DeeKnow’s Grotto

Last night Kym managed to prise me off my PC into the car and down to the performing arts Academy at Waikato Uni to see one of the plays running in the FuelFestival in Hamilton at the moment. We went to see Vintage Cloudy Bay which according to the flyer is...

An audacious and provocative play providing a penetrating insight into the lives of Maori and Pakeha before The New Zealand Wars. Humour, romance and violence combine in this blood soaked story of revenge, examining the distinction between terrorist and freedom fighter.

And that's pretty much how it panned out. The historian in me enjoyed the content but I'm no theatre buff so I can't critically review the performance in any useful way, but it flowed well, the story seemed to be presented in a balanced manner, the set was simple but functional, the cast played well, and despite the challenging topic delivered it in a refreshingly humourous way.

It was well accessable, and like Kym said this morning (which had me pissing myself laughing)...

"there was none of that ... Ooh I'm Arty .... look at me fold myself into this box and sing backwards shit"

Kym claimed that I wasn't paying attention to anything other than the fit actress playing the 'princess slave' role (by crikey lads, nudge-nudge), and although she certainly did get a lot of eye-ball-time from me, I defended myself by pointing out that I also paid a lot of attention during the exciting pyro-technic period when they were letting off black-powder muskets.

There's loads of great stuff on the web about Te Rauparaha and the period and incidents mentioned in the play. Oh yeah and it turns out that the haka that the All Blacks perform is based on one of Te Rauparaha's. Check it out.

11:38:23 AM