Performance: Fire Mountain

Herald Theatre

Review: Susan Budd

The Fire Mountain is Rangitoto, a symbol of simmering tensions and Auckland's most notable landmark.

Images of fire and the cold, blue light of the moon alternate in Nathaniel Lees' production of Linda Chanwai-Earle's play chronicling the lives of Asians in New Zealand. The heat of their emotional lives and the cool of their demeanour form a paradox she explores, together with the mutual misunderstandings arising from the collision of cultures.

Mei Ling Tam, an 18-year-old student, is caught in the crossfire on two different levels. As the central figure, the success of the play is borne on her frail shoulders.

And Roseanne Wen-Shin Liang gives a mesmerising portrayal of an enchanting young woman, torn between duty to her father and traditional ideals of female behaviour and the attractions of a smooth Taiwanese student, Chia Han Lo.

She is also torn between life and the alluring "perfume of immortality" as she is beckoned by her dead mother, represented by the figure of the Moon Goddess, sumptuously gowned and masked.

A television crew making a documentary on triads in Auckland discovers Chia Han's criminal links and Mei Ling is drawn further into the underworld.

Pushed by her producers for more shock-horror revelations, the director begins to manipulate people and facts.

The mix of symbolic and real is not always successful. Masked figures moving portentously round the stage look beautiful, but they tend to sit uneasily with naturalistic scenes advancing the plot. Many of these are repetitious and too even in pace, so that the first act is tortuously slow and somewhat confused. The payoff comes in the second act, which explodes into violent action and a fiery, tragic climax.

Fire Mountain is a stunningly beautiful production. John Verryt's stark set, and costumes ranging from contemporary to traditional, have depth and brilliance under Vanda Karolczak's lighting. Andrew McMillan's sound design is extraordinary in its combination of original recorded music and sounds from simple instruments played by the cast.

Helene Wong and Ben Baker shine in a generally inexperienced cast that performs with great integrity.

Until November 11.