Words as living things

Review

UPU, curated by Grace Iwashita-Taylor, directed by Fasitua Amosa

Circa Theatre, June 16-19. Reviewed by

UPU gathers distinct literary voices from across generations of Oceanic literature, translating those poems as emboldened, finely pitched performance.

After a season at Silo Theatre as part of the Auckland Arts Festival last year, UPU joins the Kia Mau Festival with a line-up of leading Ma¯ori and Pasifika performers.

Upu means ‘‘words’’ in Samoan. This production animates those words as living and breathing offerings, connected to oral traditions. The 70-minute performance includes 38 poems, with works from Hone Tuwhare, Tusiata Avia, Karlo Mia, John Pule, Audrey Brown-Pereira, Tayi Tibble and more.

Award-winning poet Grace IwashitaTaylor curated the show, while Fasitua Amosa directed. Plinths are arranged like islands staring out on a vast ocean, while lighting and projection transition between the disparate works without whiplash.

Shadon Merideth interpreted a poem about how Spam colonised Guam as a treatise on the virtues of canned pork, sprinting from plinth to plinth, unloading tongue-twisted sentences breathlessly.

Ana Corbett, Gaby Solomona, Nichola Kawana and Mia Blake transformed Songs of the Fat Brown Woman into a gestural portrait (the sway of hips, the batting away of a fly), equal parts reverence and fear.

Jarod Rawiri was an engaging presence, bringing Moko alive with scowling energy.

The performances celebrated diversity and richness, wisdom ancient and new, while at the same time referencing colonial powers that have acted to flatten Oceanic cultures. Grief and resistance exist in tandem, and the production highlights how Oceanic peoples continue to withstand the ongoing effects of colonisation.

Even during poems that were interpreted alone, the other performers were dotted around the plinths in shadow. They were like strong pou, uplifting the kaupapa of the production, the whakaaro of the poets.

UPU is part of the Kia Mau Festival, which runs until tomorrow.