Te Tangi a Te Tūī is a ground-breaking collaboration between Te Rēhia Theatre, The Mud Palace and The Cultch, which weaves collectively components of Māori pūrakau, circus theatre, spectacular visuals, and beautiful choreography to inform the story of the Tūī’s track which turns into an allegory for the wonder and persistence of te reo Māori. The Tūī’s birdsong is advanced and distinctive and has been described as a “colourful mixture of musical notes and offbeat sounds” (Birdsong web site). Equally, this manufacturing brings collectively a disparate vary of vibrant theatrical components which, regardless of some offbeat components, creates a melodious expertise that’s pleasing to the eyes and ears of audiences, and which is able to proceed to reverberate by Auckland theatre for years to return.
Written by Tainui Tukiwaho and Amber Curreen, the script tells two interconnected tales which centre round a mom Aotahi (Amber Curreen) who provides start to her son Piri (Paku Fernandez) whom she tries to cover from the Patupaiarehe or fairy individuals and a legendary birdman known as Kōiriiri who all inhabit a close-by forests. A frontrunner of the Patupaiarehe, Te Pua o Te Reinga (Eve Gordon), desires Piri as a solution to carry again the spirit of Hāpeta (Tainui Tukiwaho) – a person she beloved and misplaced to battle. The birdman Kōiriiri (Joe Dekkers-Reihana) desires the boy as utu or revenge towards Aotahi’s ancestor who trapped him and gifted him to a priest.
The primary story follows the warrior Hāpeta who meets and falls in love with a pacesetter of the Patupaiarehe Te Pua o Te Reinga. Their love is finally threatened by the arrival of Pākeha colonists and the arrival of battle. Every time Hāpeta leaves the forest to struggle in battles he returns an increasing number of modified. The enchantment he felt for his love Te Pua o Te Reinga and the forest withers, finally changing into symbolised by a wound in his facet that gained’t heal. Ultimately his grandson Te Rongopai listens to the forest and the Patupaiarehe and pulls on the scab of the wound, releasing his grandfather’s ache and a flood of tears that transforms Hāpeta right into a lake. Within the manufacturing this transformation was enacted in a beautiful sequence the place a refrain of Patupaiarehe unfurl blue material throughout the stage as Hāpeta (Tainui Tukiwaho) recedes after which disappears underneath a raised rostra on the stage.
The second story centres on the determine of the birdman known as Kōiriiri who’s trapped, tortured and finally gifted to a Pākehā priest (Geoff Gilson). A key characteristic of this manufacturing, which makes use of the metaphor of Tūī birdsong to inform the story of the fantastic thing about te reo Māori, is that the whole thing of the manufacturing was delivered in te reo Māori barring one odd scene. Throughout this scene, a bath is rolled out onstage and two attendants repeat biblical phrases in English whereas the priest carries out his ablutions earlier than the birdman exacts his revenge and secures his freedom. My sense is that the second story was a bit weak and far of the prolonged trapping and torturing sequences of Kōiriiri could possibly be reduce. In a manufacturing showcasing te reo Māori, the bath scene and the spoken English dialogue was a bit jarring, sitting as only one ‘offbeat’ aspect in an in any other case melodious dramaturgical construction.
In accordance with the programme the thought of the present got here to co-creators Eve Gordon of Mud Palace and Tainui Tukiwaho of Te Rēhia Theatre, once they had been teenagers over 20 years in the past, once they heard of how the Tūī’s track is continually morphing in response to colonial in addition to industrial adjustments within the nation. As with all nice collaborations, the manufacturing comprises uniquely artistic components that work due to the time and a spotlight that has been expended. The sound design by David Atai and James Zambucka is excellent and is woven seamlessly with the bodily choreography and circus. Geoff Gilson’s circus path is excellent and the performers from the Mud Palace all give excellent performances of agility, energy and beauty. One other excellent characteristic of the manufacturing are the lighting, set, and circus equipment design by Jane Hakaraia whose artistic and alchemical contact appears to rework any base theatre elements into memorable and magical visuals.
It’s fascinating that this uniquely New Zealand manufacturing, telling a uniquely Indigenous Māori story from Aotearoa, had its world premiere at The Cultch theatre in Vancouver in October 2023. The manufacturing was initially commissioned by The Cultch and indigenous firm City Ink, which is a manufacturing firm positioned on unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples that tells tales of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities and their connection to tradition, language, and land. We must be grateful that cultural leaders in Canada had the imaginative and prescient and foresight to help this manufacturing and it’s good that our personal cultural businesses resembling Artistic NZ, the Ministry of Tradition and Heritage, and the Auckland Arts Pageant have come onboard to help this present run.
Te Tangi a Te Tūī performs at Te Pou Theatre till 10 March, 2024 as a part of the Auckland Arts Pageant.
