Director comfortable working in many mediums

Frangipani Perfume is intense theatre. Picture / Sean Coyle

Hori Ahipene's acting career has so many facets: high-profile television roles in series such as Xena, Telly Laughs, Mataku, Shortland Street and Skitz; in movies (The Piano, Jubilee, the upcoming vampire flick Perfect Creature); and on stage.

And who could forget his magnificent turn as the Fairy in Auckland Theatre Company's A Christmas Carol a year or so ago, or his magnificent harridan Mrs Semisi in Skitz?

But Ahipene is also an accomplished director. "Right through my career when I was doing Skitz and playing Mrs Semisi, I was also directing the series," he says.

"The last couple of years on the other side of the camera I've made several children's programmes for Maori TV - Pukana, Korero Mai. I've always had to be a Jack of all trades. It's very hard to make a decent living purely as an actor, so on a practical level it's a good move for me.

"It's where my skills have led me but, money aside, I couldn't shut my mouth. I said, 'I can do this'."

"This" is directing Makerita Urale's fine one-act play Frangipani Perfume. Ahipene has been involved with the drama since its early workshop stages in 1997, and has directed various productions of it since then.

It is regarded as such an important work in the context of the Polynesian experience of living in New Zealand it is now on the curriculum of Victoria University's English Department.

When Urale decided to stage Frangipani Perfume in Auckland as part of Manukau City's FreshEd, the Pacific Island and Maori Youth Education Festival, Ahipene wanted to be involved. This staging features the same creative team he has worked with previously - choreographer Teokotai Paitai, designer Sean Coyle and lighting designer Jennifer Lal.

The three women in the cast are Joy Vaele and newcomers Fiona Collins and Goretti Chadwick. They play sisters Tivi, Naiki and Pomu, who clean toilets and dream of a better life, and care for their ailing father, the last link to the old ways of Samoa.

Ahipene explains Urale's script "is not a literal piece. When I first read it, it was hard to grapple - I kind of liken it to a piece of modern art. Rather than a Rembrandt it's more of a Dali." Much of the dialogue is internal. "A lot of the play happens inside people's heads, their characters' paranoia, about how they're perceived. Then we switch and we're into a reality, but it's always going off, in terms of style."

Humour is key, "but it's often quite black. There is the clown but there are the tears behind the clown. If you stop to think about what you're laughing at, it's quite dark and sad. But it's not depressing," he adds.

The Frangipani team is thrilled to be staging the work at the new Manukau centre.

"Makerita was keen to take the play there. With her work as a Polynesian playwright and artist, we are taking the mountain to Mohammed. The majority of the Polynesian population is out south so we are going there."

Ahipene has spent almost as much time nurturing Frangipani as its writer so he perceives it as "definitely evolving with each production.

"I believe that in the years of maturation, we have all gone on to do other things. We are coming back to it with fresh eyes and it's interesting what we are rediscovering."

He agrees Urale's play is challenging. For those who like to keep their theatre time trim, it is one "very intense" hour. "It rollicks along, the girls are never off the stage, it snaps from one world to the next."

* Frangipani Perfume, by Makerita Urale is at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau, July 6-9 (no show Thu), 7.30pm each night; 12.30pm matinees Fri & Sat