Old Story Made New

Te Ao Hou, June 1964, Page 44

Old Story Made New The story of the operetta is an old one, but this interpretation made it seem brand new. A canoe under the leadership of a tohunga leaves Hawaiiki to seek the new land of Kupe's in the south. They are beset by the gods of the deep, who cause bad seas and furious storms because they are angry at the presence of an intruder in the canoe, and because the tapu has been broken. The sea-fairies come to the aid of the canoe and after transactions with the sea-gods the canoe is left to go its way in peace. In the new land the explorers have many adventures, and come in contact with the earliest inhabitants of the land, the forest fairies (patu paiarehe). There are some quite humorous encounters here as the new arrivals are mystified by the supernatural qualities of the forest people. They survive, though, and the population increases. The tribe is divided into two and war nearly breaks out between them; this is caused by the old tohunga, who finds that his powers are waning in this new land. But affairs are righted in the finish and the production ends on a high note with joyous chanting and dancing. I thought that the idea of the contacts between the fairy peoples (the sea-gods and the forest fairies) with the mortals, a theme running right through the production, was an excellent one. It also seemed to me that the interpretation of the storms, high winds, lightning and thunder, rough seas and moving forest was most effective. I would like to mention particularly one performer, Christine Anderson, whose entertainment abilities are obvious. I personally hope that she continues in this field and that in due course we will be hearing and seeing a lot more of her.