Dancing in the dark: The Matariki Glow Show reaches for the stars

The Glow Show creator Sarah Burren with her Matariki stars. Photo / Dean Purcell

A fallen star and a taniwha form an unlikely friendship in the Matariki Glow Show. Joanna Wane meets their maker, Sarah Burren.

Five years ago, almost exactly to the day, the first Glow Show, Heaven and Earth: Rangi and Papa, premiered at Papakura's Hawkins Theatre. It was nearly a complete disaster.

Appalling weather caused a major accident that bunged up the traffic, delaying the start by an hour and a half. Midge Perez, who'd written the music, played on a clunky keyboard as the cast of four puppeteers made their debut in the dark under ultraviolet light. The whole thing lasted for barely 25 minutes.

"But we packed out the theatre and everyone loved it," says creator Sarah Burren. Next stop, Porirua. In the space of a week, some 3000 babies, kids and caregivers had come along. The following year, an upscaled version went on a 10-stop nationwide tour. By 2019, the number of venues had doubled and so had the length of the show.

In 2020, Te Moana danced between lockdowns but Wonderland (starring Dallas, rather than Alice) made it to only nine out of 38 venues in 2021 before Covid stopped the season in its tracks.

The pandemic is still lurking in the shadows, of course. Rehearsals for this year's Matariki Glow Show had barely begun last month when Burren herself tested positive. So when a six-week tour from Kaitāia to Invercargill kicks off next Thursday — with two vanloads of cast and crew transporting 50 puppets — she's hoping the gods will be on their side.

Rokalani Lavea, who's previously performed as a puppeteer, returns as director for this year's Matariki Glow Show. Photo / Dean Purcell.

"We've laid down some new tracks and there are two gossiping ika [fish], who've got their own duet," says Burren, who grew up with The Muppets and worked for the BBC in the 1980s, dressing a certain wise-cracking fox by the name of Basil Brush. "Storytelling is one of the most beautiful things we can give our tamariki, right? And we really want to tell stories with their voice and their humour."

Running through the school holidays, the show follows the adventures of Waipuna-ā-rangi, the smallest star in the Matariki cluster, who becomes lost after falling from the sky and is befriended by a 4.5m taniwha. And while the number of characters has snowballed over the years, there are still only five performers in the cast.

Dressed in full blackout gear, they switch between multiple parts using 2D glow-in-the dark puppets attached to lollipop sticks. "It's a dance in the dark — the beat, the flow, trusting that your fellow cast members have your back," says Tekeepa Aria, who was part of the original 2017 cast and is back onboard after a stint on Māori Television's hit series Ahikāroa.

She'll be working a dozen puppets and voicing seven of them, including Marama (the moon) and one of the ika. "There's something beautiful about being in the darkness and seeing these puppets come alive. Theatre has that magic and kids bring their own magic: the magic of imagination."

Burren came up with the concept for her glow puppets after working on black-light scenes in children's shows at Auckland's Logan Campbell Theatre back in the early 2000s. Using her original illustrations, each character is stitched on to a fabric skin and painstakingly cut away to produce a negative. That's then airbrushed with paint containing a special dye, which reacts with ultraviolet light.

Haututu, a 4.5m taniwha who befriends Waipuna-ā-rangi, the smallest star in the Matariki cluster. Photo / Supplied

Illustrator Simon Fletcher has been commissioned to create new artworks for next year's production, a reboot of Peter Pan.

"Imagine having a 3m moa where the Lost Boys are hiding," says Burren, whose long-term goal is to take The Glow Show offshore. "There's no rigging and because the puppets are two-dimensional, we can pack into a venue within an hour and pack out in 25 minutes."

A kaupapa Māori show is also in the pipeline and Burren would like to develop stories drawn from other cultures, too. "Imagine doing an Indian glow show. That would be beautiful." The team she has around her is already a multicultural affair. Director Rokalani Lavea is Samoan (he starred as the taniwha Haututu in the second Glow Show), the stage manager is from Niue, and the ensemble cast includes a Tongan, a Samoan, two Cook Islanders "and a [Pākehā] guy from Hamilton".

Born in Wellington, Burren spent part of her childhood in Fiji, where her father worked as an architect and both parents became involved with the arts centre in Suva, creating sets, costumes and props. After graduating from the London College of Fashion, she spent 14 years offshore as a costume designer, based largely in Toronto and London.

Covert Theatre's Wade Jackson with some of the glow-in-the-dark puppets made by Burren for his political satire "Covid Response Team", which premiered last month. Photo / Michael Craig

Basil Brush wasn't the only celebrity she dressed. At Anouska Hempel's design studio, she made couture for Fergie and Princess Diana. Here, she's probably most famous for Bobby, the police dog puppet, and Junior, the giant "walking boy" marionette she conceived for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

In some European countries, engaging with children's theatre is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, says Burren, who'd love to see that happen here. She's partnered with some local communities, including the Kerikeri-based trust Bald Angels, to provide free tickets to The Glow Show for families who otherwise couldn't afford to come. Te Puni Kōkiri has also signed on as a key supporter.

"Children can learn so much from the arts, but there are kids who have never been into a theatre before. Some forms of education are so left out - and this is one of them."

The Matariki Glow Show is on tour from June 9 to July 24, with a half-hour option for under-5s and a full show for children aged 6-12 followed by a Q and A with the cast (see glowshow.co.nz).