An hilarious look at an unlikely friendship between two boys from vastly different cultures in 1970s Auckland, Niu Silaby Dave Armstrong and Oscar Kightley is the next offering in the Playmarket Metro Theatre Playreading Series.

The characters could easily be your own left-wing father, nervous mother, drunken uncle and strict old teacher or local church minister, but the relationship at the heart of this story is that of Ioane (Semu Filipo, Tokelauan /Samoan, Shortland St, Tautai) and Peter (Kip Chapman, Apollo 13, The Cult).

Five year old Ioane Tafioka, fresh off the boat from the Pacific, moves in next door to Peter Burton, starting a friendship that spans twenty years, two cultures and one neighbourhood. 

Oscar Kightley says the play is for “everybody who has ever wondered what happened to that cool kid they made friends with in primary school. At a time when politicians seem to want to make us all one colour, stories like Niu Sila remind us that it’s OK to be different and still live here.” 

Dave Armstrong came to realize the piece was “a requiem for a time in New Zealand that no longer exists. Today brown and white New Zealanders essentially work in different jobs, live in separate suburbs and send their kids to different schools. That is not the New Zealand of my childhood.” 

“We have tried very hard to cater to a wide audience throughout this series” says Jenni Heka, Maori, and Pasifika Playwright Development Coordinator for Playmarket “with comedy, tragedy, classics like Awhi Tapu and Niu Sila and new works such as Le Tauvaga by up and coming playwright Louise Tu’u. 

Playmarket is thrilled to be able to showcase talent from Manukau City, including playwrights, actors and directors, and make the work accessible to the community it grew out of.

The series is supported by Playmarket, Creative Communities Manukau, Toi o Manukau and Manukau City Council. 

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