Cellfish is an exceptionally well-executed production. Written by Miriama McDowell, Rob Mokaraka and Jason Te Kare, the work demonstrates the advantage of development, dramaturgy and investment — and it's certainly come a long way from its first showing at Te Oro in Glen Innes.
Cradled in the capable hands of performers Carrie Green and Jarod Rawiri, the story follows the journey of Miss Lucy (a drama teacher and Shakespeare fan) who has been given a contract to work with a group of diverse prison inmates.
The two performers, with bitingly specific detail, portray all the characters with lightning-speed switches. The archetypes are easily recognisable: strong and silent, boisterous yet charming, shy yet quietly bold — and warmly familiar without the clichés. There's also the Indian warden who speaks fluent te reo — another nod to the swell of dialogue that is growing between tangata whenua and diverse tauiwi.
The sheer physicality, the numerous characters and visible dexterity make for compelling watching and both Green and Rawiri's performances are close to impeccable.
Te Kare's direction is smooth and taut and the transitions (with the exception of a slightly muddied middle) and the production move at the galloping pace of an epic tragedy. The staging, set in a horseshoe-bend for the most part is both functional and effective — even if we do lose a sense of genuine give-and-take between the performers as they are often facing away from each other.
