Illusory splendour, mythic spirit, mime, photojournalism, traditional dance and haunting melodies are the parts of the sum that is the ambitious cross-cultural endeavour Masi, brought to the Sydney Festival by theatre company The Conch.
Nina Nawalowalo, director and lead performer of this elegiac piece, has drawn on her own origin story for Masi. At the core of the production’s scenic threads is the meeting of Nina’s parents: Fijian high chief Ratu Noa Nawalowalo and British citizen Mary Tancock, who first encountered one another at a New Zealand chess club in the 1950s. From the play’s outset, the unravelling of a personal history is signalled as Nina curiously opens old suitcases and unfurls parchments and cloths. Thereafter, representations of the past spill forth onstage as elusively and loosely connected as any recollection. Photos of the couple taken by Ans Westra are projected intermittently throughout the piece, tethering the memories and adding an element of veracity.
Masi is a mostly wordless and non-linear piece that relies on ethnographic, symbolic and magical imagery to convey its tale. A vein of poetic mystery runs through it, enhanced by lyrical piano and cello compositions.
The Fijian tapa cloth from which Masi takes its title is a dynamic feature on stage. Often it is employed in transitions and discoveries, especially reveals that are the impressive craft of illusion designer Paul Kieve (his CV includes the Harry Potter films and Scorcese’s Hugo). A particularly mesmeric ‘sequence early on involves various sweeps of the masi-cum-magic curtain, each revealing a different stage of a prop tree’s growth.
Nawalowalo’s training in mime and mask work is evident; her performance has depth despite the absence of speech. Kasaya Malevu, the Masi spirit guide, also portrays varied emotions through expression and wordless gesture. Unfortunately, the repetitive natures of their gestures compromise their stage presence. Though surely meant to imbue a poetic rhythm of sorts, they interfere with any intended momentum and leave one somewhat lethargic. Thankfully, the vigour and buoyancy of the Kabu Ni Vanua dance group’s performances (a fresh diegetic device in itself) save the work from getting too tired.
The scenes with Ratu Noa (Alexander Tarrant) and Mary (Jana Castillo) bring some lightness and vitality to the largely muted piece. The chess scene, and the narration of their evolving affection told through dance, display both tenderness and excitable energy. The scene where the two are first introduced, their separate journeys conveyed by a pacy sequence of large masi screens coming and going across the stage, likewise proves fun.
The dark backdrop, no doubt a necessity for Kieve’s handiwork and a suitable atmospheric complement, allows for the illumination of artful compositional clarity and striking rhythmic gestural lines.
Masi relies heavily on its own original theatrical rhetoric (both cross-cultural and cross-art) to communicate its tale. While it aims to engage us with its poetic stanzas of visual and auditory images – essences – that speak universally of human experience, there are times when it becomes difficult to interpret that essence and how it fits into the Nawalowalo family story – reading the program is definitely a necessity before viewing the production.
Despite its flaws, Masi nonetheless captivates with its innovative storytelling method, sweeping and lyrical mood, and worldly themes.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Masi
Director: Nina Nawalowalo
Co-Director: Tom McCroy
Illusion Designer: Paul Kieve
Composer: Gareth Farr
Cello: Charley Davenport
Piano: Emma Sayers
Recording Engineer: Mike Gibson
Lighting Designer: Nick Janiurek
Lighting Designer Fiji Season: Bonnie Burrill
Set Designer: Dan Williams
Costume Designer: Sue Prescott
Sound Designer: Thomas Press
Fijian Dance Choreographer Master: Laisiasa Veikoso
Prop and Animator Advisor: Rebekah Wild
Photographic Images: Ans Westra
Cast: Ro Miriama Saunayalewa Tubailagi, Maika Cobo, Dan John Fox, Paula Rokotuiveikau Nabuta, Tevita Salasalavonu, Ulaisi Taoi, Mesake Vuniwai, Nina Nawalowalo, Kasaya Manulevu, Jana Castillo, Alexander Tarrant, Semesi Rokobuludrau, Merlin Connell-Nawalowalo, Manuel Solomon, Jacqui Gwaliasi and Tameka Sowman
Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre
20 – 25 January
Sydney Festival 2013
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
5 – 27 January
