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Cirque Du Soleil – Corteo: The mystery and delight of childhood and the surrealism of adult dreams.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Cirque Du Soleil – Corteo

Spark Arena

Until November 9

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Cirque du Soleil shows are always elaborate gymnastic displays, but they are always imbedded with a story or narrative which looslye holds all the characters and the events together. There is also a circus elemnst running through the shows, an element which recalls the mystery and delight of childhood and the surrealism of adult dreams.

The story line for “Corteo” is that we are welcomed to the last minutes of the life of the famous clown Mauro and are then present as he reminiscences about his great days of his life on stage. He lies in his bed and his former colleagues visit him, bringing back memories and some of his acts which are repeated as the angles hover over his death bed.

After establishing the reason for being there the evening takes on a rather casual approach to the narrative which we are reminded of occasionally with angels making their appearance and in one scene providing  Mauro with a set of wings and then, with a nod to the film ET Mauro also rode a bicycle up high, above the stage

The cast of circus characters that parade before Mauro are reminiscent of the closing scene in Fellin’s 8½ – a mixture of standard circus folk – ringmaster, clowns and acrobat along with the characters from Commedia dell’Arte.

This show, is one of the earliest of the Cirque shows, originally made in 2005 and since then has been performed to more than 12 million people and still has all the elements which make the shows impressive – world-class acrobatics, whimsical romanticism,  some clever buffoonery and  comedy all overseen by the angels floating on high.

Corteo, Cirque Du Soleil, Credit: Johan Persson

Unlike most other Cirque show which are set in a big tent the audience was seated on either side of the stage  which featured amazing displays of ability and agility where technical expertise and extravagant design were woven together with fabulous costumes, amazing lighting, humour, and enchanting live music. The musicians tucked away at the sides of the stage displayed not only great musicianship but were remarkable performers themselves as they negotiate their various instruments – violin, drums, keyboard, bass, percussion and guitar.

Some of the performances were more spectacular than others with some not given the attention they deserved such as the Crystal Balls sequence where the subtly of the performance was probably lost on most. But there were more dramatic routines such as the young woman suspended from five balloons who floated around Spark Arena being helped by dozens of audience hands as drifted and bounced giving all her helpers a “thank, I love you”.

All the routines had something to offer whether the languid female performers swaying from the chandeliers, the beds transforming into trampolines where the performers didn’t try  for height but rather split-second timing  and there was the traditional balancing act which showed real agility as well as looking as though the body was being turned in on itself.

There was even a slightly confusing small theatrical work telling the Romeo and Juliet story which seemed to be closer to a Punch and Judy show full of the knock about comedy.

Then there was the clever duet between the Ringmaster and musicians with the Ringmaster whistling a Mozart melody before going into a ferocious duel with the violinist, backed by the orchestra.

This is a show packed with drama, comedy, colour and surprise to delight the whole family.

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Trent Dalton’s “Love Stories”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Trent Dalton, Love Stories

Based on the book by Trent Dalton
Additional Writing and Story: Trent Dalton and Fiona Franzmann
Adaptor: Tim McGarry
Choreographer & Movement Director Nerida Matthaei
Associate Director Ngoc Phan
Set & Costume Design Renee Mulder
Lighting Design Ben Hughes
Video Design and Cinematographer Craig Wilkinson
Composition & Sound Design Stephen Francis

Civic Theatre

October 17

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Before heading off to see Trent Daltons “Love Stories” a quick survey of what love is was in order. First stop would be Shakespeare, and he almost nails it with

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind” from a Midsummers Night Dream

The audience filled the Civic Theatre and on stage all we see is a panorama of the audience looking back at ourselves. All of those people who know about their own encounters with love. They are the mass of humanity who are hoping to find out the truth / answer to the eternal question. – What is love?. And each one of them knows what it is. Each one can tell their own story

And then scrolling across the screen are the answers we could give, all provided by previous audience members

LOVE IS

Lasting the distance. Even when you think you can’t do it.

The perfect coffee with crema on Sunday morning

Saying sorry and meaning it

Being confident in the silent moment

Magical; poetic, sometimes messy

And dozens more some profound, some very personal, some cliched

Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 gathering stories on his 1960’s blue Olivetti typewriter, on a prominent street corner in Brisbane’s CBD. He had sign which read “Sentimental writer collecting love stories. Do you have one to share” Speaking with Australians from all walks of life, he received hundreds of them.

The show opened with Jean- Benoit and his drumming as he introduced the show and it closes with his taking us backstage through to a simple doorway which led us back out of the theatrical world of make believe into the real world.

The dozen actors who swarmed the stage enacting the stories, some lasting a few minutes, other only a few brief moments created a topography of love with its range of, stories, anecdotes and remembrances.

Some of the stories are profound, some of them flippant, some of them might have been written by the writers at Hallmark Cards. Other could have been written by your partner, boyfriend, girlfriend.

Director Sam Shepheard wove the various stories together, the actors changing guises as they connected and parted. Sometimes cameras made their faces balloon up large on the screen as they addressed the audience. Many of the stories are moving, rich in compassion, witty, and full of allegories.

The entire cast created impressive range of characters and encounters and there were some clever sequences – a bit of a Juliet speech, a quote from Emily Dickinson, a scientist explaining about technical aspects of dopamine

Holding much of the performance together was Jason Klarwein (the Writer / Husband) and Anna McGahan (The Wife) where the actual world of the couple seems at odds with his accounts of the people from the street with their passionate, flawed and intermingled lives.

And there are several life stories all woven together such as a film segment delivered by Joshua Creamer, a barrister and human rights activist who not only tells his personal story but also the story of land rights, family, and his identity as an Aboriginal man.

There is also the Asian woman Sakuri Tomi whose story is trapped inside a nightmare is told in several vignettes.

The video montages combined with live video feed help create a dynamic flow and the choreography of Nerida Matthaei adds to this dynamism which works brilliantly in sequences like the State of Origin game.

While it’s not in the play they could have used Marilyn Munroe phlegmatic quote about love –  “If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.

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End of Summer Time: Unexpected Ode to Auckland

Andrew Grainger as Dickie Hart Image Andi Crown

END OF SUMMER TIME 

By Roger Hall

Auckland Theatre Company

Director – Alison Quigan

Set/Costume – John Parker

Lighting – Phillip Dexter

Sound – Sean Lynch

With Andrew Grainger as Dickie Hart

ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland

Until 5 July

Reviewer Malcolm Calder

Andrew Grainger as Dickie Hart     Photo Andi Crown

Gidday Dickie,

Great to see you last night.  I think we last met when you’d just moved up to Wellington and I was still milking in the ‘naki after our African adventure.  Then you moved again.  Up north.  

After Glenda pretty neatly convinced you both to take that Takapuna joint with a sea view, you never stopped grumbling and grouching about the place.  For years.  Y’know – its humidity, traffic, its prices, its pretentious people and so on.  Not to mention its upsy-downsy football team of course.  As for natural disasters, lockdowns, etc … I won’t go on.

But, bluddy hell mate, since then it’s almost like you’ve had what that Ayckbourne mate of yours would call a car-thar-sis.  Family disruptions aside, it seems that you’ve stopped moaning and fallen in love with the place.  Auckland!  Never thought I’d see the day. 

Blow me down, you seem to have become an advocate for just about everything and everyone.  From Auckland’s buses to its ferries, from its oddball characters to its libraries.  To lots of its bits too – from Riverhead to Moolfud even if the grandkids are your excuse to explore lots of Maccas and KFCs. 

Quite honestly, mate, it seems like you’ve discovered some sort of extra-special non-energetic energy in your post-Covid life.   Part of me thinks you have somehow grown an extra leg.  Or at least grown up.  And good on ‘yer. 

Never even dreamed I’d see such a contented, reflective and accepting Dickie.  I can see you now sitting on that playwright feller’s beach gazing contentedly at Rangitoto.

Nice looking apartment too and that ever-helpful sheila deserved the flowers as well.

Probably a few lessons in there for me.  Perhaps, after 50 years – yes FIFTY years – it’s time for me to stop getting irate about suss hotel food, Mendela, Pienaar and 747s.

Yes it was pretty definitely good to see you again.  Might even visit sometime.

Cheers mate

Jock

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Roger Hall’s “End of Summer Time”: sparkling dialogue and consummate acting

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Andrew Grainger as Dickie Hart Image Andi Crown

End of Summer Time by Sir Roger Hall

Auckland Theatre Company

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until July 5

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

What are we going to do without Roger Hall? Is this really the end of a theatrical era? Will regional theatre companies  collapse?

These are some of the questions which theatre lovers, theatre companies and Creative New Zealand will be addressing over the next few years.

With the retirement  of Roger Hall from playwriting New Zealand theatre scene will be dealt something of a body blow.

But those questions and their answers are for next week, next year. In the meantime, we have another Roger Hall play, probably his last  production with “End of Summer Time.”

With his latest play Hall gives a nod to one of the important milestones in New Zealand theatre history, Bruce Mason “End of the Golden Weather”. Even the publicity material features images of Rangitoto and Takapuna Beach which was the site of Masons play.

The play charts the problems of older people thrust into a new social  environment as well as discovering the joys and drawbacks of living in a new town.

We have met Dickie Hart before in two of Halls plays “C’mon Black” and “You Gotta be Joking”. Hart has moved to the big smoke from Wellington, moving into an apartment on the North Shore.

Dickie (Andrew Grainger) is confronted by a lot of problems in his transition to Auckland and apartment living and Hall has exploited all these situations. Dickie has to manage his wife Glenda’s new interests in the library and yoga  and he has to deal with issues around the body corporate and the South African block manager.

He also has to manage more personal issues such as getting a health check from the doctor for his driving license, particularly the cognitive test as well as trying to fill in the census form and its questions on gender. identity

There is a scary account of the Dickie’s-first time visit to inner Auckland, navigating the motorway system, the bridge and the netherworld of the Aotea Centre carpark.

Dickie has moved to Auckland partly to spend time with his grandkids – a task that is which is not all that simple but he manages educational outings to Auckland volcanic cones brilliantly by combining these trips with visits to Auckland’s great dining establishments – MacDonalds, KFC and Subway.

The play is essentially in two halves– pre and post Covid , the second half being a bit more reflective.

Hall has developed a clever approach to his characters and their comments on life politics and relationship, a style  somewhere between the misogynistic and woke, it’s a tenuous area but Hall negotiates it skilfully and Andrew Grainger pulls it off with a breezy, nonchalant style.

Hall is able to assemble his string of one-liners into a coherent, monologue which acts as political and social commentary of issues of the present day as well as providing a compelling portrait of a typical New Zealand character.

The play is a brilliant and sustained piece of comedy throughout, But at one point play turns  into tragedy with a few lines and some convincing acting which demonstrates Halls consummate writing, Quigan’s directorial skill and Grainger’s intelligent acting.

Much of Dickie’s identity is linked to rugby and throughout the play there are mentions of the Rugby world Cup as well as images of Rugby games on the TV which dominated the apartment. The local library also gets a favourable mention as Dickie manages to find a copy of Brian Turners book on  Colin Meads

Grainger  takes on Roger Halls monologue with an energetic enthusiasm, the conservative cow cocky only just managing to adjust to a new life as he prowls  the pared back apartment-cum-prison set designed by John Parker.

As with all Hall’s work this is an engaging play with sparkling dialogue and consummate acting.

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Ruth Cleland’s exploration of the enigmatic quality of concrete

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Ruth Cleland Concrete 3

Ruth Cleland, Concrete

Sumer Fine Art

Until July 22

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In her latest exhibition ”Concrete” Ruth Cleland continues her interest in the accurate depiction of her environment along with the use of the grid.

Gridding is a technique that has been used by many artists throughout history using horizontal and vertical lines over drawings or photographs for enlargement and transfer purposes.

Cleland uses a grid to transfer images of concrete floors onto board using either graphite pencil or acrylic. These images such as “Concrete Floor 3” ($12,8000) show the polished concrete surface with imbedded scoria along with signs of previous uses and marks.

The works are akin to the work of the Boyle Family who randomly chose sites or parts of the body which they then recreated, the completed work offering new interpretations of the environment or body.

These images of concrete floors could be of the floor of the gallery with its various  sections of ground and polished concrete laid over the years. They are in fact of a supermarket floor that the artist has previously used as subject matter. One image, “Concrete Path” ($12,800) has a more personal connection being the concrete path outside the artist’s home.

These images of concrete are meticulous in their accuracy but the artist shows her skill in the depiction of both ambient light sources as well as overhead lights.

Ruth Cleland, Concrete Floor 1
Ruth Cleland Gris (Concrete Floor 1)

In some cases there is a companion piece to the photorealistic image as with “Concrete Floor 1” and “Grid / Concrete Floor 1” ($12,800 pair). The lines drawn on the grid have been used here to indicate the striations seen in the drawing as well as light intensity. This recording adds to the enigmatic nature of the work suggesting there is an underlying plan or logic inherent in the image itself which the artist has revealed.

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N. Z. Opera’s La Boheme

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

La Boheme, The student garret / studio (Act I & IV) Image. Andi Crown

La Boheme

Composer Giacomo Puccini

Librettists Luigi Illica, Guiseppe Giacosa

N Z Opera

Kiri te Kanawa Theatre

Until June 6

Then

Wellington 18 – 22 June

Christchurch 2 – 6 July

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

There are no gods or fairies in La Boheme. There are no heroic figures in La Boheme. There are no evil or deeply flawed characters in La Boheme and there are no complicated plots or byzantine machinations in La Boheme.

All the characters we encounter are young and ordinary, all making their first steps into adulthood, living in a bohemian environment, full of possibilities.

This ordinariness is in contrast to many other great operas where characters face great moral dilemmas, battle tyrants or life’s injustices. This is one of the few great operas where we see characters on stage who we can recognize as very much like ourselves – or twenty year old versions of ourselves.

Four of the very ordinary characters live in a very ordinary student flat and the opera opens with Rodolfo, a writer and his artist friend Marcello struggling to create masterpieces while they battle the freezing temperature by burning one of Rodolfo’s plays to keep warm. Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard enter with food and drink but instead of paying the rent they decide to celebrate Christmas at the Café Momus, where they encounter  Marcello’s girlfriend, Musetta who is with her sugar daddy Alcindora.

At the same time Rodolfo meets the frail seamstress Mimi, and they fall in love. But their tender romance is doomed, for Mimi is ill with consumption, and Rodolfo is too poor to help her. Through the opera they also have to confront the other aspects of life and love -jealousy, guilt and despair which comes with that love. As a contrast is Musetta whose love has a wider focus given to Marcello, Alcindora as well as others.

Ji-Min Park (Rodolfo) and Elena Perroni (Mimi) Image. Andi Crown

The slowly dying Mimi (Elena Perroni) who all but whispers in many of her arias gives memorable performances. While she presents a gentle voice often almost whispering while at other times she was able to sustain an expressive intensity as with her “Donde Lieta Usci”aria

Rodolfo and Mimi have a purity of soul which seems to bond them despite their Act 3 questioning of their relationship and this is reflected in their voices. Ji-Min Park (Rodolfo) is able to express an urgency with his rich voice while both Elena Perroni’s voice and demeanor coveys a sensitivity and frailty.

Rodolfo’s three friends  also contribute  some lively singing with their first act witty dialogue and humorous interchange with the landlord Benoit. Marcello  provides some brilliant duos with Mimi and Musetta, notably the third and fourth acts while the philosopher Colline ( Hadleigh Adams) provides an additional concept of love with his aria dwelling on his much-loved coat.

The musician Schaunard (Benson Wilson) contributes slightly to the singing in the opera but his main purpose seems is to always have some money and always has food or wine available as the hedonist of the group and a contrast to Rodolfo.

Emma Pearson (Musetta) Image. Andi Crown

The setting has been changed for Mid nineteenth century to Paris in in 1947 and the bohemian nature of the artist’s lives in seen ibn some huge paintings like those of Pierre Soulages in the studio / garret. The post war date also means the costume designer (Gabrielle  Dalton) have been able to give the Musetta and Mimi some contemporary fashion with Musetta being attired in some stylish Dior inspired outfits.

The simplicity and honesty of La Boheme  has meant it is always accessible with a story which is clear, immediate and romantic and universal. Director Bruno Ravella and Conductor Brad Cohen have ensured that the story and  the characters are brought to life with sensitivity, authenticity and joie de vivre.

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Auckland Philharmonia’s Enigma

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Enigma

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

March 27

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens

Grieg, Norwegian Dances
James MacMillan, Concerto for Orchestra ‘Ghosts’ (NZ premiere)
Elgar, Enigma Variations

On the programme for the Auckland Philharmonia’ s “Enigma” concert was a newly commissioned  work by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. His “Concerto for Orchestra” was subtitled “Ghosts” and had an enigmatic quality to it.

As the composer says of the work, “The music seems to be haunted by other, earlier musical spirits and memories,” These musical memories which creep into the composition can be seen in the reference to Beethoven’s “Ghost”  trio along with other musical references – Debussy, Scottish traditional music and an eastern musical hymn.

These musical references emerge from the composition like ghostly figures, sometimes gradually appearing, sometimes unexpectedly while some of the themes overlap.  The music is full of juxtapositions and surprises as various instruments and combinations of instruments introduce new themes and spiritedly amplify them.

The lively spirits of the opening were created by dramatic percussion and piercing brass which led to a great chattering of sounds with some eerie conversations between the strings and brass.

Throughout the work there is a sense of the instruments floating around, trying to discover and capture themes which have been lost. This floating, colliding and capturing of elusive themes creates a tension within the piece. The dramatic flourishes of percussion, the sinuous sounds of the strings as well as some jazzy sequences all add to the works restlessness and urgency.

The sounds all helped create a dreamscape of remembered, and reimagined sounds and like some ghostly figures were continually slipping and finally the wispy sounds disappear.

The piece recalls the Shakespeare line from the Tempest

The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

Many of the same musical ideas appear in Elgars “Enigma Variations” where various musical instruments are used to convey impression of people that were close to the composer. The one theme that is probably never heard is the one that represents the composer himself. The variations feature the composer’s own ideas about his friends and close contacts conveying their physical, psychological and spiritual personalities.

The variations with their delightful impressions include variation I said to be of his wife, has a wistful quality and  an anthem overflowing with joy but also with s hint of sadness, Variation IX Nimrod with its heavenly sounds and the violas solo in Variation VI – Ysobel

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens was able to ensure that each of the portraits was interpreted with the appropriate mood, pace and colour and he seemed to relish both the music and the narratives of the work and his sharp, sensitive gestures had him performing like some grand puppet master manipulating the  dozen characters of Elgar’s world.

The opening work on the programme was Grieg’s “Norwegian Dances” and Steffens was able to lead the orchestra through the spirited dances with its changing portraits of the people, the history  and landscape effortlessly, taking the orchestra from lethargic to happy and ebullient.

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Animal: The great little show in the farmyard

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Animal

Cirque Alfonse

Q Theatre

March 19 – 23

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

It was not much of an act, chucking an egg in the air, have it land on your back and keep it there while you jiggle around. Anyone could do it , except one of the performers in the Quebec based group “Animal” had to have three goes at it. One of the eggs splatting on his back and head and two more landing on the stage. He got more applause for the broken eggs than did his two fellow perfomers for their safely caught eggs.

It’s always great to see performers achieving pulling off acts , but it’s more amusing when they fail – fail, recover and get on with the show. It often reveals the skill and dexterity of the performer and shows up our own lack of skill. In another of their acts one of the females spins a bucket full of seeds which is supposed to keep the seeds inside  . She misjudges and we get a stage strewn with seeds and she doesn’t miss a beat – it almost seems as if she meant that to happen. I think the little children may have learned one of their basic science lessons about centripetal force.

Theres a lot of basic science in” Animal” along with basic acrobatics as the group perform basic balancing, juggling and springboard work. They take the audience on a slightly surreal  journey through their weird farm of outlandish animal  and wacky activities – tossing pitch forks, balancing on milk churns, riding bucking cows.

As well as being skilled acrobats and contortionists the group are also skilled musicians playing guitar, trumpets, a range of percussion instruments, flute and keyboard – and they can sing too, belting out their own French compositions which are probably very witty if you are up on your French.

The Canadian Cirque Du Soliel group has shown us  how to put on a high-powered performance with cool moves and dazzling costumes but “Animal” is more down to earth, using all the contraptions from the farm, – wheelbarrows. milk churns and  hay forks, along with a jumble of clothes and hats which they must have found around the barn. Their routines are all clever and entertaining, bringing together circus, song, dance and theatre with some  quirky live music.

It may be designed for children but it has a universal appeal  with their displays of strength  agility and balance in their boutique version of the grander Cirque displays.

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Gene Kelly; A Life in Music

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Gene Kelly; A Life in Music

With the Auckland Philharmonia conducted by Neil Thomson

Auckland Town Hall

March 15

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

It was billed as Gene Kelly; A life in Music but it could equally have been called Patricia Ward Kelly; A life in Music as the show which was written by his wife was brilliantly presented as she narrated the life of the dancer with the music played by the Auckland Philharmonia along with crisp remastered clips  from his films.

The two met in the mid 1980s, when he was 73 and Patricia was a 31-year- expert on the works of Herman Melville who had never seen any of the actor/dancer’s films. He asked  her if she would work with him on his autobiography which she did, for five years.

They married when he was 77 years, and each day she documented and recoded his life, This close association with him made her the most knowledgeable person about the dancer’s career.

Her knowledge, of Gene, the music and films all merge into a superb account of Kelly’s life as well as a snapshot of American dance movies of the mid twentieth century.

Most of his iconic films were shown including scenes from Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, Brigadoon, Summer Stock, Les Girls and It’s Always Fair Weather.

We saw him perform with Ginger Rogers, Leslie Caron, and Cyd Charisse as well as with an animated Jerry the Mouse getting a dance lesson from Gene Kelly in “Anchors Aweigh”.

We also get to hear the music of the great composers of the time as well -Andre Previn Lerner & Loewe, Cole Porter and the Gershwins.

We also get to appreciate the clever way in which realism and abstraction was used in  the sets. This combination created some surreal dance sequences with vivid use of colour which highlights the spectacle of the dance routines and shows how Kelly helped change the nature of dance on film with a new mode of choreography and filming.

For the introduction to the second half which featured clips from Brigadoon she had a piper stride up the aisle and then in a surprise appearance she introduced Michael Crawford of Phantom of The Opera fame, who now lives in New Zealand and who acknowledged Kelly as a major influence in getting the role.

Patricia Kelly’s  presentation brought  clever showmanship and intimacy to the evening accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia conducted Neil Thomson.

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A Mixtape for Maladies:   Music and  Memories of a War

Ravikanth Gurunathan (Vishwanathan), Tiahli Martyn (Subbalaxmi), Ahilan Karunaharan (Rajan), Gemma-Jayde Naidoo (Sangeetha – past) Image – Andi Crown

A Mixtape for Maladies 

By Ahilan Karunaharan 

Director, Jane Yonge  

Auckland Theatre Company  

Until March 23

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Sri Lankan Civil War of the latter part of the 20th century provides the backdrop for Ahklan Karunaharan’s “A Mixtape for Maladies” which explores the lives of a Tamil family, who are caught up in the conflict, some of whom are killed or immigrate to New Zealand.

The play explores the reality of living in a different time and culture in a period of tension and transition and we identify and sympathize with the family’s trials of living through a war.

I was jolted back to another reality at the end of the show however. My Uber driver looked South Asian, so I mentioned about the show and how it combined politics and family. He was from Sri Lanka and acknowledged the tragedy of the war and its impact on the country. But his experience was very different from the family I had just witnessed on stage as he had been an air force pilot during the war contributing to the death and destruction, providing an alternative history of the period  

One of the few things that Sangeetha (Ambicka G.K.R.) one of the daughters has brought to New Zealand was a tape recording of songs she loved growing up. Her New Zealand born son, Deepan (Shaan Kesha) finds the tape and plays the songs during his online podcast which trigger personal and political memories for her. 

Through the course of the play Deepan plays these songs and Sangeetha remembers elements of the family’s life – hearing about the war, her and her sister hanging around the store where Anton (Bala Murali) works because he plays all the latest local and international songs as well as songs from the movies. 

Shaan Kesha (Deepan), Ambika (Sangeetha – present) Image Andi Crown

While some of the songs are played on the tape recorder others are sung by various members of the cast, accompanied by a duo (Ben Fernandez and Seyorn Arunagirinathan) playing a variety of instruments – keyboard, Carnatic violin and flute. Ahilan Karunaharan (Rajan), and Bala Murali give particularly fine vocal performances while Tiahli Martyn’s (Subbalaxmi) display of Tamil dance was skillful. These vocal and dance  performances had many of the Tamil audience singing and swaying along to the music.

Among the tunes were Doris Day singing” Que Sera Sera”. “La Bamba” and some Tamil songs. These songs act as a cultural glue which holds the family together but also reminds us that these songs had universal appeal listened to by Sri Lankans as well as New Zealanders at the time.

The play is a mixture of social history, family exploration, cabaret and personal journey with music playing a central role in the play as well as the instruments the family would have listened to the songs on – an old turntable, a hi-fi player and the tape recorder.

The simple set features Dareen and Sangeetha in his podcast studio on one side and musicians on the other, flanking the family home and Anton’s general store.

The exploration by Dareen is initially an innocent enquiry into his mother’s music choices but becomes a journey into Sri Lanka’s history as well as triggering memories of his mothers and her family’s past and the impact of the war on their lives.

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