Uth­er Dean Reads 300 Haiku is indeed that. 300 haiku in a row.

But what the title does­n’t tell you is the wan­der­ing nar­rat­ive Uth­er tells through the 300 haiku. “These haiku were writ­ten by Peter the Poet,” he says. Yes, we agree, though I’m not con­vinced.

Peter is des­per­ately in love with Jan­ine, who is a witch. Peter’s love is strong, aching heart and sad­ness through his poems. Jan­ine has spells to cast, though Peter wants more. Their love is strong, but it feels wrong.

Uther­’s haiku are an exer­cise in mel­an­choly, a grasp at some­thing too close but also too far away. Though the show is layered with jokes – my favour­ite haiku was about talk­back radio – and inter­ludes, where he breaks from the script, it leaves the audi­ence burdened with a curi­ous emo­tion.

What is art?

What is soul?

What is love? (Baby, don’t hurt me.)

Uth­er Dean Reads 300 Haiku has an incred­ible thought­ful­ness, a world­li­ness belied by its simplist­ic retell­ing. It’s thor­oughly human, through­out our mel­an­cho­lia and mis­takes, and I don’t think we can wish for more than that.

 

Uth­er Dean Reads 300 Haiku is on at BATS Theatre, Wel­ling­ton, until the 23rd of March. Get your tick­ets here.