The mother of all dramas

Three Pacific Island women are aiming to break stereotypes in their new play, writes BERNADETTE RAE.

Multi-talented Pacific Island playwright and actor Dianna Fuemana went to Greece to perform her solo show Mapaki at the International Women Playwrights Festival last year. She was stunned by the European notion of Polynesian women she encountered there.

"It was so romantic and straight out of a Gaugin painting - all submissive brown girl, with long, flowing hair," she says.

Her response, Jingle Bells, which opens tonight at the Maidment Theatre, is designed to crack that stereotype.

A witty Pacific comedy, delivered by three saucy Pacific Island chicks - Christina Bristow, Goretti Chadwick and Fuemana (as Jingle Bells) - revolves around auditions for Christmas in the Park 2001.

Miricle, Masima and Tinni are urban island girls with aspirations and complete confidence that their chocolate looks and feel will get them where they want to go as dancers, even if they are not quite dancers.

Sexy, smart, bright and funny, they are focused and career-driven - a lot like Fuemana.

At 28 she has diplomas in arts management and drama from Auckland University, a certificate in television and video production from Carrington Polytechnic, a higher teaching diploma in dance and drama from the Auckland College of Education and several successful written works and performances to her credit. She also has two children.

Polynesian mothers figure large in Jingle Bells. Their contribution is mainly sarcastic, when it comes to show business. The mothers of Miricle, Masima and Tinni would far prefer their girls to return to their university studies or to get a sensible job at the chicken factory.

"It is a play about magical moments, as well as hilarious mothers," Fuemana says.

And, she says, it is frank and exuberant and full of family humour and girl humour.

Other Pacific troupes have proved there is a market for such comedy. But until Jingle Bells it has been a male-dominated field.

Fuemana definitely had a female and Polynesian audience in mind during a round-the-kitchen-table session with Chadwick and Bristow. And she wanted that audience doing what Polynesian women love to do most, which is to cackle and scoff. While the palagi audience might miss some of the more subtle references, there will be far more for them to recognise than not.

Fuemana grew up in West Auckland, the youngest in a large family. Her own mother does not speak English, she says, but the family has been successful, in sport, commerce and a handy selection of trades.

At an early age, Fuemana learned how to get attention and discovered that people would listen to her stories.

Her love of drama was first expressed by her insistence on staying up late to watch television shows like Dallas and Dynasty.

"Then Fame happened, and I instantly knew that that was me!"

She honed her skills in the playground and later in school plays.

At first she thought she would find a place behind the camera, hence the qualification in television and video. "At that point a lot of things in my private life happened."

At 20 Fuemana was a divorced mother of two. She studied drama and began to write.

"I was preparing, really," she says, "getting ready for when the kids were old enough for me to make a move."

The children are now 12 and 8 years old and Fuemana is on a roll.

Her first success was an educational play called Piggy in the Middle, which deals with young people and sexuality. It toured South Auckland schools as part of a New Zealand Family Planning initiative.

She then worked on a commissioned first-draft for a proposed television series, which never made it to air. But the experience made her realise that she wanted to work in theatre, to explore words more than visuals.

Performances include Mapaki and roles in Frangipani, Perfume and Decadence. She has also been a story reader for National Radio and appeared in Auckland Theatre Company's A Streetcar Named Desire.

Among several writing commissions and projects she received a Creative New Zealand grant to write a play, called Tears in the Hand. It is scheduled to be produced at the University of Massachusetts, where she has won a writing residence during November.

A performance of Mapaki, seen in Auckland, Wellington and at the Kaikoura Marae last year, is also planned during that visit. Fuemana is having second thoughts, not only about travelling, because of the recent disaster in New York, but also about presenting such a serious, dark work in America at this time.

If she does go, and she has the option of deferring the visit to 2002, she may present Jingle Bells instead.

There is yet another academic string to Fuemana's talented bow. She is a Pacific arts consultant to the Ministry of Education. She also assesses Pacific arts applications for community projects for the Auckland City Council.

"I see my biggest talent as being able to bring together people who want to follow a vision," she says.

"It is the hardest thing sometimes to get people to believe that what they want is really possible."