Theatre Review: Poor Boy, Maidment Theatre

Finn McLachlan plays the part of Boy in 'Poor Boy'. Photo / Richard Robinson

This sumptuously visual, boldly experiment production draws inspiration from the music of Tim Finn and features hauntingly beautiful arrangements of classic Split Enz hits as well as lesser-known songs from Finn's solo albums.

The play is centred on a convoluted saga about a 7-year-old boy who faints on a zebra crossing and wakes to find his body has been taken over by the spirit of a young man who died seven years earlier.

The possessed boy is subject to the kind of testing used to authenticate the reincarnation of lamas in Tibetan Buddhism and his two families become deeply entangled as they realise a transmigration of souls has taken place.

If you are wondering how this kind of intricately structured ghost story relates to Tim Finn's breezy pop songs you would have to say the connection is fairly tenuous.

But on an emotional level the music does seem to fit the operatic tone of the story and there is a weird kind of thematic unity with ideas about alienation given a zany edge that gels with Finn's freewheeling imagination.

The strength of the production comes from its visual imagery. Tracy Grant Lord's fantastic set design creates a suburban surrealism with a nicely understated gothic touch.

Playwright Matt Cameron delivers some highly poetic writing that poses a challenge for the cast, and at times the heavily loaded references to knots and model boats seem to creak under the weight of the metaphors they carry.

Raymond Hawthorne's crisp direction makes the most of the show's rich visuals, but by heightening the intensity of the domestic squabbles he creates a rather sombre setting for the songs.

There is some fine singing from the whole cast, Lauren Porteous sets the stage alight as a sassy teenage rebel, and Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Rima Te Wiata get sparks flying as the play's duelling mothers.

The show should be viewed as a highly original piece of theatre that finds an intriguing echo in Tim Finn's songs, but for me it missed the exuberant sense of fun that has always enlivened the music of New Zealand's best-loved songwriter.

THE LOWDOWN

What: Poor Boy.

Where: Maidment Theatre.

When: Until April 9.