AK09 preview: The Arrival at Civic Theatre

Surreal animals are made from paper and cardboard to maintain the creatures' fragility as envisioned by The Arrival's author and illustrator Shaun Tan. Photo / Supplied

There will be moments during The Arrival when the audience won't understand what's going on.

That's not because this wordless stage production, an adaptation of Australian Shaun Tan's award-winning graphic novel, is difficult to comprehend. But the show's creators Kate Parker and Julie Nolan hope there will be times when you'll feel like the protagonist, a man forced to flee his homeland and build a life in a strange new world.

Like this displaced traveller you'll be dazzled by bizarre creatures, confused by unusual customs, unsure of what's being said.

"You need to not know," says Parker, who created a sparsely used language for the show with Nolan by swapping letters in the alphabet.

"When you're in a new country, that's what you do. You listen and watch people's body language to try and pick up what they're saying, what they're meaning. But it's different because we're telling a story. The audience gets to decide the narrative."

We are at St David's Church Hall in Grafton, where rehearsals are taking place. Moments earlier, the ensemble cast swooped large, white paper birds on bamboo poles and disembarked from a boat made of old suitcases using just their fingertips, part of an intriguing shadow puppet display.

Much like Tan's sophisticated drawings, the production touches on the notion of ethnic cleansing. Although it's a dragon-like tail winding its way through the dark streets in the book, the overriding theme is that of the hardships faced by refugees and immigrants.

Parker first became aware of The Arrival in 2007 and, entranced by Tan's beautiful imagery and nostalgic, fairytale quality, emailed him for permission to adapt his book, unaware The Arrival had just been named Australia's Picture Book of the Year.

"That universal theme of migration is so huge and so potent, that sense of loss and isolation," says Nolan.

"It's ultimately an uplifting story. It gathers together all these stories of struggles but it's one man's story of hope."

The creative pair are no strangers to creating surreal works of art on stage. Parker was the duck puppeteer in Indian Ink's The Candlestickmaker and Nolan directed The Land of Make Believe for Silo Theatre. They also directed the acclaimed The Butcher's Daughter in 2003, and most recently Beyond the Blue, in which 12 young women set out on a journey to explore the adventures of history's most courageous women. That story was told with minimal dialogue, big ideas conveyed with just the prowess of physical acting, much like The Arrival, performed by an entirely new ensemble, including Jarrod Rawiri as the immigrant.

Parker and her props team, working in a makeshift workshop at the back of the hall, have also created the surreal creatures of Tan's book in 3D form. Part of the reason Tan gave his permission was Parker's desire to use paper and cardboard - he'd also envisaged them as fragile creatures. Mysterious lighting will help create an atmosphere in which space and perspective are constantly shifting, and silhouettes will tell much of the story.

"I loved the imagery in the book and I could see it coming to life, all the creatures and characters," says Parker. "That's what I was attracted to. The story had such a heart."

During a brief trip to New Zealand, the author and illustrator was introduced to Parker and Nolan's work via a DVD; Tan later wrote an inspiring letter encouraging them to do their imaginations justice, hence the addition of the made-up Arrival language and the use of innovative shadow play.

After gaining Creative New Zealand funding, the pair then set about tackling the challenges of telling a picture book story on stage. "It's been an interesting process for me because I'm in it," says Parker. "I try not to be a director on that side but at that same time it's really hard not to."

Nolan: "It's great having Kate's creative mind on the inside and also her surety about what it should look like."

They also enlisted set designer John Verryt, whose few large pieces will be wheeled on by the actors and concertinaed off, and Andrew McMillan, who composed the show's evocative soundscapes, incorporating the exotic sounds of the vibraphone.

Despite the support from Creative NZ, Parker and Nolan say they couldn't have done it without calling in favours from friends in the industry, musicians willing to play free.

"It was a really tight budgeting process," says Nolan, who says it was a $300,000 production done on a budget one-third of that. "And in a way that's constrained us in some areas but it's also made us go for the simplest option. We had to take giant leaps in our belief. We just had to leap in and trust each other and go for it."

They also give credit to the Red Leap Theatre cast, who they say were a big part of the creative process. And it's clear from watching their rehearsal this is true. During the gangplank scene three of the actors offered suggestions how it might be improved, how the choreographer might aid the communication of the story. "A child can understand it," says Parker. "Anybody can understand it. Anybody from any country, of any language, of any origin, of any religious background. That's what's so compelling."

Auckland Festival

What: The Arrival
Where and when: Civic Theatre, March 12-15, see www.the-edge.co.nz.