Three men gath­er in a room. Detec­tive Inspec­tor Brett is look­ing for Bruce Mason who has gone miss­ing. Rev­erend Athol Sedgewick had din­ner with Mason the night before last and is pos­si­bly the last per­son to see him before he dis­ap­peared. Wer­i­he has an eight o’clock appoint­ment with the play­wright. No-one has any idea where he has gone. The sto­ries the men tell each oth­er — about the inves­tiga­tive process, their lives, their mem­o­ries — grad­u­al­ly bring them to a real­i­sa­tion that all may not be as it seems and that the facts may be stranger than fic­tion.

It opens with George Henare (Wer­i­he) singing a love song against a shim­mer­ing gold­en cur­tain. He retreats to the wings then after the cur­tain opens reap­pears in the office of Bruce Mason where he sits down to wait. Henare imbues his char­ac­ter with a calm still­ness along­side evi­dence of a more mis­chie­vous nature. Many of his lines are in te reo Māori reflect­ing some of the themes Mason explored. It is a plea­sure to hear Māori on stage in this con­text. Andrew Grainger (Detec­tive Inspec­tor Brett) enters next. Grainger as Brett is cheer­i­ly upbeat even when the char­ac­ter’s life seems to be falling apart. He is bluff and hearty while allow­ing a small mea­sure of doubt to creep in. Final­ly Carl Bland (Rev­erend Athol Sedgewick) enters. His char­ac­ter is the most on the edge of real­i­ty and mem­o­ry. Bland makes Sedgewick resilient in his grief and accept­ing of strange events that hap­pen around him. He also has some of the best mono­logues in the play. The three work togeth­er in an ensem­ble that cre­ate some beau­ti­ful moments on stage. The miss­ing play­wright is played by Bruce Mason through record­ings.

This is a pre­miere of a work by Carl Bland and is co-pro­duced by New Zealand Fes­ti­val, Auck­land Arts Fes­ti­val, The­atre Stam­pede and Night­song Pro­duc­tions. Direct­ed by Ben Crow­der it is an explo­ration of the effects of grief. The script is clev­er­ly struc­tured. It has some lines that are pos­i­tive­ly deli­cious, and scenes that cir­cle around each oth­er with their word play. The set by Andrew Fos­ter is decep­tive­ly sim­ple. Cos­tumes by Eliz­a­beth Whit­ing sup­port the idea that this is a con­struct­ed real­i­ty. Beau­ti­ful light­ing by Nik Jani­urek includes one mar­velous­ly sur­pris­ing moment. Gor­geous ani­mals cre­at­ed by Main Reac­tor oper­at­ed by Ella Becroft make brief yet impor­tant appear­ances. Music and sound design by John Gib­son is fun­da­men­tal — from the love songs sung by Henare to the sound­scape in the final scenes.

 

Famil­iar and extra­or­di­nary.

  • Te Pō, by Carl Bland, direct­ed by Ben Crow­der on at Sound­ings The­atre, Te Papa, to 5 March 2016