'Sons' shows paternal instincts

Sons

Herald Theatre

Review: Stuart Young

Known primarily for its sponsorship of new Maori drama, Wellington's Taki Rua Productions now visits Auckland with a Samoan play by Victor Rodger.

Sons draws on Rodger's own experience in telling the story of Noah, an afakasi (half-caste) who, brought up by his palagi mother Grace, seeks a rapprochement with his father, Manu'a. The situation is delicate; Manu'a abandoned Grace when she was pregnant to marry Sandra, by whom he'd just had his first son.

Although the play is driven by Noah's desire to reconcile with his sick father, to meet his half-brother and to learn something about the Samoan culture, Rodger deftly sketches a series of contingent and coincidental tensions in the various relationships in the play.

Indeed some of these strands deserve to be more carefully fleshed out. Particularly poignant is the triangular relationship between Manu'a, Sandra and Grace.

It is a strength of the writing that all of Rodger's characters are treated with sympathy. The acting, however, is at times intriguingly muted, in marked contrast to the vehemence of the Auckland Theatre Company's Death of a Salesman, another play about a father and sons and family secrets. Perhaps the intention is to avoid any hint of melodrama.

Happily, an extremely engaging energy is injected by Robbie Magasiva as Noah's half-brother Lua, a slick car salesman who fancies himself as a Lothario. His flirtatious pelvic gyrations almost steel the show.

Muted performances apart, the staging of Sons is immaculate and poised, in the manner characteristic of Taki Rua and of the director, Theatre at Large's Christian Penny, who weaves together the different elements of the production very smoothly and elegantly.

To counteract the wretched shallowness of the Herald's playing space, the front row of seats has wisely been removed, and the stage raised and extended forward. Sean Coyle's design is simple and stylish: a bright blue floor, a long, narrow table and a huge screen upstage, which is used for projections and to create separate spheres of action.

The scenes are punctuated with songs which feature beautiful harmonies, led splendidly by Mabel Faletolu.