Te Tangi a Te Tūī is a ground-breaking collaboration between Te Rēhia Theatre, The Mud Palace and The Cultch, which weaves collectively parts of Māori pūrakau, circus theatre, spectacular visuals, and gorgeous choreography to inform the story of the Tūī’s track which turns into an allegory for the sweetness 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 parts which, regardless of some offbeat parts, creates a melodious expertise that’s pleasing to the eyes and ears of audiences, and which is able to proceed to reverberate by way of 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 beginning to her son Piri (Paku Fernandez) whom she tries to cover from the Patupaiarehe or fairy folks and a legendary birdman known as Kōiriiri who all inhabit a close-by forests. A pacesetter of the Patupaiarehe, Te Pua o Te Reinga (Eve Gordon), needs Piri as a method to carry again the spirit of Hāpeta (Tainui Tukiwaho) – a person she cherished and misplaced to battle. The birdman Kōiriiri (Joe Dekkers-Reihana) needs 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 frontrunner of the Patupaiarehe Te Pua o Te Reinga. Their love is ultimately threatened by the arrival of Pākeha colonists and the arrival of battle. Every time Hāpeta leaves the forest to combat in battles he returns increasingly more modified. The enchantment he felt for his love Te Pua o Te Reinga and the forest withers, ultimately turning into symbolised by a wound in his facet that received’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 fabric 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 ultimately gifted to a Pākehā priest (Geoff Gilson). A key function 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’ ingredient 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 have been teenagers over 20 years in the past, once they heard of how the Tūī’s track is consistently morphing in response to colonial in addition to industrial adjustments within the nation. As with all nice collaborations, the manufacturing incorporates uniquely inventive parts that work due to the time and a focus 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 route is excellent and the performers from the Mud Palace all give excellent performances of agility, power and charm. One other excellent function of the manufacturing are the lighting, set, and circus equipment design by Jane Hakaraia whose inventive and alchemical contact appears to remodel any base theatre parts into memorable and magical visuals.
It’s attention-grabbing 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 situated 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 companies akin to Inventive NZ, the Ministry of Tradition and Heritage, and the Auckland Arts Competition 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 Competition.
