Diversity in N.Z. drama

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 20

Diversity in N.Z. drama

Shuriken. By Vincent (J’Sulltvan. Victoria University Press, 1985. 89pp. $7.50 (paperback with photographs). Objection Overruled. By Caroline Burns. Victoria University Press, 1985. 85pp. $7.50 (paperback). (Reviewed by Pau! R. Bushnell) Any study of the development of New Zealand drama during the last decade will rely heavily on the New Zealand Playscript Series. Published by the Victoria University Press under the editorial guidance of John Thomson, the series lists, with the publication of these two latest works, a total of 18 plays.

Thomson does not seek to impose a particular style on the plays which he chooses for publication, for it would be difficult to imagine two plays more different than “Shuriken” and “Objection Overruled.” They possess a diversity of form and subject-matter heartening to any who seek evidence of a theatre firmly rooted in the local soil and flourishing in every direction. “Shuriken,” by Vincent O’Sullivan, is an understated theatrical documentation of the events foreshadowing an “incident” which occurred at a P.O.W. camp at Featherston during the Second World War. It depicts something more than simply a conflict between the Japanese soldiers and their Kiwi guards, for although the characters are sharply drawn — the idiomatic speech of the New Zealanders being of particular delight — there is a strong sense of the camp’s being a focal-point for a clash between two cultures possessing

neither knowledge nor understanding of the other. The shooting of the prisoners at the end of the play is shocking, but not unexpected because of the skill with which O’Sullivan makes the event seem inevitable. “Objection Overruled,” by Caroline Burns, deals with a different sort of conflict. Rather than interpreting a specific historical event, it examines the patterns of emotional deprivation and repression recurring through generations of New Zealand families. The play contains reference to abortion, sexual repression, incest, infanticide, pornography, masturbation, and the agonies of adolescence, and seems overcast with a Catholic guilt of a particularly fervent kind. Yet for all its bleak view of New Zealand marriage, the play is frequently very funny, with a mood changing mercurially from despair to humour. The work’s form is challenging. A courtroom setting is the venue for action replay of moments of crisis in the life of the man (an audience member) who is accused of “the grave crime of living.” The two advocates and the Clerk of the Court enact these scenes, which range from farce to tragedy. Owing much to “Blood of the Lamb,” with which it has affinities in imagery and style, “Objection Overruled” is a powerful piece. The publication of Renee’s “Wednesday to Come” and Bruce Mason’s “Five Maori Plays” in this series later in the year will be awaited with pleasure, if these works are anything to go by.