KEY POINTS:
Geoff Chapple's trawl through the back-waters of New Zealand history has uncovered the intriguing story of a 19th-century entrepreneur who built a substantial business by extracting oil from the penguins of Macquarie Island.
We encounter Joseph Hatch at the time when his business had been closed down due to public outrage at the industrial-scale slaughter of these beautiful birds.
What seems like a straightforward story of environmental villainy is given a surprising twist with the meticulously recreation of one of the town hall meetings at which Hatch launches an eloquent defence of his enterprise and vehemently denounces the hypocrisy of those who oppose him.
Joseph Hatch is magnificently brought to life by Stuart Devenie in a performance that is a theatrical tour-de-force. He endows his character with tragic grandeur and makes the ornate language of nineteenth-century oratory appear natural.
A man who is intrinsically repulsive to contemporary sensibilities is slowly transformed into a victim - a sympathetic figure courageously refusing to submit to a malicious conspiracy that is hell-bent on robbing him of the fruits of his labour.
At the same time a magic lantern display ensures that we can never forget the brutal manner in which he earns his livelihood.
The production feels more like an historical re-enactment than a conventional drama and the virtue of this approach is that Chapple steadfastly refuses to view the past through the distorting lens of contemporary morality.
The logic of Hatch's argument is compelling, especially when he exposes the sentimental and arbitrary morality that singles out penguins for protection but remains unconcerned about the routine slaughter of the animals that provide our daily sustenance.
As a result the audience is denied the comforting illusion that we are more enlightened than our forefathers and we are invited to confront some disturbing ideas. While we are appalled by Hatch's callous disregard for the penguins it is easy to forget that global warming could eliminate the habitat that sustains these majestic creatures.
Chapple's documentary approach is superbly complemented by Tony Rabbit's sophisticated design concept that depends on selecting and subtly modifying an existing space rather than constructing an artificial stage set.
However the play's devotion to historical accuracy does have a downside. The story becomes rhetorical rather than dialectical and Chapple's journalistic instincts lock on to the simplistic angle of the little man struggling against insurmountable forces.
As a character Hatch recalls the obsessive, tormented figures that populate the novels of Melville and Conrad and I couldn't help feeling that a more fictionalised treatment might have allowed for a deeper exploration of the complexities of this fascinating story.
