Going straight to legends

By LINDA HERRICK arts editor

If the minds of comedians Taika Cohen and Jemaine Clement seem a little surreal, it could be the glue. The air in the studio space in Kingsland where they've been developing their touring show, The Untold Tales of Maui, is thick with the stench of prop-sticking glue and it seems like a good idea to get them outside as fast as possible.

But then again, maybe it won't make a difference. The Wellington-based pair have been making mad humour for six years in a twosome monikered the Humourbeasts, winning the Billy T Awards in 1999.

Clement has a nice sideline going as well, in the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, nominated for the prestigious Perrier Awards at the Edinburgh Festival earlier this year and who have since made a radio pilot for a BBC series.

Cohen has set up his own film company, Defender Films, and screened a short film, Two Cars, One Night, at the 2003 Wellington International Film Festival. The Humourbeasts are also working on a pilot for a comedy show on television.

Untold Tales of Maui is their first straight "theatre" show, however, commissioned by Taki Rua in Wellington and directed by Oscar Kightley. The plan is for the pair to create the show, which they've been doing in the Kingsland studios - "we had to get away from Wellington to get any work done," deadpans Cohen - and which they will refine on the road before presenting the finished product at next year's International Festival of the Arts in the capital.

"One of the first shows we ever did was a 10-minute sketch of a lost legend of Maui, which we made up," says Cohen. "We thought one day we might want to do a similar style, except this time we are doing the real legends like the hauling up of the North Island, the slowing of the sun."

The Untold Tales of Maui begins in the 1980s, with the relationship between an old woman and her grandson the starting point for a zigzag between reality and mythology, using "heaps of props and costume changes and computer graphic imagery". The North Island "fish", for example, is CGI, and video trickery will reinforce the illusion that when Cohen is lying in his canoe, the sea will be overhead.

Clement sees the production as a departure for Taki Rua. "Because Taki Rua runs Maori productions, the works are often about an issue. With this it is still about the culture but we are doing it a different way."

They are picking that the show will attract quite a number of kids, even if some of the humour is quite dark.

"The kids will love some of the stuff like the camera tricks but some of the jokes, maybe some of the surreal stuff, might go over their heads," says Cohen.

It will be a test, as well, to see how practical it is to tour the production which is growing like Topsy. "It's getting harder because every day we have more ideas and need new props, like, we need a canoe."

Performance

What: The Untold Tales of Maui

Where & when: Meteor Theatre, Hamilton, November 14, 15; Forum North, Whangarei, November 20, 21; SiLo Theatre, Auckland, December 3-13.

Saturday's show in Hamilton will start early at 7pm and end before kick-off so rugby fans can watch the All Black vs Wallabies game afterwards on the big screen in the theatre.