Out of the past

Tanemahuta Gray has spent 10 years bringing Tiki Taane Mahuta to the stage.

It's been almost a decade in the making, yet the timing of Tiki Taane Mahuta's national tour couldn't be more perfect.

Director Tanemahuta Gray says there is a powerful message about family and community at the heart of the performance.

"There is a tragedy element to this story but also a sense of really powerful redemption, the power of community coming together and the power of your tupuna, ancestors," Gray explains. "That's the other element I really want to draw attention to for the audience, to show that power and potency of connecting to our grandparents and great grandparents."

The $1 million local production hits Auckland on Monday and audiences can expect one of the most eclectic mix of styles ever seen at the Aotea Centre's ASB Theatre. With a narrative inspired and supported by Tiki Taane's music, the dramatic piece also combines hip-hop with traditional kapa haka, mau rakau (a traditional weapons-based martial art) and the added spectacle of aerial dancing.

The multi-generational story follows a falling out between family members after a young couple is torn apart by tragedy; years later their son attempts to reconcile the divides. It's a story rooted in Maori ideologies and beliefs but one Gray feels will resonate with everyone who sees it, particularly given the current political climate.

"It can happen in Oamaru, it can happen in Onehunga, it can happen in Christchurch, it can happen in Dunedin. I think that need to connect and build a community is even more important now as we go through a difficult period at the moment," he says, citing Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as examples of why we need to come together.

The idea for the show came when Gray was asked to listen to Tiki Taane's album Past, Present and Future, sowing the seeds for his theatrical show.

"The story came completely out of his music. When I started hearing it, I thought, 'there's a narrative in here somewhere'," he says. "It took about eight years to piece the pieces of the two albums together and allow that story to emerge and the characters within it."

Tiki Taane Mahuta is a $1 milliion production with hip-hip, kapa haka, mau rakau (a traditional weapons-based martial art) and the added spectacle of aerial dancing.

Combining songs from that album and Taane's third, In the World of Light, the story, and the modes of dance necessary, became apparent.

"The music told me what styles were required. In a way I tore back the layers and discovered what was really inside. The music has been completely the narrative driver for the show," Gray says, likening the process to a carver shaping a block of wood.

Taane will perform in the show alongside Shapeshifters' Sam Trevethick but the two will play in the orchestra pit alongside the other musicians. Gray describes the show as being akin to Pink Floyd's The Wall, "where the music takes you on a journey" as opposed to a traditional concert.

This is the second large-scaling, long-gestating project Gray has put on. Ten years ago, he toured Maui - One Man Against the Gods, a similarly extravagant piece that went around the country and was resurrected during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Funding a seven-figure production requires a lot of grants and that meant Gray had to workshop the performance in stages across the years while he applied to funding bodies.

"It does take time to put together. A show like this doesn't come cheap."

The high cost of arranging original productions is one reason a show like this is so rare, something that disappoints Gray.

" We get a lot of the international musicals but we don't get much New Zealand work of this size and scale."

Gray, now 43, says it has been a rewarding experience developing this production but after 20 years working on two big productions, will he aim for the smaller-scale next time?

"At the moment, that's probably wise."

Lowdown
Tiki Taane Mahuta
Monday, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre.