'UPU is a unique offering of Pacific poetry'

Actress Ana Corbett will perform in UPU.

The power of Māori and Pasifika literature roars into theatrical life as the much anticipated and highly acclaimed UPU comes to Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival as part of the RĀ season line-up.

UPU means word, and in this stunning performance, the stage is given over to some of Oceania’s most electrifying performers, who connect all the beauty and variations of the Pacific with verses taken from 29 Oceanic distinguished poets.

Amazing works by Maualaivao Albert Wendt, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Briar Grace-Smith, Karlo Mila, Hone Tuwhare, Sia Figiel, Ben Brown are all represented in UPU.

Curated by award-winning poet Grace Iwashita-Taylor and directed by Fasitua Amosa, UPU presents almost 40 Oceanic texts brought to life by a cast of seven of its best Tagata Moana actors: Maiava Nathaniel Lees (The Matrix Reloaded), Mia Blake (The Tattooist), Ana Corbett (Totally Completely Fine), Shadon Meredith (King Lear), James Maeva (Mortal Kombat), Nicola Kāwana (One Lane Bridge) and Nora Aati (Duckrockers). Drawn from a continuum of shared ancestry and uniquely individual perspectives, the October performance will transform the War Memorial Theatre into a sea of islands and transport audiences through the power and potency of Māori and Pasifika narratives.

Ana Corbett has been involved with UPU from the very beginning and since 2020 has been producing with Amosa and Iwashita-Taylor. From the first moment she read the script, she knew she had to be involved.

“I was blown away by the writing,” she says.

“As an actor you always want to work with great text that explores interesting and challenging ideas. The special thing about poetry is that it has a way of weaving these ideas into your soul. Audiences are constantly surprised at how they were moved and affected by it.”

There is no subject censorship, with topics spanning from colonisation, family, love, religion, and the impact of climate change on the people of the moana.

“Even poetry non-believers have left theatres converted.

“UPU is a unique offering,” says Corbett.

“There is no other show that places the vastness and depth of Pacific poetry and writers on a stage in this way. It is an absolute joy to be able to do work like this.”

Corbett also has a personal connection with Tairāwhiti, saying there is a certain magic and spirituality about the region. She first came as a student of Toi Whakaari with tutor Teina Moetara of Rongowhakaata. These visits would help a very special relationship with the area to form.

“Part of building our Toi Whakaari community was an annual bus trip from Te Whanganui-a-Tara to spend a week at Manutuke Marae,” says Corbett. “The ocean and coastline here create something beautifully magical. There is a special energy about this place. Perhaps the remoteness of it adds to its wonder — it’s hard to put into words, but I know I always love coming back.”

Since leaving Toi Whakaari, she has gone on to work in theatre and screen, is now an experienced radio broadcaster, and film and TV production manager. She’s been in the recent Greta Vellas Australian TV series, Totally Completely Fine, as well as Duckrockers and Shortland Street onshore, among others.

This latest excursion to Tairāwhiti as part of the UPU cast makes her even happier to be returning as part of a five-stop October tour across Aotearoa.

“Theatre will always be my first love — the challenge and magic of it,” she says.

“Theatre allows you to share powerful stories that affect people deeply, sometimes in transformative ways, and I find that extremely rewarding.

“I am constantly figuring out how best to navigate through this colourful journey in the arts, but I am so happy life has led me here.”

As one of the original UPU cast members Corbett says the show has been a big part of her own children’s lives.

“My son Otis was just seven months old when we started the development season in 2018, and he will be six at the end of October. I used to recite UPU as I fed him before he slept, so he has literally grown up consuming the words of UPU.”

Corbett also took the stage with her second child, Tallula, at the 2021 Kia Mau Festival — albeit as a 35-weeks-pregnant mother-to-be. Both her kids have taken the UPU journey with her.

Corbett was raised in Māngere to a Kiwi dad with Irish roots and a Tongan mum. Her village is Kolovai.

“I come from a family of four girls who all do very different things,” she says of her siblings, one of whom is a pilot, the other a firefighter and the youngest a nurse.

Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival chief executive and artistic director Tama Waipara says he is thrilled to finally have UPU in Tūranga for their performances over two nights.

“I have been privileged to witness just some of the journey of UPU as it has moved around the country and through different iterations,” said Waipara. “To finally see this well-honed waka berth in Tūranga is well worth the wait. UPU is a synthesis of some of our age’s greatest thinkers, provocateurs and navigators of word. It is sophisticated, ancient, cutting and dripping with sass. It’s like bathing in all the splendour of Te Moana-Nui-ā-Kiwa without having to go anywhere. UPU reminds us of the vastness of our ocean and the richness of our shared cultural contexts.”

UPU has been developed further from its first outing at Basement Theatre in 2018 and is presented as part of the PANNZ (Performing Arts Network New Zealand) touring programme.