Te Maunga at the Herald Theatre

By SUSAN BUDD

HERALD THEATRE - Two brothers, separated in childhood, meet again on the eve of the new millennium to travel from Auckland to Ruatoria for their father's tangi. In his first play, Albert Belz explores the relationship between the men who represent the paths that Maori may take.

John, now an adman with a flash German car and blond English girl in tow, left the family farm with his mother, spurning his whakapapa for consumerism. Blair Strang portrays the smooth superficiality of a hollow man with sensitivity.

Piripi - a magnetic performance from Taungaroa Emile - stayed with his father and works as a traditional carver. He carries a burden of bitterness for what he feels was desertion by his mother when he was only 7 years of age.

The story of what happened the night their mother left is gradually revealed in short scenes that interweave with and illuminate their characters and lives.

The tale young Piripi writes of a brave space captain and his battle with a terrifying taniwha is ultimately seen as an account of both his fear and love of his father, of his belief in his whanau and the force of will that kept him to his chosen path.

The mother, played with extraordinary stillness by Rema Smith, is a hovering spirit that moves from tortured alienation to serene disappearance.

Nathaniel Lees' production and John Parker's stark, raked set, dominated by a huge canvas representation of Mt Hikurangi, strongly emphasise the symbolism and mythic qualities of the play.

This is sometimes to the detriment of its humanity, particularly as the audience furthest from the stage struggles to pierce the gloom of Vera Thomas' lighting.

But the strength of Emile's performance in the resolution of Te Maunga carries such an emotional charge that only the hardest heart would fail to be moved.