Niu Sila at the Maidment Theatre

The Auckland Theatre Company's contribution to AK03 was Albert Wendt's The Songmaker's Chair, which traverses some 40 years in the lives of an Auckland Samoan family.

For AK05, ATC visits similar territory with Niu Sila (a Samoan transliteration of New Zealand), gesturing at something of a bridge between the Auckland Festival and the more established Pasifika Festival, which some contend taps more truly into the local culture.

In fact, writers Oscar Kightley and Dave Armstrong want to encourage New Zealanders to celebrate the Polynesian dimensions.

Niu Sila traces the friendship between Samoan Ioane Tafioka (Dave Fane) and Palagi Peter Burton (Damon Andrews) from their meeting as neighbours at the age of 5 until their paths separate when they are about 16.

The setting has been transplanted from Wellington's Newtown to Auckland.

The story is told from Peter's perspective, his remembrances prompted by a chance encounter with Ioane when they are in their 30s.

As well as playing Ioane and Peter, Fane and Andrews play a host of other characters, including the boys' families, a wheezing Samoan minister, and members of an Indian cricket team.

The actors shift adroitly between these figures, bringing to life a significant cross-section of New Zealand society and the attitudes found there. The play taps into experiences that will be familiar to many; the nostalgic appeal is heightened by snippets of 70s songs by Suzanne, Craig Scott and John Hanlon.

Brian King's attractive, simple set recalls John Verryt's for The Songmaker's Chair, although two chairs are used here.

As the sole props, the chairs are used to suggest a range of different settings - church, a symphony orchestra concert, a cricket crease. Otherwise the actors use mime to show characters peering through blinds or playing on a jungle gym.

Fane and Andrews are in the mould of classic comedy duos: their extreme physical disparity produces delightfully comic moments and images. Indeed, the show is funny and affectionate.

Where it raises some prickly issues - attitudes to Maori, violence in Samoan culture, and police racism - it generally does so with a shrewdly light touch.

The writing is less sure only in the epilogue, which appears to strain to inject more moment into the material. The problem is signified by Ioane's death, which seems a cop-out.