Review: Over My Dead Body: Little Black Bitch

This is the world premiere of the play by Jason Te Mete. The script shared the Adam New Zea­l­and Play Award for Best Play by a Māori Play­wright in 2018. It is a the­at­ric­al rep­res­ent­a­tion of one way depres­sion can mani­fest.

It starts with a mihi from Te Mete (also dir­ect­or and music­al dir­ect­or) wel­com­ing us and repeat­ing the con­tent warn­ing inform­a­tion from the posters. The pro­duc­tion con­tains depic­tions of men­tal health prob­lems and sui­cide. The audi­ence are encour­aged to get in touch if they find any­thing unset­tling. There is coun­selling sup­port from  Manukau Insti­tute of Tech­no­logy (MIT) and a coun­sel­lor (Nat­alie) is avail­able onsite through­out the sea­son. There are also links for places to get help at the back of the pro­gramme. I really acknow­ledge Tuatara Col­lect­ive for their care for the audi­ence (and pre­sum­ably the cast and crew.)

The play itself starts with a funer­al. Rangi’s (Ran­gi­hawe Kahu) friend Matiu has died by sui­cide. Their oth­er friend George (Geor­gie Tuip­u­lo­tu) tells Ran­gi that Matiu’s little black dog Toto (Cam­ille-Jayne Atkins) has run away and that Matiu’s Dad Tommy (Fideli­um Simanu) wants to find her. Rangi’s Aunty (Ros­alind Tui) isn’t a fan of the dog and would rather Ran­gi had noth­ing to do with it.

The script plays with the idea of Toto and toto (‘blood’ in te reo Māori) as it does with the idea of the ‘black dog’. It explores the health mod­el Te Wheke with the inter­weav­ing of dimen­sions of health. This mod­el is shad­owed in the show which starts as a fairly straight for­ward drama then slips into some­thing more sur­real. There is some beau­ti­ful work from the large ensemble cast. Much like the har­mon­ies in their chor­al singing their move­ments as a group are enhanced by each oth­er. The cho­reo­graphy (Vivi­an Hosk­ing-Aue) has them altern­ately strong, soft, flu­id, crisp and in one mem­or­able scene, per­fectly still. Dif­fer­ent aspects of per­form­ance from Pacific nations are incor­por­ated into this sequence. Restrained per­form­ances from Kahu and Simanu are com­pli­men­ted by phys­ic­ally looser ones from Tuip­u­lo­tu and Tui. Atkins gives us light-hearted play­ful­ness then men­acing focus as the real and meta­phor­ic­al dog.

I’m left with a lot to think about post-show. The cine­mat­ic influ­ences on the script. The black dog.  The myth­o­lo­gic­al implic­a­tions in hav­ing a woman play the ‘little black bitch’. The abil­ity for two real­it­ies to occupy the same space. Rela­tion­ship to/with fam­ily and com­munity. The way we talk to each oth­er. This is strong work from stu­dents from MIT and this new com­pany. It’s har­row­ing and hope­ful and well worth brav­ing the weath­er to see.

•  Over my Dead Body: Little Black Bitch on at BATS Theatre as part of Kia Mau Fest­iv­al (See any three Kia Mau shows at BATS with a sea­son pass for $45!)

If you’re strug­gling with bad men­tal health you’re not alone. There is a list of some of the ser­vices avail­able in New Zea­l­and that offer sup­port, inform­a­tion and help on the Men­tal Health Found­a­tion web­site.