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.