Short, sweet and deceptively simple, Friday’s Flock is a miniature masterpiece of a production which covers a startling amount of ground in its 45 minutes of stage time. Set entirely in a cafe in Feilding, the play roves over generations of human experience, all four seasons, the full life-to-death cycle, and the power of love. Add six characters and a dog, multiple cups of tea, and heaped measures of humour and sentimentality, and you still don’t have the full stretch of the piece.

And how does Friday’s Flock manage to achieve all this? We’ll come back to that later – first, the basics. Sam runs the Saleyards Cafe, next door to the Feilding saleyards. His regular customers include Walter, a retired farmer and widower, Joe, a struggling farmer, and an elderly woman who likes to wait. The action of the play focuses on Walter and Joe; Sam mostly provides continuity, commentary and cups of tea. I won’t describe the part played by the elderly woman because one of the best moments in the evening comes when we realise who she is. A stock agent makes a single appearance (comic highlight), and a Swedish ex-model sings movingly at the end.

It all works together beautifully because writer/directors Reihana and Karla Haronga have a genius touch for selecting their material to achieve maximum pace and maximum density together. Characters are lightly drawn, using lots of repetition and simple devices for establishing character – a crook of the finger, a catchphrase – which make it easy for the audience to connect with the people on stage. This technique also helps to signal change – if someone isn’t sitting in their usual seat at the usual time, you’re wondering straight away, what’s happened to them?

The story moves forward in straightforward, easy to grasp steps, leaving plenty of room for a few well-chosen unexpected twists. The writers have a few clear, positive themes to get across – the importance of people helping each other is a major one – and these are communicated plainly with a minimum of caveats or angst-ing. 

Another reason why Friday’s Flock works so beautifully is because it’s extremely well produced and presented. Very large quantities of credit for this go to Craig Geenty, who plays all the characters and the dog with great skill. His transitions from character to character are a pleasure to watch in themselves, they’re done so smoothly and clearly: a change of expression, a shift in posture, a different tone of voice and, in a few seconds, he’s a different age, gender or species.

Blair Ryan has done great work in reproducing the cafe interior set: the pie warmers, the chalkboard menu, the plastic strip fly screen at the doorway, the utilitarian counter, tables and chairs – they’re all there.  The Kiwiana soundtrack is an excellent fit with the play’s themes and action.

Is life in Feilding really like what we see on stage in Friday’s Flock? And does it matter if it isn’t? Well, whether you treat this play as a life-affirming fable, or a close-enough slice of life served up straight from the Manawatu – or something in between – it remains a work of outstanding craft, well polished from previous productions, with a touching, skilfully-drawn story to tell. 

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