Tawata Productions' TŪ gets a lot of things right. It is absorbing and affecting, well-acted and well-designed and at all times precise in its actions. It tells a story worthy of an audience - but several aspects of the story remained unclear. This kept the story distant and undefined, and as a result I struggled to connect with the material on a personal level.
For one thing, the script was often too overt and too formal. The cast demonstrated varying levels of ability in making the dialogue sound natural - but on the whole it too often sounded unnatural. One such example is the lack of contractions; rather than saying "I'm" the characters would say "I am". I could not find a reason for this and it created an unnecessary barrier for the actors and audience alike.
The script also struggle to establish a sense of place. It presents both time and place as important factors in the life of the play, but shies away from defining them. The time periods are eventually made very clear - but this should have been achieved earlier than it was. Place, though, is left unclear. There is a lot of talk of city and country, and that the central family tie their sense of home/belonging to the land they know. I was unsure, though, where this play takes place. Wellington? Auckland? Christchurch? It's hard to be certain. Is it important? Not to me, but it is important to the main characters, so understanding their home would help us to identify with them.
But the story still comes through, and it is a sad and shocking tale that had me feeling sick to the stomach. The staging is excellent, as is the use of Maori cultural traditions to portray battles and struggles, and ease transitions. This is a slick production, that shines in spite of a sloppy script.
See this play if you care about family and/or war and/or the urbanisation of New Zealand.
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