KEY POINTS:
Theatre company A Lethal Set isn't scared to take risks.
Founded in 2003 by Heath Jones, it debuted with the 17th-century comedy of sexual manners The Country Wife.
Its most recent production was the home-grown comedy Lashings of Whipped Cream, about a suburban dominatrix.
In between there have
been new New Zealand works, American classics and edgy Australian drama.
Now, for the Auckland Festival AK07, A Lethal Set is trying something new again.
Jones has said finding material that appeals to a broadening group of theatre-goers is one of the biggest challenges of running a theatre company.
So this time around he has commissioned a piece of New Zealand theatre using works by five playwrights.
Mother/Whaea, Tama/Son is described as an "outspoken, funny and unsentimental" look at the sometimes fraught, often humorous relationship between mothers and sons.
It blends five Maori and Pakeha, separate but interconnected, stories across different stages of life: birth, teenage years, early adulthood, the maturing of relationships and, coming full circle, when mum is dependent on son.
"I wanted to do it for the learning," says Jones. "My co-conspirator Michele Hine has a lot of experience in devised theatre but I have very little so I saw an opportunity to change that.
"We talked a lot about what we wanted to focus on and thought, why not mothers and sons, because it is, after all, the essential relationship of life."
Its commissioning came at a time when Jones' own relationship with his mother was changing.
After 10 years' living in Australia, she returned home and Jones invited her to live with him.
"I wanted to develop and maintain our relationship and having her there every day means things occur spontaneously without having to deliberately arrange get-togethers and outings," he says.
Jones was adamant he didn't want a cloying and sentimental "greeting card" style production which could be from anywhere in the world.
Given the brief, playwrights Albert Belz, Gary Henderson, Kath Akuhata-Brown, Norelle Scott and Michele Hine were each asked to contribute a chapter.
Further development followed with actors Hine, Tainui Tukiwaho and Fraser Brown.
Jones likens Mother/Whaea, Tama/Son to a series of stories within the same film.
"I hope it reminds us of things we take for granted and the simple beauty that exists in the relationship between mothers and sons," he says.
He has enjoyed the process, getting actors to improvise and writers to adapt scripts accordingly, to create a work which is uniquely New Zealand.
And when the going has become tough, mum's been at home to empathise and, Jones admits, cook.
"I couldn't ask for a better flatmate or friend."
Performance:
What: Mother/Whaea, Tama/Son
Where and when: Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, Mar 16-Apr 1
