Te Awa I Tahuti at TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs

By NIGEL GEARING

Don Selwyn's latest vision is for an Auckland Maori theatre company that will take storytelling back to its roots so a new generation can experience it.

Selwyn, veteran acting coach and mentor to so many Maori film and theatre actors, has chosen Te Awa I Tahuti as Koanga Maori Theatre Company's second work.

The hard-hitting piece was written and first performed by Rena Owen in 1987 and toured British prisons and drug rehabilitation centres.

It tells the story of Toni, a Maori woman in a London prison for drug offences, who is forced to confront her past in order to heal and move on. The play has not been shown in New Zealand before.

Selwyn began workshops in February 2003. His aim was to bring together a pool of talent so Auckland's first Maori theatre company could present some of the earliest work by Maori playwrights.

Kim Cullen, a 1995 Northland Polytechnic drama graduate, made the pilgrimage to Auckland every weekend for six months to attend. When Selwyn called for directors for Te Awa I Tahuti, the 28 year-old shot her hand in the air and was selected.

It is her first time directing. "I met Rena while studying up north," Cullen says. "She was a guest drama tutor. Her advice to do my homework was noted. When I met her again recently while she was in New Zealand we talked about our first meeting and how it had influenced my decision to pursue directing her play."

Natasha Keating, in her theatre debut, plays Toni, an emotional rollercoaster role of a person who has survived a traumatic upbringing. She says Te Awa I Tahuti is not Owen's autobiography but concedes that the play has parallels with the Once Were Warriors' star's life.

"Rena feels it is time to bring this story home," Keating says. "Before now it would have been too raw to show it here."

Keating, 31, came to acting late. She has played small roles on screen over the past few years and, like Cullen, answered Selwyn's call to join his company.

Sian Jaquet plays Mrs Bottomley, the therapist in the London prison. She is a trained actor from the Welsh College of Music and Drama with eight years' stage experience and work experience in the British criminal justice system.

"It's not the most intense part I've played," Jaquet says, "but for a white woman who has only been in New Zealand for 18 months it's certainly been a challenge to play such a culturally and politically charged role. It's juicy. This play is heavy. We don't tiptoe around the issues."

Koanga Maori Theatre Company's first production was the double bill Death of the Land by Rowley Habib and Selwyn Muru's Te O Haki Ra Nihe, both performed on Tatai Hono Marae.

Keating says the third production will be Hone Tuwhare's In The Wilderness. Keating hopes Te Awa I Tahuti at the very least will tour to Whangarei.

"This play is optimistic - though you would think anything but that at the end of scene one," Jaquet says. "Although it was written almost 20 years ago it has not dated at all."

Te Awa I Tahuti

TAPAC Theatre, Western Springs

July 6-11, 7:30pm; matinee July 10, 1pm