Review: Mokomoko nā Sherilee Kahui is challenging and important theatre

Mokomoko was performed in Taranaki on October 7 as part of the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust Reimagine Festival.

Review: Mokomoko nā Sherilee Kahui, performed by Mycah Keall and Sherilee Kahui. Performed in New Plymouth on Saturday, October 7 as part of TAFT’s Reimagine Festival. Reviewed by Ilona Hanne.

A play that covers genocide, intergenerational trauma and the ongoing repercussions of colonisation is always going to challenge the audience.

Add in the fact the main character is a lizard, remove the fourth wall constantly throughout and then completely ignore all sense of “normal” for theatre form, rules or concepts, and you have a play that is not only challenging and thought-provoking, but also one which will take you on a journey that, while uncomfortable for many, will leave you better off for having been on it.

Mokomoko nā Sherilee Kahui, performed by Mycah Keall and Sherilee Kahui, is the type of play you will talk about for years to come, and the team behind Taranaki Arts Festival’s (TAFT) Reimagine Festival are to be commended for bringing it to Taranaki.

Sherilee Kahui is an incredibly intelligent and thoughtful director who is able to build a relationship with the audience, drawing them in and establishing trust in a way that enables her to then shine a spotlight on genocide.

Genocide? Well, what do you call it when you come to a country, kill, rape and/or imprison its people, stealing their resources before systematically oppressing the descendants of those people on the basis of their ethnicity, thus eroding their values, their culture and their social structure? Mokomoko poses this question near the start of the play.

“I’d call that genocide, but maybe that’s just me,” Mycah says in response to herself, before putting the question to the audience as well.

The wonderfully talented Mycah Keall brings the lizard Mokomoko herself to life, and does so with some brilliant physicality, writhing and moving around the stage, with some wonderful sounds and facial expressions combining to absolutely convince all there that is a lizard in front of them, learning to eat gingernut biscuits as she sets on a journey of self-discovery.

Sherilee herself is also on stage, and the two wāhine take their audience on an emotional, thought-provoking, hard look at Aotearoa’s history and the consequences of colonisation that exist today.

Every part of this production is nuanced, thoughtful and executed so perfectly, it is a thing of beauty, despite the ugliness of the topic. From costuming to lighting, sound to the clever use of the overhead projector - as a story is told through the overlaying of pictures and fabric on it - there is no weak spot.

It’s a play that can’t be described; it needs to be experienced. The final 10 or 15 minutes, when Sherilee and Mycah join each other on stage to talk to their audience about the show’s meaning, is powerful and leaves you wanting more. Not just more from these two talented wāhine, but also from all wāhine Māori today.

Thank you, Sherilee and Mycah, for telling this story.