Three dynamic performers perform six exquisitely crafted monologues that share authentic experiences of radical change where, sometimes against significant odds, joy is eventually generated.

A threadbare armchair sits inside a framed yellow cube flanked by a small video screen stage right and a letter box stage left. In a flurry of action, Stevie Hancox-Monk, Ni Dekkers Reihana and Mel Dodge set and reset props on the floor, either side of the cube: a fuming ceramic pot and a dried arrangement; a bright polka dot teapot. Anticipation is heightened, not least by the presence of that letter box.

Joyful Birth, written and performed by Mel Dodge, tracks a first pregnancy from idyllic ideation to confronting realisation. The joyful discoveries of body parts and gently planned hypnobirthing are undercut by parts missing and emergency procedures. Yet perfection prevails in the new mother’s world and Dodge’s performance.

Etta Bollinger’s cleverly titled Fitting features Stevie Hancox-Monk in the role of a nonbinary identical twin attempting to find fitting clothes and words for the speech they’re expected to give at their sister Holly’s wedding to Josh. Recollections of their work with a florist reveals their ill-fitting attitudes to ‘love’ and weddings.

Having to camp on Holly and Josh’s couch also brings their own wants and needs into focus. It’s their reading of trans history that feeds the self-affirming energy Hancox-Monk brings to the role. (The character’s name is shouted from offstage at the end but I don’t quite catch it – Gabe perhaps?)

Nī Dekkers-Reihana is another ball of energy in Anything Could Happen by Indigo Paul. Despite the recurring line, “You have not stopped loving your old lover,” this (also unnamed) person is reclaiming the spaces in their home and the body parts once occupied by the departed lover. Rediscovering an abandoned playlist, “sanding down the bits that snagged”, biking to the beach and convincing yourself anything can happen in an empty space is a highly relatable state of being that Dekkers-Reihana captures with admirable conviction.

Mel Dodge returns to embody an experience well beyond childbirth in Elspeth Tilley’s Happiness is HRT. Confusion over the names of a street and a medical specialist ingeniously allows this woman to take a phone consultation – via a Bluetooth earpiece. A high-performing Project Manager beset with tragicomic symptoms of menopause, she is again unnamed but is married to Darren and has a friend-in-jeopardy called Evelyn Williams.

In the process of sharing her mood swings, the shortfalls in providing effective women’s health are powerfully critiqued. In a performance that would give anyone hot flushes, Dodge is a force to be reckoned with. Yet there is joy in declaring you’re not going to take it any more – even though you will take HRT, despite the expense.

Stevie Hancox-Monk, in a dressing gown, has checked the letter box more than once since the start of the show and now there is something in it! In this delightful interlude – An Unexpected Delivery by Nī Dekkers-Reihana – they share the joy with the audience and raise an intriguing question about the origin of the word for what we are playing with (which some may see as a metaphor for joy).

Now we, in the audience, become Nī Dekkers-Reihana’s unnamed character’s visitor for “a big old debrief” over a cuppa, in Dunno by Stevie Greeks. What unfolds is a poignant sharing of an adult child’s visit to their farmer father. Anyone who is at any point of their te reo Māori journey will relate very strongly to this. Even if you are just increasingly aware of te reo’s resurgence, you will find it enlightening.

In Dekkers-Reihana’s exquisite recreation of the visit, the personal child-father relationship resonates to acknowledge the generational damage inflicted on tangata whenua, their reo and their mana. Beyond the fear and shame they feel, joy is restored in their beautifully rendered waiata.

With Joy, directors Kerryn Palmer and Sally Richards have presided over a profoundly insightful and engaging sextet of memorable encounters. As with many works in the festival – produced by Beth Barclay and Sally Richards – we can only hope they get to play seasons beyond these brief encounters.

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