Bilingual presentation of play a first

Press, 2 December 1989, Page 22

Bilingual presentation of play a first

"Te Moemoea ” (The Dream), by Patricia Grace, is a first for New Zealand television. It willbe screened in Maori, without sub-titles, and with an English simulcast on National Radio. It is the fourth drama in the Te Manuka Trust’s “E Tipu E Rea” series, produced by Larry Parr.

“There will be a lot of reaction, from pakeha and Maori, to screening Te Moemoea (Sunday, 10.10 p.m. on One) in Maori, there always is. But that reaction will be mainly political — although it wasn’t a political decision,” says the director, Rawiri Paratene. “It was an artistic decision which came about as a result of a discussion

between Larry Parr, myself, and Patricia Grace.” Paratene admits that the Maori language is a major issue for him. At the age of 17 he was the initial co-ordinator of the inauguaral Maori Language Day, held in 1972. “We wanted to try doing the drama this way,” says Paratene. “We could have put sub-titles in English but often you can’t read them properly, they’re so small. In future I think there will be a lot more programmes made in Maori.” “Te Moemoea” is set in a small, rural community in the late 1950 s and revolves around the Saturday races. Raniera (Zac Wallace) and Pare (Eri-

hopeti Ngata) go to bed each Friday evening to have a dream that will provide them with a winning bet the next day.

The fact that Patricia Grace wrote the script in English and then had it translated into Maori does not worry Paratene.

“I have a great respect for her,” he says. “Patricia writes in English. She is known as an internationally-acclaimed novelist and short story writer and is a tremendous user of the pakeha tongue. She has a big readership, both with Maori and pakeha, and we didn’t want to exclude either viewer, but people have to accept that Maori is an official language.”