast while her playing of the piano was something of an attack . The performers also engaged in a form of semaphore, in mute signalling.

The various instruments interacted with each other in the manner of a piece of Beckett-like absurdist theatre with illogical conversations, dissonance and abrupt changes in plot and mood.

The  major work on the programme was Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major, a work composed in 1800 at the same time as his first symphony.

It  owes much to Mozart but the instrumentation shows a new energy from Beethoven and he attempts  to give the work a orchestral atmosphere which is particularly obvious in the central “Theme and Variations” section.

The work is packed with clever tunes, innovative rhythms and makes use of all seven players and their instruments  – Miranda Adams violin, Ben Harrison viola, Callum Hall cello, Eric Scholes bass , Peter Scholes clarinet, Simon Williams horn and Rachel Guan bassoon.

The mainstay of the work is the three string players – violin, viola and cello led by an impressive Miranda Adams who launched each of the movements with a superb display of urgency and vitality.

Each of the movements evolved from a simple statement by the strings from which developed complex melodies and rhythms along with variations inserted by the other instruments.

Each of instruments added a special quality to the work notably the combined velvet tones of bassoon and clarinet. Even the horn player Simon Williams  gave impressive solo account in the second dance movement.

There were a number special moments as when the strings and woodwinds  engaged in conversation, the double bass’s occasional  growl and the often frenzied excitement of the violin and viola.

Beethoven’s ability to meld the seven instruments into a beautifully devised piece of music was  inspiring, stirring and completely satisfying.

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Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

.co.nz

By Mark Wilson

A Chocolate and Carnage production

Pumphouse Amphitheatre

Takapuna

With

Mark Wilson, Āria  Harrison-Sparke, Jordan Henare and Awatea Timothy

Dir/SM Meg Andrews

Prod Coord Lauren Wilson

Des Julia Rutherford

Until 15 July

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Delightfully Thoughtful

Although billed as Absurdist Theatre, I found this delightful and remarkably thoughtful Matariki offering more an exploration of an Aotearoa grappling with its own social maturation.  Both Māori  and Pakeha.

As Mark Wilson has observed ‘there are no neatly bound beginnings, middles, and ends … our stories are only woven in complexities which are in never-ending jagged, imperfect circles’.  Yes, he addresses the Pleiades.  Yes, Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea remain a catalyst.  But.co.nz quickly moves to the individual and to different appreciations, understandings and celebrations of mātauranga and knowledge of Māori.  Or don’t.  It is expressed in both internalised terms –  iwi, hapu and whanau – within the broader community, and in the perceptions of others.

.co.nz kicks off in a somewhat disorganised on-line distribution centre that sells mobile phones.  It subsequently returns to this at various stages during the performance and provides the continuity from which everything spins almost as a stream of consciousness.  A dream perhaps, but this did not strike me as absurd at all. 

Initially an archetypal customer complains – not in person, mind you, only via email – because the centre will be closed for ‘some Māori  holiday’ and he can’t get instant service.  Customer ‘Darren’ then goes on to quickly abuse the business and everyone in it, particularly staff who can’t or won’t speak ‘proper’ English, insisting they should be replaced by ‘ordinary’ kiwis that he can understand.  Which only serves to result in peals of laughter at his own unwitting use of a te reo Māori word. 

Fairly unexpectedly, this leads almost immediately to why different people hold different views of the maori-pakeha divide, and how different communication forms have quickly led to ever-narrowing viewpoints of just about everything.  Social media take a bow.  Full marks to Mark Wilson for getting this out of the way up front and for moving fairly swiftly to what this play is really about.

His own words from the stage, wrapped in a very warm blanket on a very cold evening, have an almost a monosyllabic inanity that becomes clearer as things unpack.  At times his culture is confused, at others merely bemused.  While attending an urban secondary school, for example, his character TJ enrols for kapa haka but finds himself isolated and confused – the only other kapa haka takers being a Korean boy and four girls.  Not dissimilarly Āria Harrison-Sparke’s T-Dub recalls being rejected by both her Pakeha mother and her Māori father.  Weaving to and fro between them, and occasionally holding central focus himself, Jordan Henare (Mā) remains a commanding figure on stage, mostly in control of his own perceptions and demonstrating his strength at all times – perhaps over so at times.  While Awatea Timothy provides a closing speech almost as a summation of what has gone before, in addition to providing some gentle music that had the audience quietly hum-singing along pre-show.

The vast majority of new playwrights aim to educate and inspire.  Some become so enmeshed in this that they become didactic and even forget the third element – providing intelligent entertainment for their audience.  Mark Wilson does so or, as he would put it, by absorbing lessons from Te korekore, te whaiao and te ao māra (past, present and future) and then knowing how to sift out the weeds may even lead to the ultimate evolution of a universal Ngati Matariki.

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Trusts Community Foundation Opera in Concert

Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City) by Erich Korngold

The Auckland Philharmonia and The New Zealand Opera Chorus

Auckland Town Hall

July 8^th

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Erich Korngold’s music is not generally well known and the most people will have heard of variations of his film music in the work of John Williams. The dramatic music of Star Wars and Indiana Jones owes much to Korngold’s innovative stylistic approach.

He was probably one of the most important film composers of the mid twentieth century with work which transformed the way in which film music was composed. His successes earned him numerous awards including two Oscars, notably for the Errol Flynn film “The Adventures of Robin Hood”.

His opera Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City) when it debuted in Germany in 1920 was considered to be an important work and was performed around the globe at the time. However, his work was banned under the Nazi regime and it was some time before it began appearing in opera houses.

While it was performed in several European opera houses in the late twentieth century it only had its first UK staged performance in 2009.

The work tells of Paul, living in Bruges, who some years ago lost his wife Marie and his infatuation with her dominates his life. He keeps a room in his house as a shrine devoted to her which contains various memories of her – clothes, scarves, images of her and a long tress of her hair along with candles and fresh flowers.

He meets Marietta who reminds him of his wife but the relationship for him is not for a new start in life but for Marietta to replace his wife as a simulacrum of her. His housemaid Brigitta and best friend Frank remonstrate and plead with Paul about his preoccupation with his retaining the memory of his wife.

He tells them that he has a new girlfriend Marietta and that things will change. When she arrives at his house it is clear that it is her resemblance to his dead wife which attracts him to her.

After Act I the other two sections have a surreal quality to them and can be seen as distortions of Pauls mind. He sees Marietta  leading a group of nuns and a theatre troupe perform spontaneous cabaret event with references to sex and death.

He eventually strangles Marietta which brings him back to reality and in the final part of the work Marietta returns to say farewell along with Frank who urges Paul to leave Bruges with him.

The opera’s theme of the loss of a loved one, coming to terms with grief and moving on was a theme which was particularly relevant to a Europe which had suffered widespread loss during World War I. The work can also be seen in terms of sexual obsessions and the influence of Freud\s “Interpretation of Dreams” which are suggested in the dream sequences.

These elements underscore the preoccupations and tensions between sex and death as well the notions of pure and profane love. Paul wavers between being a rational, normal person with feeling for Marietta and a man on the edge of madness or sexual obsession and is outraged when Frank admits to an affair with Marietta.

Korngold’s music is expressionist as was much of the art of the period but he manages to combine this with the romanticism of the nineteenth century along with a melodic modernism. There are traces of Verdi and Puccini as well as Strauss and Lehar with the music provides a strong melodic line which gives great scope for all the singers.

Paul sung by Aleš Briscein was able to show a range of emotional states with singing that ranged from the serene to the nervous, through to the cruel. Several of his sequences showed a voice racked with an  anguish touching on madness.

 Manuela Uhl sang the role of Marietta as well as the lesser role of Marie. She was able to convey the complex character of Marietta changing the power and the mood of her singing to emphasise the varying aspects of her personality ranging from the tender to the coquettish and angry. She appears to be in love with Paul, intrigued by her power over him, fascinated by her attraction to him and shocked at his use of her as a surrogate.

Her singing of “Marietta’s Song” in Act I which touches on happiness and sorrow was exquisite and Korngold cleverly inserted the theme into the work on several on other occasions throughout the work.

Paul in his attempts to woo Marietta is convincing in the way he conducts himself and expresses his love but this is really all about transference and requires Marietta to be just like his wife. Whenever Marietta strays from his script or asserts herself, he becomes agitated and violent. In the penultimate scene he attacks Marietta, strangling her with his wife’s length of hair.

There were times when the singing of Uhl and Briscein was blissful and lyrical, taking them to an idyllic place and then it would evaporate to be replaced with a savage acidity.

It’s a great pity that the role of Brigitta has only  a couple of short sequences. Sung by Deborah Humble her bright clear voice and simple and straightforward manner emphasised the sense of the despair she displays in agonizing about Paul’s predicament. Richard Šveda’s Frank is the voice of reason in contrast to Paul. His serene, composed singing highlighted the differences between the two male characters.

There was no set but a smoky haze hung over the orchestra and singers intended to represent  a mist shrouded Bruges and its canals.

The orchestra under Giordano Bellincampi gave a stirring performance, providing atmospheric tones as in the misty opening of Act II as well as dynamic deliveries of Korngold’s dramatic, cinematic  style compositions .

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Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Dirty Work

By Jacob Rajan

Directed by Jacob Rajan/Justin Lewis

Musical Director : Josh Clark

Set Design : John Verryt

Lighting Design: Jo Kilgour

Costume Design: Elizabeth Whiting

With Justin Rogers, Catherine Yates, Tessa Rao and the Choir(s)

An Indian Ink Production

Q Theatre Rangitia, until 2 July

Then Nelson, Christchurch, Wellington and Tauranga until 20 August.

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Jacob Rajan describes Dirty Work as the biggest, most ambitious and most bonkers idea the company has ever had.

It stems from Albert Camus’ 1942 essay The Myth of Sysiphus and is set locally in the modern branch office – or maybe call/service centre – of a Bangalore-based company known as Sysiphus International.  There is a total cast of about 25.  Or more.  Or less.  Don’t worry, maths was never my strong suit either.

However only three are what we might call actors.  Justin Roger (Neil) crafts us a self-important middle manager who is barely starting to catch a glimpse of his own shortcomings and incompetencies.  He might or not fancy his offsider Zaara, who Tessa Rao carefully develops as a fairly bright, trendy and upwardly mobile young woman with a carefully honed eye towards … well, herself actually.  And wandering amidst them in her own self-contained world is a cleaning lady (Catherine Yates), who is struggling to meet her domestic obligations but does her best to cheerfully carry out her work chores each day and is pretty much ignored by the workforce.  I can’t recall her name.  Must be in the songlist somewhere!  However the poor woman suffers from some kind of speech or dental impediment because, no matter how hard she tries, the best she can manage is ‘Syphilus International’.

Despite Neil’s polyphonic, pious platitudes to the contrary, no one really gives two hoots about Sisyphus International.  It’s just a job.  And it provides income.  

Supporting them, and the point of difference of Dirty Work, are the 20-odd community choristers who double as work-station workers brought together under the musical direction of Josh Clark (who gets a work station all to himself – a wider one.  Something to do with a keyboard). 

They don’t give two hoots about Sysiphus International either, probably because there is a different choir for each performance, few of them know each other and the vast majority have never met the actors, seen a script nor even understand what Dirty Work is actually about.  

And it’s about seeing people for who they really are.  And empathy.  And understanding.  And it shakes a small fist at workplaces where people are merely seen as nameless work-cybers or automatons rather than as individuals with their own hopes, aspirations, sensitivities and shortcomings.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a deeper workplace metaphor in there somewhere too.  But you’ll easily get the plot.  Enough said.

The idea of the large and revolving choral cast (and presumably locally-auditioned singers when Dirty Work goes on the road later in the year) is not a new one.  It is certainly a way of reaching out, of increasing community involvement and of improving accessibility.  And it’s not such a silly idea about growing audience numbers too. I have no idea of the total involved but it must be considerable.  I pity the poor choir wrangler. 

There are about 8 songs that range from Puccini‘is Humming Chorus, to a resounding version of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, a couple of traditional tunes, the key song from Slumdog Millionaire and everything concludes with Lorde’s Royals.

There are a lot of chuckles in this show.  Although I feel with a bit more familiarity from choristers, and even some carefully written lines allowing for a wee bit more interraction, these could easily become far bigger outright laughs. And even a big, bright, brassy Bollywood version of a couple of the songs wouldn’t go astray either.

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Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

King Lear

By William Shakespeare

Director – Michael Hurst

Co-director – Benjamin Kilby-Henson

Set Design – John Verryt

Lighting Design – Vanda Karolczak

Costume Design – Elizabeth Whiting

Composer and Sound design – John Gibson

An Auckland Theatre Company production

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until July 9

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Oh what a joy to see a well produced Shakespeare on an Auckland stage.  And an aptly-chosen tragedy at that.

Pre-show, someone confessed they had never actually seen King Lear and what was all about.  Blindness, I replied rather elliptically, with a throwaway line that rather a lot of completely dead bodies were likely to wind up littering the stage. 

What I avoided was the follow-up question – why.  And what I witnessed on Opening Night provided Mr Hurst’s answer.

His King Lear has a timelessness.  At a superficial level Shakespeare’s words are of an ageing king who has accomplished quite a few things in his time.  However, he is growing older, as one does, and considering what to bequeath to which of his daughters and supporters.  But he is blind to their shortcomings, is wilfully ignorant of change that is taking place all around him and completely unaware of the rate at which that change is happening.  In a sort of non-specific modern setting this production remains true to Shakespeare but, at a deeper level, creates an interpretation that is just as valid an observation of today’s contemporary world. That is what makes any play great.

Whether in a traditional or contemporary world this Lear has a smug sense of achievement, of entitlement and of hubris even.  Through it all he remains ignorant of the plotting and the scheming behind his back.  He neither sees nor hears the groundswell of those who are missing out and the rise of greed amongst the many.  His long-held vision of himself is of a once-great king that is sadly out of touch.  This limited vision simply expects things of others and when his assumptions start to go awry, then confusion, disbelief and self-castigation drive him off his rocker.   It is a descent from which he can never recover.

And that gets us rather neatly back to those eyes.  What they can see – or not – and, more specifically, what the mind makes of what they perceive. 

However, this King Lear is also about far more than an old bloke divvying up a realm.  It is really a parable about the world we live in today.  Some might even say that it’s about the end of an age or the end of a generation or, if we’re feeling particularly miserable, even about the end of the world as we have known it.

While some boomers are still hanging on by their fingertips to what they know and hold dear, their footsteps are being dogged by successive generations who have never lived a life without Wikipedia in the palm of the hand; where rising standards of living have made for a ‘must-have’ mentality that edges ever-closer to greed; where war and serious economic hardships have simply never existed; where sexual roles and affiliations have become blurred; where inter-marriage (or more correctly inter-breeding) is slowly blurring ethnic divides; where the seven-second media grab has become a distillation of complex economic policy; and, most importantly, where shouting or ridiculing, rather than listening, have become an increasingly normal means of social interaction.  Arguably, with an election looming this process of change, acceptance and the way ahead is becoming even more acute for when truth is banished, people become blind.

It might be argued that cross-casting three roles in this production serves to reinforce the element of ‘change’ but that had very little to do with the ‘gender twisting’ in this production.  It sat very easily with me.  That Gloucester (Cameron Rhodes) should have an illegitimate daughter rather than a bastard son (Edmund – Beatriz Romilly) was of little moment.  Even when their relationship was falling apart, these two generated some delightful interaction with the strength of Gloucester being unexpectedly matched by that of his progeny.  But Gloucester too is blind to the tension between Edgar and Edmund and he too will join the ranks of those who did not see and did not perceive.

Similarly, Lear’s Fool (Hester Ullyart) adds and arguably enhances the slightly distanced voice of reason that she carries throughout the play.   Jennifer Ward-Lealand was of course simply outstanding as the Duchess of Kent.  And an amazing ability to modify her vocal range as the alter ego Caius only served to further reinforce her role as one of our country’s finest actors.

Hurst himself is incomparable in the role of Lear.

Goneril (Andi Crown) and Regan (Jessie Lawrence) Lear’s older daughters somehow echoed with me as being escapees from one of those dreadful TV series usually entitled ‘the Real Bossy Housewives of wherever’ with their spouses following meekly behind.  While looking stunning.  Yes, to complete my analogy from above – they had the aura of being spoiled, corrupt and living off their parent’s wealth. Hannah Tayeb (Cordelia) looked and sounded very meek and young in comparison.

Edgar (Joe Dekkers-Reihana) grew into his pivotal role as a considered voice of understanding, compassion and tolerance.  Perhaps his voice was the voice of the future.

As expected, the highlight of this production was undoubtedly the storm or madness scene.  It came a little quickly for me as I felt that Lear suddenly ‘flipped’ instead of showing us a more gradual disintegration into madness.  But once there Hurst’s madness was unforgettable.  Water on a stage was once unthinkable.  Here, it is flung about with great abandon, sprinkling those sitting in the front row and mixing with sweat, tears and general mayhem.  One can imagine interval being a busy time in the dressing rooms.

This is a relatively high-tech show enhanced by its white brilliance, moving to near darkness of occasions and also showed off the intricacies of John Verryt’s design.  His mirrored wall serving its several purposes and echoing those audience faces that are bleacher-seated upstage in the traverse position, while becoming a storm scene when called for.  Vanda Karolczak’s moody, sensitive lighting as atmospheric and the whole was further enhanced with Elizabeth Whiting’s timeless costuming and the creative soundscape of John Gibson.

Lear is not the easiest of Shakespeare’s plays and has not been done on this scale in New Zealand for some years.  The late David McPhail gave Christchurch’s Court Theatre a Lear about 15 years ago but even when the Pop-up Globe was still doing wall-to-wall Shakespeare it shied away from the tragedies – especially where eyes are put out and dead bodies are everywhere.  Either way congratulations to Jonathan Bielski for convincing Michael Hurst to put together what can only be regarded as one of his finest accomplishments.

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Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Paradise Rumour

A Black Grace Production

Director and Choreograher – Neil Ieremia, ONZM

Composer – Faiumu Matthew Salapu aka Anonymouz

Lighting Designer – JAX Messenger

Costume Design – Tina Thomas

Makeup Design – Kiekie Stanners

Performers – Demi-Jo Manalo, Rodney Tyrell, Fuaao Tutulu Faith Schuster, Vincent Farane, Sione Fataua, Leki Jackson-Bourke

Sky City Theatre, Auckland

June 7

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Every so often I feel extraordinarily privileged to see something that stuns me to silence and ultimately exhaustion. That’s what happened when I saw Neil Ieremia’s latest work Paradise Rumour tonight.

Here is an international voice creating something truly international.

Commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation and premiered at its recent 15th Biennial, Paradise Rumour was conceived to meet the Foundation’s 2023 theme “Thinking Historically in the Present”.  And that is precisely what Neil Ieremia has produced.

Using threads from his earlier Gathering Clouds (2009), Ieremia has addressed the plight of early Pacific migrants to Aotearoa.  He considers and references the past (traditions, dreams and aspirations) and contrasts them with the present (unattainable shiny things) and revealed where they have got to.   Which is everywhere and nowhere.

But, while starting out before even the arrival of missionaries and the impact of faith on traditional Samoan culture and values, the allusions of Paradise Rumour turn simple story-telling on its head, looking both backward and forward simultaneously, blurring individual and collective memory, and ensuring internal and external hopes merge with triumphs, prejudices, joy and values that don’t gel at all. That terrifying knock on the door at 5am was real for many and contrasts with the glittery things coveted by many that were not.

But it is a multi-layered world we live in today and while Paradise Rumour is firmly rooted in its Samoan origins, it is delivered using a language that is multi-layered for world consumption.  Not only does it have an international breadth, it represents a mature and sophisticated Pacific voice that has the capability to looking outward and inward simultaneously.  At an even more subtle level that voice is quite confident of occasionally merging tradition with modernity, complexity with simplicity, enlightenment with disappointment and humour with sadness.

Faiumu Matthew Salapu’s soundscape is both intimate at times and sweeping at others, engaging audiences with a broad range of musical genres, from Bach and Vivaldi to Samoan hip hop to the more electropop stylings of Lorde.   It completes the marriage with other design elements.

This a stunning production.

Malcolm Calder

The Haka Party Incident

Writer & Director – Katie Wolfe

Kaiako Kapa Haka/ Kaitito Haka – Nīkau Balme

Sound Design& Musical Direction – Kingsley Spargo

Taonga Pūoro – Whetu Silver

Set Design – John Verryt

Lighting Design – Jo Kilgour

Costume Design – Alison Reid

Performers – Roimata Fox, Nī Dekkers-Reihana, Lauren Gibson, Aidan O’Malley, Patrick Tafa, Kauri Williams, Finley Hughes

A Tasman Ray Production

Te Pou Theatre, Henderson

Until June 11

Then touring nationally

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

In 1979 a group of University of Auckland engineering students rehearsing their annual tradition of a mock haka were confronted by an activist group, He Tauā, who took exception to what was cultural appropriation.  Unlike the Land March, Bastion Point or the Springbok Tour, the haka party incident played little or no part in mainstream consciousness.  It lasted only a matter of minutes, directly involved very few people and received only minimal media attention.  But the ripples it generated joined countless others in contributing to the maturation of a larger social fabric that is helping Aotearoa address institutional racism.

In a way The Haka Party Incident might be termed a fairly static theatre piece wrapped around a history lesson that contributes to this far bigger New Zealand social fabric.

Katie Wolfe uses what is known as ‘verbatim theatre’, something akin to a documentary form that captures reality.  Her script took several years to complete, involved extensive recordings and features the exact words and different recollections of both the students and the activists.  Onstage it uses what she has referred to as ‘delivered verbatim technique’ – using ear-buds that enable each actor to accurately capture the ‘umms’ and the ‘aaaahs’ of everyday speech as well as the sometimes stumbling delivery of some, and the authenticity of each.

However the words are enhanced and reinforced with the deft introduction of waiata and music that weaves its way between them.   And, although there is no formal korero as such, I also sensed echoes of this underpinning some of the interchanges.

Interspersed at various dramatic points in the narrative though are some staunch kapahaka, each delivered with the passion required to reinforce their message.  One in particular is composed by Nīkau Balme, a son of the playwright.

John Verryt has devised the simplest of sets, simply a chessboard floor on a completely open stage.  Jo Kilgour’s lighting makes no attempt to introduce any realism – it simply highlights portions of that floor for dramatic effect when required and where appropriate.

The true social fabric of any civilisation serves to underpin the records of the history books.  It is shaped by many people and multiple small things that together form and reflect opinion, become a part of any country’s social soul and serve to reinforce that larger historical timeline.

The Haka Party Incident is one of those things.  It is an important thought-provoking work and makes an important contribution to that social fabric.

The Haka Party Incident opened at the Waterfront Theatre as a co-production with Auckland Theatre Company and, after a stuttering birth due to Covid, was greeted with widespread appreciation and acclaim.  This remount precedes a national tour that includes Wellington, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Gisborne and Christchurch.

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Based on true events of a Classic Hollywood mystery that has remained unsolved for almost 100 years, Butterfly Smokescreen is the latest production from award-winning immersive theatre company The Barden Party, in collaboration with Sydney-based Jetpack Theatre.

Butterfly Smokescreen

Concept by Laura Irish and Jim Fishwick

Development by Laura Irish, Caleb James, Ollie Howlett, Jim Fishwick and Kirsty McGuire

Music by Ollie Howlett

Featuring: Wiremu Tuhiwai, Ollie Howlett, Laura Irish, Caleb James, Matt Bruce, Kirsty McGuire, Julia Guthrey, Sam McIlroy and Mackenzie Gardner

Costuming by Liss Spratt, Innit Creative

Images and Content: Jonny Eagle, Innit Creative

The Barden Party/ Jetpack Theatre

Sea Breeze III, Eastern Viaduct, Auckland

Until 3 August, 2023

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

An Immersion – No, not in the water

“An intimate immersive theatrical experience on a superyacht” read the invitation.  “Sounds good” I thought.  But I failed to read the fine print.  “Come dressed for a 1924 party”, it read. I wish I had.

I was welcomed aboard with a glass of bubbles, given some very clear shipboard instructions about moving around the ship and my own health and safety and then joined about 30 or 40 others aboard Aotearoa’s largest capacity superyacht where there was a party going on.  Introductions abounded.

However a 100-year time-shift had somehow taken place and the year was now 1924.  The silent film industry was in its heyday, prohibition was making parties like this the domain of the superrich and famed Hollywood producer Thomas H Ince (“Hi, I’m Thomas, better known as the Father of the Western, and you are … ?”) had been invited aboard the prized yacht of newspaper tycoon and the most powerful man in Los Angeles, William Randolph Hearst for the weekend (”Hi, I’m WR, welcome aboard”).

WR is hosting this party because it is Ince’s 44th birthday.  The party guests include film royalty (”my name is Charles –  Chaplin that is – and this gorgeous creature is Marion Davies.  You are … ?”).  There was champagne everywhere, nibbles galore and I gradually worked out that maybe 10 of the people at this party were in fact actors.  So, and despite feeling a bit like an odd-man-odd not being in period costume, I joined in and chattered away about … well, not much really.  Mainly because everyone was so keen and eager to see what was actually going to happen.  We had no idea.

Perhaps interestingly, as we chatted amongst ourselves (maybe there were actors involved, I gave up trying to work out whether Sharron and Bob were actors or simply party-goers), faux Hollywood accents started sprouting all over the place.  Those of the actors weren’t too bad, but some of the attendees’ accents were positively egregious.  They must be contagious I thought.  Or perhaps it’s something in the champagne.  But I gave up worrying about it and just added my own voice to the egregiousness.

After about 15 minutes we were called to order and told to not utter another word, to become invisible – wraiths in fact – without getting in the way of the actors.  However we were free to go anywhere, and to look at, handle or otherwise inspect anything by way of trinkets, papers or other paraphernalia that we chanced upon.

That’s when it became apparent that maybe a quarter of the partygoers were in fact actors and the action started.

It took place over about 7 different spaces on 4 different levels (the stateroom, main cabin, galley, lounge, wheel-house, on the forward and stern decks, etc) sometimes simultaneously.  At first this all seemed very confusing because the action was spread all over the boat and I had no idea where to look next.  Not did anyone else.  But at least I stopped talking and completely forgot about my dreadful accent.

As I moved up and down gangways and listened closely, there seemed to be discussion and/or arguments going on about scandals, castings, payments, investment returns, furtive gropings and even seductions, contracts being read, ripped up and re-written, etc.  All by different characters and all in different places.  Oh yes, I distinctly recall seeing quite a lot of skin at one stage too – must have been on the bed in the main cabin – quite appropriately, I vaguely recall seeing an R18 sign on something at entry.   However a pattern to the shenanigans gradually emerged or at least I thought so.

Ultimately, in true murder-mystery fashion, there is a death. But I have faithfully promised to not reveal who, what, how or why.  That is up to the audience.  You.  Suffice to say the ‘pattern’ I thought I had perceived was utterly and completely wrong.

Based on true events of a Classic Hollywood mystery that has remained unsolved for almost 100 years, Butterfly Smokescreen is the latest production from award-winning immersive theatre company The Barden Party, in collaboration with Sydney-based Jetpack Theatre.

Sea Breeze III was formerly owned by billionaire Graeme Hart and is now the pride and joy of Charlotte Devereux who painstakingly refurbished the 1976 super yacht in an authentic and stunning art deco style with her partner Simon Greenwood.

It is the perfect venue for this boutique and limited affair and is ideally suited to party groups.  As befits the surrounds, it’s not cheap though.  So if you have a big bash  night out planned, then this one is for you.

Tickets   www.boutiquesuperyachts.com

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Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Soundings

Diving for stories in the beckoning sea

Kennedy Warne

Massey University Press

RRP $39.95

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

It seems that it is only in the last fifty years that we have taken a new approach to  the ocean and our fisheries. Only a few years ago the seas were regarded as the source of endless bounty but now  we realise that there needs to be more careful management and in many cases, preservation of our  fisheries and endangered species.

This move to understanding the blue planet has been championed by individuals such as  Sir David Attenborough but there are also many New  Zealanders such as Kennedy Warne who are bringing a new understanding to the oceans both here and internationally.

Warne is probably best known in New Zealand as the co-founder and editor of NZ Geographic magazine for which he has written for over thirty years.

Internationally he is widely known for his work for National Geographic having been commissioned to write articles about his experiences diving in locations all around the world.

In his new book “Soundings” he revisits his journeys and assignments internationally and locally linking these adventures to his own life in a family which has had strong links to the sea for many generations. With all these encounters he also connects with the social, political, economic and environmental issues around the sea and it’s populations.

He visits locations in Africa, America, Canada, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand encountering an amazing range of habitats and species.

His grandfather Leon Warne was much involved with the big game fishing boom of the 1920s having been involved with Zane Grey, the American writer and angler who published his adventures in Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado, New Zealand. With this book he did more to promote New Zealand big-game fishing than any other person.

The accounts of his assignments are informative and entertaining, sometimes they read like adventure stories while at other times more like travelogues.

He visits places that very few of us will get to experience such as The Okavango Delta. a vast inland river delta in northern Botswana which flood seasonally, becoming a lush animal habitat. Here he travels by dugout canoes to find and encounter hippos, and crocodiles. He even comes within arm’s length of a crocodile swimming underwater at night with just a torch to guide him. Here he finds the fishing spider which sits on lily pads anchored by two of its legs, using the other six to  catch small fish.

He also goes to The Magdalen Islands, a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence at the time of the seal hunt. This provides the opportunity for  a history of the harp seal industry and the impact of bans in reducing the wholesale slaughter of the whitecoat pups. He writes of the involvement of local Inuit,  fishermen and scientists and the need to balance the economic and ecological aspects of the trade. As well as the hunting impacts on the seal population he notes that in 1981 because of sea warming  the ice pack which normally carries the seals for the start of their lives completely broke up and all the young seals died.

In the Philippines he observes the tourism encounter with the whale shark where tourists hang off the sides of outriggers to take selfies of themselves and the sharks which turn up each day because they are fed by the local fishermen to create a feeding frenzy. It’s a much easier occupation than catching fish and has created a new industry for the local village. But, Warne points out this is changing  the dietary and migratory habits of the fish which could well have dire consequences in the future.

He links this to his  growing love and respect  for sharks and our changing attitudes to them which have changed over the past few years from an endemic fear of the shark to an appreciation and understanding of their place in the ecosystem and the  need to see the connections between humans and  nature.

His descriptions are vivid, entertaining and instructive. With all these assignments he provides histories of the area, descriptions of the  the local fisheries and the many threats to the ecosystems. He also speaks with experts in a variety of specialist areas who help bring an understanding to the complex underwater world.

His descriptions of his encounters can be poetic at times as when he writes about  Deep Water Cove, in the Bay of Islands

“In 2010, dismayed by the disappearance of marine life, two of the local hapū placed a traditional rāhui — a temporary fishing closure — on Deep Water Cove and the wider Maunganui Bay. Fishing was banned until stocks recovered. The rāhui has stayed in place, renewed every two years,

The rāhui has revitalised the reef. White Reef should now be called Golden Reef, because it is covered in the waving gold, mustard and brown blades of a variety of kelps and other seaweeds. Through the underwater forest swim demoiselles, scarlet pigfish, black angelfish, striped red moki, snapper, eagle rays and pigment-daubed Sandagers wrasse, patterned like a Kandinsky painting. Above the forest float dozens of comb jellyfish, translucent oval animals that show flecks of jewelled colour when they catch the sunlight. I watch four leatherjackets, a type of triggerfish, peck at one jellyfish, reducing the frail creature to strands of jelly. Yellow-tailed kingfish patrol the perimeter, occasionally darting into the kelp to hunt bait fish.”

Kennedy Warne, co-founder of New Zealand Geographic magazine and contributor to National Geographic, often writes about the sea, including the book Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea. His most recent books, however, are land-based: Tuhoe: Portrait of a Nation and View From the Road, a collaboration with photographer Arno Gasteiger. He has also produced two children’s books with Northland illustrator Heather Hunt: Cuckoo and the Warbler and It’s My Egg (and you can’t have it!). Once a fortnight Warne speaks about the outdoors, nature and adventure on RNZ’s morning programme, Nine to Noon, in a slot entitled ‘Off the Beaten Track’.