Starring Jarod Rawiri

08 December − 17 December

7pm Tuesday to Saturday

4.30pm Sunday

$40 Adults

$30 Students, senior citizens and beneficiaries

$25 Friends of Circa

$20 Groups 8+

$20 Under 25's

A Superbly Natural Taonga

By John Smythe, 08 September 2011, Theatreview

First the welcomes: to Hone Kouka for his first stage play in seven years; to Jason te Kare in his stage directing debut; to Jarod Rawiri with his beautifully minimalist physical theatre skills – and, through the agency of all three, to George Nepia (1905-86), Rangitukia farm boy and legendary All Black fullback (1924-30).
It takes supreme skill and a quiet confidence to distil this life-story, involving iconic moments of rugby history, down to a 75 minute solo performance, abetted by some equally simple and very effective design elements – helmed by Robert Larsen with Cara Louise Waretini (costume), Karnan Saba (sound) – and original piano composition by Miriama Ketu-McKenzie.
The supernatural premise is that octogenarian George has arrived at the Westpac Stadium (a.k.a. the Cake Tin, built more than a decade after his death), the rugby equivalent of the Pearly Gates, in the hope of meeting up with his son who predeceased him, thanks to the war in Malaya. Thus Rawiri approaches it with the relaxed air of one who has left the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune behind and looks back on his life with a gentle amusement while anticipating a reunion with one that matters more than all that.
On opening night members of the Nepia whanau were as viscerally connected to the unfolding story as were veteran stalwarts of the rugby fraternity. It's fair to say that the more you know about George Nepia's personal and sporting life, the more you will get from this play. But even if you have no pre-knowledge the essential human story will be clear, intriguing and (I predict) moving.
With compelling subtlety, as they set out on what will become known as the Invincibles Tour of 1924/25, Rawiri contrasts young Nepia's innocent abroad with the less wide-eyed attitude of that other teenage prodigy, Lui Paewai. The rigours of training and the stylised moves of Nepia's consummate game are beautifully rendered, as is his romance with wife-to-be Huinga Kohere.
There is an effortless flow between characters, time-frames and locations that belies the hard work that must have gone into creating this piece. Kouka's words flow easily too, often supporting rather than leading the physicality that is so memorable in the aftermath.
The sea voyage is ingeniously indicated with a gentle flow of wavy lines across the backing panels of scrim, judiciously punctuated with a time-line gliding across a rudimentary map. A line drawing indicates the agricultural college where Nepia was trained by an American – and adapted his spiral gridiron pass to pioneer the spiral punt. A naïve painting (by Thomas Hanover) evokes the old home land of Rangitukia.
The hardships of Nepia's childhood, his being excluded from the 1928 tour of South Africa on racial grounds, and his being excommunicated by the NZRFU for turning to Rugby league in England to make a living during the Depression are lightly sketched in, leaving us to ponder the ingrained injustice of it all.
If it took the Rugby World Cup and the associated REAL NZ Festival to bring this play into being, we have a lot to thank them – and venue host Circa Theatre – for. In I, George Nepia, Tawata Theatre has created a theatrical taonga. It's only on until Friday next (16 September) – don't miss it.