Hui is a powerful drama, in turns engaging, intriguing, harrowing and exasperating. The story of a Maori family, who return home for their father’s tangi, Hui combines moments of frank and brutal realism with magical scenes of tenderness and love to produce an account of family life which is challenging, disturbing and enthralling.

Mitch Tawhi Thomas pulls no punches in his exploration of four brothers who are, in different ways, fractured and incomplete souls. They are seeking harmony in fulfilling their family duty, but it is the very family that has made them who they are. [More]

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The Forge is back in its stride, encouraging strong new theatre with its roots in Aotearoa. A Maori family, grown separate in adulthood, comes together at the death of their father, bringing with them a welter of emotional baggage which sustains the play.

Direction by Erina Daniels is sympathetic to the four way tussle – five way if we count the active influence of the deceased – and also to the cultural territory of death in the whanau, perhaps unfamiliar territory for many in The Court’s usual audience.

The writer’s intention seems to be, however, to reach beyond the particularity of the situation, into universally recognisable sibling tensions and for me, the strongly individualised characters reduce the chances of this happening. Unremitting anger, calmed at intervals by the spirit of the father rising like a silent blessing, does not make an easy link to a wider world.

Played in the round in the intimate studio space across the foyer from the main stage at The Shed, events unfold in the living room of a seaside cottage and begin with the gentle death of old Bob (Olly Ohlson). It is a tidy but prolonged affair (about ten minutes’ worth) as a soundscape of sea and wind bears his spirit on its journey.

His body is discovered by the simpleton son Georgie (Tola Newbery), who has been caring for him and whose practical acceptance of this new presence is none-the-less moving in its matter-of-fact manifestation, bathing and dressing the limp form with undemonstrative dignity. 

There follow staggered arrivals from his three brothers: Pita (Taungaroa Emile), a reformed character now deeply in thrall to the Destiny Church; Tane (Juanita Hepi), who has reinvented himself as Tina in London; Tamati (James Tito), a successful big-time rugby league player in Australia.

In the second half, when recriminations, bitterness and bewilderment have had a good airing, Tamati’s hapu partner, Ming Zhue (Chye-Ling Huang) arrives unexpectedly and against advice, to provide a comparatively objective focus on events and a device to draw all but Georgie outside. Dressed in his best, he has his own firm belief in what should be done for his father, providing a stunningly dramatic ending for the action.

All roles are played with integrity and potent intensity. What does not work as well for me is the real time pacing, so that pauses and silences which should build tension and heighten our awareness of what is happening, lose out to reluctant disbelief.

Mark McEntyre’s ‘lived-in’ set, costume design from Annie Graham and effective lighting, sound and AV design from Giles Tanner ensure quality production values.

Thus there is memorable dramatic impact at many points in the play and its inclusion in The Court calendar is thoroughly justifiable. Fresh talent, fresh insights and above all, a brave engagement with fresh material is worth the risks it takes. 

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