Melbourne Festival
45downstairs,
Oct 12 to 28, 2012
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars:****
Te Kohe Tuaka as Michel James Manaia
NEW ZEALAND ACTOR, TE KOHE TUHAKA, with his formidable muscularity, blazing, dark eyes and sensitive portrayal of a man on the edge of violence and despair, is a powerful presence as Michael James Manaia in John Broughton’s 1991 play.
With bold and unsentimental
self-narration, Tuhaka imbues the story with an ominous undercurrent of mania
and rage as he leads us through Michael’s early life with his war veteran,
Maori father and English mother and extended Maori family.
After a gentle beginning,
the production, directed by Nathaniel Lees, escalates into compelling,
passionate, physical storytelling when Tuhaka navigates into the horrors of jungle
warfare in 1960s Vietnam, then back to New Zealand where life throws him a
different, confronting predicament.
Broughton’s script could
possibly benefit from contracting and editing Michael’s life before the war, in
order to jettison us sooner into his more dramatic, personal conflicts in
Vietnam and his inability to deal with a colourless life back home, without an enemy
to fight.
Tuhaka weaves playfulness
into Michael’s darkness as, with boyish glee and astonishing athleticism, he
leaps on and off a high platform, paddles a raft and gets up to pranks with his
beloved little brother, Mattie.
However, we are
constantly aware of grim layers lurking beneath his tough surface, as he snarls
at memories of his father’s drunken violence, hints at dark secrets and apologises
to his absent wife, Lizzy, for an unknown sin – or is it a crime?
Tuhaka, with his bold and
impassioned performance, captures the fractured life and psychology of a young
man whose hopes and dreams of a family life were destroyed by War.
Lees direction is robust
and energetic and the sparse design of wooden platforms (Daniel Williams) focuses
our attentions purely on Tuhaka and his physical presence.
Despite Broughton’s opening
scenes being too wordy and prolonged, this is a production with heart
and a riveting, committed performance from Tuhaka.
By Kate Herbert
No comments:
Post a Comment