Review: Anton's Women at Maidment Theatre

Our awareness of the Dalmatian presence in New Zealand often seems to begin and end with the strange-sounding names on the flagons of dodgy red wine that used to flow out of the vineyards of West Auckland.

Donna Banicevich-Gera's play opens a window on the roots of this community by charting one man's journey from lonely exile and back-breaking toil in the Northland gumfields to the integration and prosperity of owning a family farm.

The contours of Anton's life emerge through the intertwined stories of four women whose lives were shaped by their encounters with him.

The cleverly constructed play brings the women together in anticipation of Anton's death and whips up a maelstrom of emotions as memories and secrets are revealed through flashbacks.

Ingrid Park is impressive as the long-suffering English wife who met Anton on the gumfields and stoically endured the torments of a loveless marriage.

Vicky Yiannoutsos is by turns imperious and ironic as the wife who was abandoned in Dalmatia but followed Anton to New Zealand, where she became a boarding house proprietor.

Anton's Women can proudly take its place as part of a rich vein in New Zealand theatre in which immigrant and ethnic groups have turned to the stage as a way of finding their own voice.

What: Anton's Women.
Where: Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre.
Reviewer: Paul Simei-Barton.