Mulligan stars in Unity's emotional drama Michael James Manaia

The play Michael James Manaia is being revived to be staged at Unity Theatre in Ormond Road, opening on August 11 and running through to August 19. The deeply troubled character is being played by accomplished performer, Lawrence Mulligan, recently seen on stage as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Michael James Manaia is the latest production the Unity Theatre is working on for their August calendar.

The play is a poignant story of a Kiwi who returns home from the Vietnam War to find himself at odds with his culture, his history, and his memories. The audience will get a glimpse into his journey starting through his childhood, family, love, grief, violence, conflict and passion.

About 30 years ago, this play was performed in Gisborne by professional actor, Jim Moriarty who was persuaded by the Unity Theatre committee of the day, to bring his acclaimed production of the John Broughton play to Gisborne. It was something of a sensation at the time:  a Maori actor in a solo role, dominating the stage for 90 minutes with a riveting and at times shocking performance.

Now it is being revived to be staged this time at Unity Theatre in Ormond Road, opening on August 11 and running through to August 19. The deeply troubled character is being played by accomplished performer, Lawrence Mulligan, recently seen on stage as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Mulligan has honed his considerable skills so well in recent years, largely in dramatic roles for Unity, that director, Norman Maclean, has no doubts he will make an impact just as profound as Moriarty did decades ago.

The committee of Unity Theatre eagerly anticipates what he will offer and how audiences will react.  This powerful drama, advertised as not suitable for anyone under the age of 16, is a gripping mix of grief, anger, profanity, and hilarity with a brand of humour that will be familiar to anyone living in this region, which is referenced throughout in place names and familiar sites.

With no spoilers, the play set in the 1970s, explores factors that may contribute to trauma and paranoia. Michael Manaia is a deeply troubled man who is haunted by aspects of his upbringing, his relationship with his father, and his best mate, his brother, Matty.  He is also coping with having served in Vietnam and struggles to deal with a sense of loss that haunts him throughout, with a deep awareness also of tapu and what may ensue from the breaking of this.

Is he under some form of makutu? Only the audience can decide, but what is definitely promised is a breath-taking climax and a sensation of amazement mingled with deep unease.

But laughter throughout much of the action guarantees that this is no brow-beating saga of classical woe.

According to director, Maclean, there will have to be frequent pauses for the laughter that inevitably springs from Mulligan’s portrayal of this unfortunate man, unable to suppress his own free and easy approach to life as he recalls his childhood, his adolescence, and his adulthood — that brings marriage but more significantly, the life-changing experience of soldiering in a battle zone that leaves him distraught and full of self-doubt.

Isolated from his military mates and grieving for the loss of others, he begins to identify with his father’s service in the Maori Battalion of World War 2 — with the ways in which war can profoundly affect a man’s character and his behaviour.

The drama is staged unconventionally with audiences seated three-quarters of the way around the performance zone.  This is not a stage so much as a slightly elevated arena in the literal sense of that word: sand is the shifting and unstable base on which Michael Manaia takes his audience from his troubled present, back to the contentment and problems he experienced growing up in a small rural community and then his traumatising adulthood that carries the story back to the present as the play nears its denouement.

Properties are minimal; three items are utilised throughout to represent both people and objects ranging from a beloved Granny to a clapped-out car to a washing machine.

“The play is certainly a huge challenge for a professional actor,” Maclean says, “but there is little lacking in what Lawrence evokes in his portrayal.

“He has a phenomenal ability to memorise a huge role but good recall is only part of it.

“Mulligan’s completely naturalistic manner in gesture and use of the performance space, make this like some kind of strange encounter group in which we, the other members of that circle, see and hear his life unfolding so vividly, images springing to mind with every phrase. If not a group struggling to overcome personal demons, is it instead a few mates having a drink and sharing the life of a bloke who has gone through more than they can even imagine?

“Michael James Manaia gives me chills and laughter over and over again in rehearsal. I believe it will rock all who see it.”

■  Unity Theatre from August 11 to 19.