Mokomoko was carried out in Taranaki on October 7 as a part of the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust Reimagine Festival.
Review: Mokomoko nā Sherilee Kahui, carried out by Mycah Keall and Sherilee Kahui. Performed in New Plymouth on Saturday, October 7 as a part of TAFT’s Reimagine Festival. Reviewed by Ilona Hanne.
A play that covers genocide, intergenerational trauma and the continued repercussions of colonisation is all the time going to problem the viewers.
Add within the truth the principle character is a lizard, take away the fourth wall continually all through after which utterly ignore all sense of “normal” for theatre kind, guidelines or ideas, and you’ve got a play that isn’t solely difficult and thought-provoking, but additionally one which is able to take you on a journey that, whereas uncomfortable for a lot of, will depart you higher off for having been on it.
Mokomoko nā Sherilee Kahui, carried out by Mycah Keall and Sherilee Kahui, is the kind of play you’ll discuss for years to return, and the staff behind Taranaki Arts Festival’s (TAFT) Reimagine Festival are to be recommended for bringing it to Taranaki.
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Sherilee Kahui is an extremely clever and considerate director who is ready to build a relationship with the viewers, drawing them in and establishing belief in a means that permits her to then shine a highlight on genocide.
Genocide? Well, what do you name it if you come to a rustic, kill, rape and/or imprison its individuals, stealing their assets earlier than systematically oppressing the descendants of these individuals on the premise of their ethnicity, thus eroding their values, their tradition and their social construction? Mokomoko poses this query close to the beginning of the play.
“I’d call that genocide, but maybe that’s just me,” Sherilee says in response to herself, earlier than placing the query to the viewers as effectively.
The splendidly proficient Mycah Keall brings the lizard Mokomoko herself to life, and does so with some good physicality, writhing and transferring across the stage, with some fantastic sounds and facial expressions combining to utterly persuade all there that may be a lizard in entrance of them, studying to eat gingernut biscuits as she units on a journey of self-discovery.
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Sherilee herself can also be on stage, and the 2 wāhine take their viewers on an emotional, thought-provoking, arduous have a look at Aotearoa’s historical past and the results of colonisation that exist as we speak.
Every a part of this manufacturing is nuanced, considerate and executed so completely, it’s a factor of magnificence, regardless of the ugliness of the subject. From costuming to lighting, sound to the intelligent use of the overhead projector – as a narrative is informed by the overlaying of images and cloth on it – there isn’t any weak spot.
It’s a play that may’t be described; it must be skilled. The remaining 10 or quarter-hour, when Sherilee and Mycah be part of one another on stage to speak to their viewers in regards to the present’s that means, is highly effective and leaves you wanting extra. Not simply extra from these two proficient wāhine, but additionally from all wāhine Māori as we speak.
Thank you, Sherilee and Mycah, for telling this story.
