An onion field in West Auckland is hardly the place to go on a chilly winter night. Neither is the venue for this play, I’ve been there before, and it’s pretty much that: a shed. But I’m hoping the story is warming and worth leaving the comfort of home for.

It has the necessary ingredients to make it so: the playwright Suli Moa has proved himself with two earlier plays (Kingdom of Lote, and A Heart’s Path), and the cast and Director are all well trained in Toi Whaakari New Zealand Drama School. 

As it turns out, my hopes are not only met, but exceeded.

The welcome is friendly and warm, the shed is not only set up with heaters but there’s a pile of blankets available to be tucked around legs. And the venue suits the play itself: the packing shed area of an onion farm. It also provides a huge stage area that is used to full effect in the production. It is furnished with a stack of packing cases, which are more than stage dressing – they are utilized in the action. The width even allows a van to drive onstage for boxes to be unloaded. And, of course, there are onions.

The performances of each one of the cast of four are almost impeccable. Wiremu or Woody played by Matariki Whatarau, is fully in character as the Maori boss whose aim is to buy the farm. On a few occasions his words don’t project enough to be clear, and passing trains don’t help even though they’re not inappropriate to the setting. Samoan Fala, very ably played by Shadon Meredith, seems a light-hearted ‘fulla’, but has a secret we don’t learn till near the end.

The Author, Sui Moa, takes the part of Paea. His early performance as the Tongan who speaks almost no English is a total delight. Amelia Reid-Meredith as the Pakeha Jane, dropout from Law School and at odds with her father, is exceptionally strong throughout.

Together the four, each with their reason for being there, carry out the work of harvesting onions. Clever choreographing of the movement, accompanied by a strong beat, turns this into an effective rhythmic dance. To begin with there is fairly light ethnic-based banter between them – do all ‘Polys’ go to church on Sundays?; is South Island filled with only ‘really white’ people? – but as we learn their stories and get to know them as people, we can see past that to the deeper concerns they develop for one another. 

“If you can mend it, you should fix it,” Jane is told in relation to the rift between her and her father, and this observation can be seen as a theme as we learn of more problems that the four have. But is it possible for all of them to be resolved? The growing depth within the story lines is accompanied by a lowering of the lighting, perhaps a shade too much at times though overall it is effectively designed and managed. 

The impression one gets is that the entire crew of No Man’s Land has worked as a tight and enthusiastic unit to produce such a polished result. Producer Natalie Malietoa-Moa, and Director Ngapaki Moetara (Tawata & Taki Rua), and a team of talented assistants in Jessica Sanderson, Sally Martin, Amber Malloy, Solomon Fuemana, Francis Kora, Chris Henry, Caleb Williams, Martin Vaioleti, and Tammy Williams, as well as the enthusiastic front of house staff, should be justifiably proud of their efforts.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer