We all have some kind of church. The one in the opening scene of Testify is a nightclub. It’s a little while before we get to the other kind – a big, noisy hall operated by Avow, a megachurch with secrets and money – but they both look and feel like heightened environments.
“They’re two very different environments,” says series co-director David Stubbs. “But two environments where people immerse and submerge and are led – by either a DJ or a preacher.”
Both are grounded in their own realities: respectively, Auckland’s Karangahape Rd and the young, brown, queer scene that has provided its after-dark energy in recent years; and the big evangelical churches that are part of the lives of tens of thousands of Kiwis.
Testify was titled The Bishop when it was funded in 2022, which led to speculation that it was about Brian Tamaki and Destiny Church. If it ever was, it’s not now. Executive producer Philippa Rennie says it “became clear it would be difficult to fund as originally conceived, so in consultation with TVNZ and NZ On Air, we opted to reframe the story and go in a different direction”.
If there’s a real-life story behind Testify, it’s more like that of Arise, the Wellington evangelical church racked in 2022 by allegations of abuse, exploitation and sexual misconduct. Stubbs chooses to sum it up as “an ensemble piece about a family”.
A very, very complicated family. The plot created by series writer Paula Whetu Jones – and there is a lot of plot – centres on Avow’s patriarchal founder, Scott Jacobson (Craig Hall), his wife Jen (Kat Browne) and their three – or is it four? – adopted children. One of those, Paul (an intense Ari Boyland), disappeared years before, but suddenly reappears with an apparent score to settle.
Paul’s brother David (Vinnie Bennett) is a virtuous soul who helps the fallen and is moved to reach out to the queer community when he realises church members practising conversion therapy have driven a young gay man to attempt suicide. That character, Leon, is convincingly played by Young Shakespeare Company alumnus Matthew Lee, one of several young actors whose performances are among the show’s highlights.
Stubbs says he and Whetu Jones let out a “huge hurrah” when they found Paipera Hayes to play the key role of Dana. She is strikingly charismatic on screen and, says Stubbs, “She kind of is Dana – she is that person and she didn’t need to pretend too much to be someone who has strong opinions and is trans and is dabbling in various scenes.”
Molly Curnow plays Isla, an airy, suggestible naif with a wonderful singing voice, and Holly Pretorius is Eden, Dana’s podcast buddy. Pretorius has used a wheelchair in real life since she was six and at one point in the first episode, she launches herself out of it. Anyone who has seen Spinal Destination, the other show Whetu Jones has on screen, will recognise the gleefully dark sense of humour.
Binding it all is a distinctive production design that distinguishes Testify from most other local drama productions. Stubbs says he used lighting, framing and camera angles to underline pivotal moments and establish parallels between the characters: “There’s a strong use of the colour red throughout in situations of religious fervour and danger.”
Stubbs is no stranger to edgy material – he directed the Bain family story, Black Hands, and Testify will undoubtedly ruffle feathers.
“It’s a complex story, one about a lot of people and a family. It touches on the K Road communities, the people who find a togetherness in those sorts of places, and how things like music and fashion pull people together who were kind of outsiders. They find their own kind of church in that world.
“I’m also interested in people thinking about how these big churches operate and the power they have.”
Testify is screening on TVNZ 2, Monday, April 8, 8.30pm; Tuesday, April 9, 9pm; TVNZ+ (both episodes), April 8
