Rim­i­ni and Bene­dict are vis­it­ing their uncle Tu in order to find out about their fam­i­ly his­to­ry.  Their ques­tions force him to face the rea­son he has been estranged from the whanau for years.  Tu was first per­formed at Pip­itea Marae as part of the 2012 NZ Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val of the Arts, and is based on the nov­el by Patri­cia Grace.

Old Tu (Tam­my Davis), Rim­i­ni (Eri­na Daniels) and Bene­dict (Matu Ngaropo) are on stage for almost the whole run­ning time. Their scenes — dis­cov­er­ing the fam­i­ly sto­ry — frames the his­tor­i­cal sto­ry as per­formed by the rest of the cast.  Broth­ers Philomel (Jar­od Rawiri), Boy­die (Taungaroa Emile), and Tu (Kimo Houltham) have a believ­ably fraught rela­tion­ship — one minute friends, the next Philomel and Tu are at odds with Boy­die play­ing the peace­mak­er.  Ma (Tina Cook) is the frag­ile heart of the fam­i­ly, with sis­ter Moana (Kali Kopae) look­ing toward the future.  Hoki (Scot­ty Cot­ter) and Jess (Aro­ha White) round out the cast of char­ac­ters. There is strong ensem­ble work by the cast in their move­ment and dia­logue.

The orig­i­nal set has been short­ened to fit the small­er place at Cir­ca and it has lost some of the grandeur that was so impres­sive.  How­ev­er the small­er space means the action feels more inti­mate. The actors are nec­es­sar­i­ly clos­er togeth­er.  Sim­i­lar­ly the script has been tweaked, mak­ing some parts of the sto­ry clear­er, while los­ing clar­i­ty in oth­ers.

An impor­tant New Zealand sto­ry that will res­onate with many.

  • Tu at Cir­ca The­atre, 15–29 June 2013.
  • Cir­ca are also host­ing Tawa­ta Pro­duc­tions’ Matari­ki Devel­op­ment Fes­ti­val. There are rehearsed read­ings of the plays in devel­op­ment at 1pm on Fri­day 21 June  &  Sat­ur­day 22 June. Open to all, free of charge. There will be live music after the Fri­day & Sat­ur­day per­for­mances of Tu, start­ing at 10pm in the Cir­ca foy­er.