The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra planned this event as “an exciting new partnership” between six local composers, musicians and authors undertaking a two-year programme with APO Composer-in-Residence John Psathas to interpret key pieces of New Zealand literature, all of which were to be presented by actor and NZ Arts Laureate Stuart Devenie in a concert scheduled as part of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

And so it came to pass …

The website goes on to say that the whole would be “presented by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the Auckland Writer & Readers Festival” and would include “a unique insight into literary and musical thought in Aotearoa.”

And so it was.

The question remained, however: was this an appropriate piece to be reviewed on a website devoted to professional theatre? I’m awfully glad that the verdict was ‘yes’ because Works with Words wasn’t – as it might readily have appeared to be – some arcane exploration into inaccessible music with a sprinkling of enigmatic and ambiguous verse thrown in. It might have been in less skilled hands but, the simple truth is, it wasn’t! 

Enigmatic? Yes, it was that. It set out to be. 
Ambiguous? Yes, there were ambiguities. They were planned, I’m happy to say.

The evening was split in two with three works in each half. Whether there was a programming intent to place the most powerful work last I will never know. I suspect there was. Either way, that’s how it turned out.

Not that there was much between the works, and viewing them in some sort of good, better, best pecking order is probably not an ideal way to go as each was complete in itself and satisfying in its own way. 

OK, let’s get the disclaimer out of the way! I am not equipped to be a music reviewer, nor do I profess to be one, so any comment I make about the music, whether ignorant or pretentious or somewhere in between, should be taken with a pinch of rosin. Or should that be resin? See what I mean?

So, to answer that lingering question, was this a theatre event? Damn right it was!

The evening opened with the arrival on stage of conductor and Composer Mentor Kenneth Young, a genial figure who eased us – and the wordsmiths – into, and through, the evening.

Then came Stuart Devenie MNZM in gumboots, weskit and Farmer Brown hat for the first offering: Chris Adams composition ‘Antonyms of Trust’ based on a poem by Sam Mahon. Adams spoke of his work, reminding his audience that 90% of the lowland lakes and rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand are polluted. Having just that day watched Prime Minister John Key challenged about the veracity of our 100% clean green image – and other environmental issues – by reporter Stephen Sackur on BBC Hardtalk, I momentarily wished that the PM might be better informed, and that he might read much more poetry. 

Mahon’s angry, anti-capitalist rant about the misuse of water resources in Canterbury had strong echoes of Glover’s ‘Sings Harry’ and resonances in delivery of  Fairburn’s ‘I’m Older than You, Please Listen’. All stirring stuff which set the scene for what was a surprisingly political evening and one that reminded me, if I needed reminding, that artists are invariably at the forefront of environmental and humanitarian causes. As I identify the Waimakariri as my awa and grew up with parents who were proud to live in a place that had the best water in the country, and a supply that they said would last forever, this work really spoke to me. 

Exit Devenie, and enter Yvette Audain, composer of ‘Eulogy for Narrator and Orchestra’ based on a poem by Olivia Macassey, who briefly introduced her composition. I suspect, if asked, Mr Devenie would say that the introduction might have been just a tad too brief! 

Re-enter Devenie, now resplendent in a smart grey suit, who proceeded to release on us, via a much grander delivery style, a fairly standard Kiwi work; standard in that it juxtaposed the weather, life and the environment, which was again reminiscent of the great poets of the 1930’s, ’40’s and ’50’s, for whom similar issues were poésie du jour.  

However, just when I thought this work was somewhat vin ordinaire, the final lines hit home: “perhaps when I have lost you for as long as I have loved you this grief will rest” and the final bars exercised their sly cunning and I was, once again, hooked.

The final offering in the first half was, in a word, wonderful. Introduced at length by composer John Elmsley, the work was based on five poems from the 1991 peace anthology ‘White Feathers’, which gives the work its name. Three of the pieces are long-time personal favourites and the set includes ‘For a Child at Nagasaki’ by James K Baxter, RAK Mason’s ‘Sonnet to MacArthur’s Eyes’, ‘Some Thought They Saw’ by Basil Dowling, ‘Axis’ by Cilla McQueen and Tuwhare’s devilish ‘Papa-tu-a-nuku’.

Devenie was at his inspirational best in this set, his delivery at once surreal, then naturalistic and ending with a languidly orgasmic ‘Papa-tu-a-nuku’. It’s fair to say that Devenie is my favourite Kiwi recorded voice. Whether he’s voicing documentaries or television advertisements, I don’t much care. He makes words come alive whatever the medium and he was seemingly relishing this work. 

So the first half ended with orchestra and voice equal partners in the weaving of some rather special enchantment. 

During the break floor to ceiling panels were installed on stage where there had been none, panels each with a single white feather, but more of that later … 

Alex Taylor composed the fourth work and the first in the second half. Titled ‘Attention’, this startling work is built around an assemblage of extracts from parliamentary speeches made during the third reading of the Parole Reform Bill. Boring? Totally not!

Again with a political theme – this time justice and the ‘three strikes’ issue – Devenie chose to appear in a bright red wig, silly hat, giant clown shoes, a red nose and polka dot pants. As this work endeavoured to satirise the normalcy of political life in Aotearoa New Zealand, his costume was most apt.

Taylor began the work by reading from a parliamentary speech that highlighted fairness and equality for all (including the Tuhoe terror suspects) and I imagine I wasn’t the only audience member stunned into disbelief on finding its author was none other than Rodney Hide.

Devenie dismantled any sense of the typical however with his narration – at one moment a painfully recognizable Muldoon, the next an oblique Helen Clark – and his frequent repetition of seminal Auckland rock band Blam Blam Blam’s phrase “there is no depression in New Zealand” was hauntingly surreal and disconcertingly immediate. 

Taylor’s music for this was delicious and the playing of it very satisfying.

The penultimate work, ambiguously titled ‘The Lover’s Knot’, was a collaboration between theatre practitioner and composer Robbie Ellis and playwright, poet and paediatrician – Ellis’s description – Renee Liang. A survivor of Stage 2 drama club at the University of Auckland, Ellis now resides in Wellington and is well known for creating music for improvised theatre.

This work is based on the story of Walter Bolton, the last man hanged at Mt Eden Prison; the last person hanged in New Zealand, in fact. Bolton was executed on 18 February 1957, aged 68, and there has always been serious doubt cast on the authenticity of the jury’s verdict.

The story, however, contains all the right elements for drama – infidelity, sex and death – and these two fine young artists have certainly made the best of it. Devenie plays a resigned Bolton waiting, in his specially designed nightshirt, for the knock on his cell door that will mark the end.  

At risk of entering an alien domain, it’s worth commenting on the balance between text and playing in this work. The two women at the heart of the narrative are represented by cor anglais (Beatrice, the wife) and Gordon Richards’ delectable clarinet (Florence, the wife’s sister and supposedly Bolton’s lover). The interplay between the two is both playful and menacing and it’s no fluke that the cor anglais has the last word. There are mysterious and subtle motifs throughout the piece that weave an enigmatic ambiguity around the entire work. This is great stuff! 

He kotuku rerenga tahi. 

The final work is entitled ‘Witnessing Parihaka’ with music composed by Stephen Ralph Matthews and text by Robert Sullivan. If I sensed the mood of the audience correctly there was considerable anticipation for this work. Parihaka holds a special place in the hearts of many New Zealanders representing as it does a means whereby peace can be attained and preserved. 

Taking the time it took, women – some of them young – and men from Parihaka came onto the stage bringing with them a large bass drum which was placed to the right of the stage, the people gathered around it. 

Following the whaikōrero, during which the Parihaka kaumatua remarked that his group had come to bring this story from the past to the present and that it would then be returned to the past, the karanga commenced, and the chilling magic that is voice and music began …

Devenie was joined by a second actor, a young Maori man, Te Kohe Tuhaka. Both were dressed in black and each ritually draped the other with a sash. Devenie, representing John Bryce’s soldiers, had a second ‘sash’ made from an ammunition belt, while the second actor, representing the people of Parihaka and the prophets Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi, symbolically had none. 

The interweaving of actor and text, conductor, music and orchestra, with mokopuna and poi, and the questioning beat of one bass drum, requires a transcendent level of balancing. The equilibrium achieved in ‘Witnessing Parihaka’ was utterly breathtaking. It was as though humanity was holding its breath and mention of ‘the riot act’ cut across the enchantment like a blade across a wrist, only to be balanced again by the quiet confirmation, “They are at war, we are at peace.” 

Structured around the dropping in turn of three white feathers, the work – text, acting, composition and playing – was uniformly magnificent. Simply magnificent.

Ma whero ma pango ka oti ai te mahi.

Works with Words is a concept whose base is in collaboration and generosity. To see it come together in such a way is heartening and to see it unashamedly political is inspiring. To feel that, in some small way artists working together have achieved this, is humbling. 

I’ve saved the last word for Stuart Devenie: Bravo!
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