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.