Review: Te Rakau's 'The Undertow'

Thursday, 19 January 2017, 2:08 pm
Opinion: Howard Davis

The Ragged
Photos by Aneta Pond

Written by Helen Pearse-Otene and produced by Jim Moriarty's Te Rakau Theatre, 'The Undertow' presents four dramatic episodes depicting the lives and loves of ordinary people from Wellington as they endure a series of historical hardships. Pivotal moments in New Zealand's growth are brought to life through the eyes of seven generations, from the arrival of the first settlers, through the gentrification of Port Nicholson and the colonial impact of WWI, to the problems of present day urban development. Combining these four historical periods to illustrate contemporary problems surrounding the concepts of land, home, community, and property, the quartet can best be summarized in the overarching phrase that concludes the first play - Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitu te whenua - 'man disappears, but the land remains'.

Six years in the making, the initial ideas and scripts were first developed and presented individually before being combined into the format of a genealogical history. The four plays are now being performed in repertory at Te Papa's Soundings Theatre by a cast of 35 local performers and creative paepae from across the Greater Wellington region - including secondary and tertiary students, recent graduates of performing arts training institutions, community performers, as well as professional actors, designers, and production crew - who exude the rambunctious energy and infectious enthusiasm of the best ensemble workshops. The ambitious scope and current relevance of 'The Undertow' deserves not only to be widely seen, but also highly applauded.

Dog & Bone

Te Rakau was established by Moriarty and Jerry Banse in 1989 and is Aotearoa’s longest-surviving Maori theatre company. Moriarty himself began acting professionally in 1967 and came to national attention for his role as schoolteacher Riki Winiata in the 1970s soap opera 'Close to Home'. He is also known for his performance as a Vietnam War veteran in John Broughton's solo work 'Michael James Manaia,' which toured New Zealand and played at the Edinburgh Festival in 1991. Drawing on such disparate influences as Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre, Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, and John McGrath's 7:84 Theatre Company, Moriarty has not simply created a political and didactic theatre of polemical protest that takes an explicit stance on specific issues and tries to explain them. He has also furnished a genuine community theatre intended for practical use by the general public, providing a platform to otherwise silent, inarticulate, and disadvantaged citizens.

Te Rakau is a registered Charitable Trust and Level 3 Ministry of Youth Development service provider. As such, it works in schools, prisons, marae, rural communities, and youth justice residencies across Aotearoa. The Trust’s kaupapa (core philosophy) is to advocate for Tino Rangatiratanga (sovereignty), Mana Taurite (equity), and Whanaungatanga (belonging) for all New Zealanders through its Theatre Marae Programme - a fusion of therapeutic models, nga mahi a Rehia, and political theatre, delivered in Kaupapa Maori environment. Te Rakau communicates and collaborates with communities to create and present socially significant theatre works that resonate culturally and artistically with audience members and participants alike. Like the best of Brecht’s dramas, Te Rakau productions question the notion of individual responsibility by portraying human activity as a complex interplay between the personal and the socio-political. Dysfunctional behaviour is analysed within the context of race, class, and gender issues. As theater critic Alan Scott puts it - "The question for the audience is what is happening within civil society that allows people to learn to kill, rape, prostitute themselves, steal, lie and cheat?"

The central problem often encountered in attempting to dramatize such earnest and undeniably worthy issues is a lack of warmth and empathy. There is a grim, sardonic humour evident in 'The Threepenny Opera' and 'Mahagonny' (thanks largely to the influence of Kurt Weill), but not a lot of belly laughs by the time we get to 'The Good Person of Szechuan' and 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui' - which is one reason Brecht never managed to "make it" in Hollywood, much as he tried. Fortunately, Moriarty avoids the dangers of dry didacticism by infusing an indelible indigenous ingredient that leavens the agitprop flatbread with a yeasty dose of native flora. While clearly drawing on Brechtian techniques of alienation and ensemble acting, Te Rakau Hua also incorporates the unique Maori dimension of whanau. In rehearsal, Moriarty deploys karanga, waiata, and haka to focus the actors. His productions announce a break with conventional theatre by granting audiences 'speaker’s rights' at the end of each performance to produce a truly bi-cultural experience. It is this blending of radical elements of western theatre with tikanga that makes Te Rakau’s work so impressive, producing a consciously Maori form of theatre - not just a white theatre in which racial issues happen to be played out.

Public Works

'The Undertow' is the latest long-term project of the company, furthering its goal of comprehensively illuminating and explicating the collective history of New Zealanders. By combining a decidedly non-naturalistic, declamatory style with music, song, mime, dance, ritualized movement, and minimalist art direction, Moriarty creates a thoroughly immersive theatrical experience. And by listening to the stories of those who have gone before us, he promotes Te Rakau's explicitly political purpose - to provide a socially-conscious voice articulating the struggle to survive in a hostile environment.

'The Ragged' kicks off the opus in 1840s Port Nicholson, as the first ships arrive in the new British colony at the bottom of the world, and the settlers disembark, eager to claim both their land and a better life. The dramatic conflict arises when Samuel Kenning (Matthew Dussler) discovers the land he was promised is already occupied by local Maori. Elements of Greek and Shakespearean tragedy abound in the internecine and fratricidal conflicts that ensue.

'Dog & Bone' picks up the tale in 1869 after the British army has gone, leaving Maori and Pakeha to fight it out amongst themselves. Younger brother Taiki (Reuben Butler) is home fighting a war of smiles and pleasantries with those who covet every blade of grass on the Kenning Homestead. Kuritea Kenning (Manuel Solomon) has joined Ngati Ruanui in Taranaki to fight the vicious 'Landeaters' in his search for peace and justice. More surreal than Part 1, 'Dog & Bone' introduces the symbolic willow tree (the significance of which will become evident in Part 4) and plays with the metaphor of the Maori kuri which, like its master, is an ugly, savage animal not to be given an inch ... or a bone.

'Public Works' skips to the trenches of No Man's Land, where Allied troops have abandoned their colonial subordinates, leaving the dumb, black bastards rotting in the mud with just their memories for company. Perhaps because it is set abroad (Passchendaele, Belgium), the staging is more systematically symmetrical and the costumes more uniform, or the traced symbolic connections seem somewhat forced and arbitrary (the tree/bird imagery, the return of the blue butterfly from Part 1), I found this the least satisfying intsallment.

'The Landeaters' is set in the bowels of an ancient willow tree, somewhere just between today and tomorrow, where the ancient spirits reside. It is a fabulist tale of a determined old man rediscovering his roots and digging in against the 'Landeaters,' as Vietnam War veteran Harry Kenning (Ralph Johnson) fights to preserve his home, his ancestors, and his memories from urban development. The most miraculous of the four plays, it addresses such pressing problems as social inequality, environmental pollution, and the housing crisis in the poetic language of the dispossessed. In many ways profoundly sad and distressing, it nevertheless provides an uplifting message - only by working together in solidarity can individuals take effective social and political action against seemingly overwhelming pressures and anonymous economic forces, and ultimately overcome them.

Each of the plays is a self-contained entity that provides a satisfying meal on its own, but digested sequentially the quartet constitutes a four-course feast, providing a panoramic overview of New Zealand history from the point of view of the underprivileged. In this era of growing social inequity, where two billionaires own as much wealth as 30% of the rest of us, such voices of protest and dissent are more than just prescient and timely. They are increasingly necessary and vital.

© Scoop Media

Howard Davis

Scoop Arts Editor

Educated at Cambridge and UCLA; worked on several major Hollywood feature films and as a Kundalini Yoga instructor in Los Angeles; currently enjoying life in Wellington.

Contact Howard Davis

• Email - howard@scoop.co.nz