Jim­my King, one of New Zealand’s most noto­ri­ous crim­i­nals, is back in jail. He’s shar­ing a cell with Mau Vaia­ga, a recent immi­grant to New Zealand. Mau has com­mit­ted a crime so out­ra­geous that the New Zealand pub­lic are out for his blood. They’re both being rep­re­sent­ed by hot-shot lawyer Waimanea Huia…but is she as neu­tral as she should be?

Although it explores seri­ous  themes — iden­ti­ty, media, cul­ture, jus­tice, envi­ron­ment — the play is very fun­ny and light­heart­ed. There are moments of still­ness amongst the jok­ing around which serve to high­light the com­plex­i­ty of the issues faced by all the char­ac­ters. All three prin­ci­pal actors inhab­it their main char­ac­ters. Jamie McCaskill (also the writer) is all swag­ger and atti­tude as Jim­my. He’s able to mod­er­ate that, while keep­ing the atti­tude, to allow the oth­er side of the char­ac­ter to peek through. Natano Keni plays Mau with a qui­eter, pulled back rhythm. When that rhythm changes it’s a (well placed) shock. Kali Kopae as Waimanea Huia is con­fi­dent and force­ful. Her char­ac­ter is in con­flict and this is demon­strat­ed in only a few scenes. The fourth per­son on stage is musi­cian Simon Don­ald. He pro­vides music, some voiceover, and the occa­sion­al char­ac­ter. (I was sur­prised to dis­cov­er this is Simon’s the­atri­cal debut as he was so nat­ur­al on stage.) Direc­tor Regan Tay­lor, design­er Bri­an King, and light­ing design­er Jen­nifer Lal, have pro­vid­ed a strong space for the char­ac­ters to come alive in.

I was for­tu­nate to luck into forum night. The cast and direc­tor spoke about how much they enjoyed work­ing togeth­er. This comes through in their per­for­mances on stage. Great work.

  • Man­awa by Jamie McCaskill on at Cir­ca Two until 13 Octo­ber 2012.