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.