A Maori consciousness

Press, 13 March 1985, Page 21

A Maori consciousness

After several years in New Zealand theatre, Paul Maunder believes he has come close to an indigenous form of New Zealand theatre.

Close, but not there. The Wellington-based actor and director acknowledges that the form is constantly changing and as such he might never find it exactly. However, the collective method of developing a play that his theatre group now uses is about as close to a truly indigenous New Zealand theatre form as he will get, he believes. The key to that form came from his reading of the Maori sovereignty papers written by Donna Awatere. It was then that he decided to “hand the consciousness of his plays over to the Maori characters in them.”

In the latest play by Paul Maunder’s group, the Theatre of the Eighth Day, the consciousness is handed to Elizabeth, a contemporary Maori woman who journeys back into the past. The play would not have worked if Elizabeth had been a pakeha character, Paul Maunder says. Why? “Because — and this is what I agree with Donna Awatere on — the pakeha in New Zealand has no natural culture here. They look back to England and Europe rather than to New Zealand. To find the New Zealand culture you have to look to the Maori.”

The play, “Encounter at Te Puna,” is about the Rev. Thomas Kendall and his

experiences in New Zealand, including his affair with a young Maori woman, Tungaroa. The idea for the play came from New Zealand’s history. The past is important in the plays and how they work.

“Encounter at Te Puna” evolved from a collective process that began with academic research into the historical events. Then came theatrical research with each member of the group contributing with some dialogue or a song.

Paul Maunder found the script for “Te Puna” difficult to write. The decision to give the consciousness of the play to a Maori character solved that difficulty for him.

The Maoriness of the play is important. The format of the play is whaikorero (speech) followed by waiata (song). The setting is a meeting house and the dominant feeling of the play is Maori.

Paul Maunder says the group is seeking a Maori and a pakeha audience, although "Te Puna” has played to mainly Maori audiences because the group has performed on marae. The reaction has been mixed from the traditionalists and the modernists in the audiences, but, then, that is the aim of the group — to take the past and confront it with modern consciousness.

Mr Maunder’s interest in theatre was born while he was at university in the late 19605. He went from univer-

sity to the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney for a year and on to London to film school.

When he returned to New Zealand he formed Amamus Theatre with the aim of performing New Zealand plays. In the 1970 s there were not too many New Zealand plays about and much of the group’s work was in the form of documentaries for live theatre

After three years the group became interested in the work of a Pole, Grotowski. His theatre was the theatre of the poor, which Paul Maunder describes as “non-technological theatre.” “It began with myths and confronted them with modern experience.” Amamus Theatre went to Poland to perform at a theatre festival in 1975. He took a break to work on the film, “Sons For the Return Home.” Returning to live theatre he felt compelled to take a more overtly political stance with his theatre. He named the new theatre group, which included several Amamus members, the Theatre of the Eighth Day because it had come full circle and was beginning again. The members looked at their relationship to politics and action and what could be done.

The beginnings of the “Te Puna” form evolved as the group worked on its first production “Hemi,” the story of James K. Baxter. Then Paul Maunder read Donna Awatere’s writings.