Love Handles at the Maidment Theatre

Four years of writing in the evening is about to come to fruition for first-time playwright Arnette Arapai

It wouldn't pay to stand in Arnette Arapai's way. She is a determined woman, and when she puts her mind to something, she sees it through.

Arapai is a mother of five and a full-time credit controller. She has no formal writing or drama training but her sense of determination has led to her writing her first play which is about to be performed on stage.

Love Handles opens at the Maidment Studio tonight, a fond, honest look at Pacific Island mothers and their relationships with their children.

"Four years ago, I decided I wanted to write a play," she says. "I don't have any background training, but I knew that a play is dialogue, so I just had to develop my characters and write their dialogue."

Four years of writing in the evenings and 20 drafts later, Arapai finished her script.

"A lot of Pacific Island plays are about the migration experience. Migration stories have been done, and done well. Mine is something different. I was born in New Zealand, and I've written about what I know, stories I've heard over the years, things that have happened around me.

"It's a Niuean play, set in New Zealand. It's about strong women who have been raised and educated here. It's about how island girls stay living at home with their mothers - a lot of island kids don't do OEs, don't move out of home before they are married. Or they leave home to marry, but move in next door."

Arapai and her family live just over the garden fence from her parents, but she insists the play is not autobiographical.

"A lot of island people are devoted to their mothers and their grandparents. You hear people like David Tua and Tana Umaga talk about their mums. There's nothing sad about it, we are not forced to do it, it's our choice and it's who we are. And you are never too old for your mum to tell you what to do."

Arapai was not shy about asking what to do about her play. A writing workshop with Albert Wendt fired her determination to get it on stage, and actors David Fane and Shimpal Lelisi were mentors at her request.

"For a first-time playwright, she has given us a great new voice to listen to," says David Fane. "The setting and theme of the story is truly epic, and she has succeeded on all counts."

All of Arapai's children will be there on opening night, along with her partner and her extended family, including her mother. But Arapai says she will not be able to relax until closing night.

"Oscar Kightley said we want our stories told and we want to tell them. All those Pacific Island playwrights who have gone before me have made it easier for me.

"But just writing it and getting it to opening night is not enough. I want to wait until closing night, to see how people respond to it. I want these stories to appeal to people."

Performance

*What: Love Handles, by Arnette Arapai
*Where and when: Maidment Studio, from tonight until Saturday