Poto Man­awa has a new flat. She took a quick trip to pick up a few things from her Mum’s place…and now her rel­a­tives won’t stop phon­ing her. They want her to come to a whā­nau hui. She’s reluc­tant to return to the home­stead although she can’t quite remem­ber why. Until Paia comes along to jog her mem­o­ry…

This neat play is per­formed by sis­ters Trae Te Wiki (Poto) and Tial Te Wiki (Paia) along with Reuben But­ler on music. Trae Te Wiki is an expres­sive phys­i­cal actor com­mu­ni­cat­ing her character’s emo­tions and mem­o­ries through grace­ful move­ments. She has a beau­ti­ful singing voice. Tial Te Wiki is almost the phys­i­cal oppo­site, her phys­i­cal­i­ty is all edges and impu­dence. She has excel­lent com­ic tim­ing and shifts well to seri­ous sto­ry­telling. Butler’s music and sound effects sup­port the sto­ry and his cameos are delight­ful.

The set by Andrew Brown is gor­geous. Back­lit fab­ric screens become sto­ry­book pic­tures, dried autum­nal leaves add a touch of mag­ic.  Light­ing design by Zoe Hig­gins trans­forms the space from place to place and rein­forces the emo­tion­al beats well. Direc­tor Neenah Dekkers-Rei­hana bal­ances the many humourous and seri­ous moments in the play, draw­ing out some great work from the actors.

This is a fun­ny play that seri­ous­ly explores inter­gen­er­a­tional trau­ma and its con­se­quences.