World War I needs more men to fight and Maori from Mataira Moun­tain are being asked to go. Grand­ma Mataira is vehe­ment­ly against their going. Her son Waru believes fight­ing along­side Pake­ha will bring Maori equal rights in New Zealand. With his son Tai and Tai’s best Pake­ha friend Alec Camp­bell, he vol­un­teers. Their expe­ri­ence and her expe­ri­ence are explored in this excep­tion­al new play by Witi Ihi­maera.

Grand­ma Mataira’s (Grace Ahipene-Hoete ) sto­ry is inter­wo­ven with the sol­diers expe­ri­ence over­seas. Ahipene-Hoete speaks in te reo for most of the play and con­veys both the strength and des­per­ate wor­ry of the char­ac­ter.  Alec Camp­bell (Errol Ander­son) speaks to (some) of the sol­diers expe­ri­ence. Ander­son makes a won­der­ful char­ac­ter shift from being excit­ed about the war to show­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Waru is played by Rob Mokara­ka who grounds the play with his sol­id per­for­mance. His sons Tai (Joe Dekkers-Rei­hana) and Ran­gi (Puriri Kōria) are lighter in char­ac­ter. Dekkers-Rei­hana and Kōria bring a sense of lev­i­ty when the script calls for it, while also being firm in their abil­i­ty to sup­port the oth­er actors. Taungaroa Emile plays a vari­ety of char­ac­ters and is often cheeky yet always gen­uine in his per­for­mance. Kerea­ma Te Ua is all phys­i­cal­i­ty and sounds as the ele­men­tal Wairua who appears on the edges, then in the mid­dle of con­flicts. His pres­ence, along with Grand­ma Mataira’s per­me­ates the whole play. Kali Kopae is Ari­hia Mataira, Waru’s wife, Moana Ete is Erin Camp­bell, Alec’s moth­er, and Aman­da Noblett is Mere Mataira. They also play inci­den­tal char­ac­ters (which is an inter­est­ing reflec­tion on the era­sure of the role women played in the actu­al fight­ing of the war. Heoi anō…) They are by turns fierce, ten­der, wist­ful, flir­ta­tious, and sto­ic. It is first rate example/s of sup­port.

This tru­ly ensem­ble piece is expert­ly chore­o­graphed by direc­tor Nathaniel Lees. (The daz­zling mau rākau chore­og­ra­phy is by Kerea­ma Te Ua.) Skil­ful inte­gra­tion of pro­jec­tion, kapa­ha­ka, and the­atre means that this is a vis­cer­al­ly intense per­for­mance. Taia­ha and mere zip past faces, actors run up and down the stairs. Wai Mihinui’s set design enhances the feel­ing of inevitabil­i­ty in the sto­ry, while show­cas­ing the pro­jec­tions by Jor­dan Beres­ford. Cos­tume design­er Moana Dav­ey man­ages to cap­ture the feel­ing of the per­for­mance while allow­ing for quick changes and blurred char­ac­ters.

Ngā mihi ki a koutou. Out­stand­ing.

  • All our sons by Witi Ihi­maera; direct­ed by Nathaniel Lees on at Cir­ca to 14 Novem­ber 2015