By - 3 Mar 2011
"This world premiere production is born out of a two and a half year gestation, during which commissioned English playwright Lennie James worked through a sequence of workshops and readings by the venerated Massive Company."
Reviewed by Nik Smythe, 3 Mar 2011
Read
this review on Theatreview.org.nz
"The central theme is family, specifically the
question of how families remain inevitably connected, whether they
ought to or not.
It's morning in the normally laid-back community of
Monument Hill, and everyone sets about their respective day as
usual. Then everyone hears a series of violent noises
emanating from the house up the hill, first shouting, then gunfire,
sirens, helicopters. The police superintendent locks the area
down until the armed offenders squad can bring the gunman under
control.
Throughout the day and into the night, while they wait for
normality to be restored, five local sets of friends and family
numbering between one and four undergo deep, personal journeys of
their own.
Sean Coyle's ingenious design effectively combines five complete
sets to evoke a real sense of neighbourhood: a bedroom, a deck, a
dining room, a lawn and a basement. The respective groups
never interact between them, but they are all reacting and to
varying degrees responding to the volatile noises of the fracas on
the hill.
The bubbling concoction of fourteen diverse players make for a massive
company indeed. As high school student Sina, daughter of the
gunman, Loretta Aukuso is both fragile and determined, flanked by
her sassy wisecracking girlfriend Eva (Olive Asi) and their awkward
lanky Asian friend Mai (Tuyet Nguyen), as they anxiously wait to
learn the fate of Eva's besieged parents.
Miriama McDowell's eight months pregnant Hinemoa has a dignified
but damaged air to her, with her doting husband Brady played with
loveable goofiness by Wesley Dowdell. They have arrived at her
old family home to heal a deep wound inflicted long ago. There
she is greeted by her unwitting half-sister, happy-go-lucky Pippa
(Nicole Thomson), and her frenetic, long-suffering stepsister
Connie (Kura Forrester).
Across the stage a house-painting family team of four Samoan men,
two older brothers Davis (Fasi Amosa) and Tyler (Joe Falau) and
their nephews Meleki (Beulah Koale) and Saepele (Jake Toaga) are
hard at work, both painting and giving each other shit. When
Meleki starts intoning ominous sounding speeches in Samoan it
triggers a fearful response in Tyler that clearly connects to a
dark secret he is heavily reluctant to reveal.
Down in the basement, the beautifully musical Jani (Bree Peters)
is visited, completely unexpectedly and out of the blue, by her
pretty-boy golden-child rock star brother Dylan (Ash Jones) who
vanished at the peak of his stellar career five years earlier to
the day.
Centre stage to all these dramas, Scott Cotter captures a worldly
innocence as recluse blogger Domino, who hasn't left his bedroom,
spoken directly to anyone or stopped streaming for a hundred and
sixty six days.
Many scenes involve communication breakdowns whereby people
obstinately, even pathologically, evade direct questions, thereby
perpetuating the senseless alienations and traumas immersing
them. Ultimately for some there is a tangible resolution,
whilst others are left more open-ended; some mysteries are solved
and some remain.
Overall Sam Scott's experienced direction carries the complex
intercut series of dramas very well through almost three hours of
frankly intense emotional upheaval. Here and there some scenes
seemed a tad staged or didactic, not always feeling as real as it
does at other times. However, these minor creases should
almost certainly be ironed out during its three-venue Auckland tour
at the Herald, Mangere Arts Centre and Takapuna's
Pumphouse."
_______________________________
Auckland Arts Festival 2011
Havoc in the Garden
A play by Lennie James and Massive Company
Directed by Sam Scott
Massive Company (NZ)
at Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland
From 2 Mar 2011 to 6 Mar 2011
[2hrs 20min approx, incl. interval]