The Pleiades constellation may be obscured in the drizzly haze of Auckland's pre-dawn skies but contemporary Maori theatre is shining brightly as the Matariki Festival provides a showcase for a remarkable new work by playwright Tainui Tukiwaho.
Te Rehia Theatre is a new company whose work is grounded in te reo Maori but employs an expansive, boldly experimental approach aimed at revitalising traditional forms.
In Hoki Mai Tama Ma they have pulled off an extraordinary fusion that sees kapa haka combined with the Italian clowning tradition of commedia dell'arte and the hard-case humour of contemporary Maori story-telling.
The exquisite wooden masks created by carver Tristan Marler bring an eerie, otherworldly quality to the familiar gestures of the powhiri.
At other times the anarchic buffoonery of commedia's stock characters is put to work in a hilarious cross-cultural exchange that has a pair of Maori prisoners explaining the intricacies of the hongi to an Italian soldier decked out in a long-nosed pantaloon mask.
