Transcript
It's not often you see a group of young Maori and Pasifika kids performing Macbeth in South Auckland - an area often stereo-typed as socio-economically disadvantaged with lots of criminal activity. It's also the same community which has raised many of New Zealand's great heroes - Sir Edmund Hillary, the late Jonah Lomu, and World and Olympic Champion Shot putter, Valerie Adams.
The Black Friar Theatre company wants to break down negative stereotypes and build on positive examples for South Auckland youth. Their mission statement includes re-telling classic literature in a way that's relevant to their community.
MICHELLE JOHANSSON: We have a particular focus on restorying. So restorying the classics. Our particular commitment is to South Auckland and to Pasifika people.
That's Michelle Johansson who co-directs Macbeth alongside Billy Revell. Mr Revell says they've been challenging stereotypes since they began.
BILLY REVELL: When we first started out people kind of said that pasifika people couldn't do Shakespeare and so when we first started out we wanted to prove them wrong because Shakespear is something that we were interested in.
Mr Revell says they want Pasifika people to understand that Shakespeare's themes are universal.
BILLY REVELL: Within the past we've done Othello, I mean that dealt with a lot of jealousy and stuff like that. And we've done Merchant of Venice. And so it's sort of finding a way in for our young people as well. Making it relevant and accessible to them.
Their version of Macbeth is set in an imagined Hawaiki with themes drawn from all Polynesian cultures using dance, costume and music. Musical Director Siosaia Folau took lines from the script of Macbeth to help incorporate with music into the play.
SIOSAIA FOLAU: And then I sort of grabbed a lot of pacific refrains, just some real common ones that everybody knows and just trying to weave that into that music and that as well. It's the way we Pasifika people tend to tell our stories you know, through music. Through music and dance.
The play is self-funded with a cast of volunteers who auditioned from the local community. The youngest actor is only 5 years old and the three witches who represent different island nations are played by school students aged between 15 and 16 years old.
MICHELLE JOHANSSON: We've got fifty people in cast and crew and that's a pretty incredible amount. And just to see, to be part of the rehearsal process even leading up to it and just sitting in a place in Otara where there's all these pasifika people sitting around doing Shakespeare, in their own time, off their own back and bringing it. It's just a bit of magic, I think.
Among the theatre company's activities, they've written and produced shows for the NZ International Comedy Festival and the Auckland Fringe Festival. But off stage, they are also social activists working in churches and communities addressing youth suicide as well as holding workshops for teachers and students around the Pacific region. They have actively supported the Freedom for West Papua movement, protests to raise minimum wage and also the recent 'Park up for homes' campaign which raised awareness of homelessness in Auckland. Mr Revell says helping to make an impact within their community is important.
BILLY REVELL: All of that stuff is very important to us and the way that we sort of see ourselves contributing to a solution to that, is offering our young people somewhere that they can be heard.
Samoan father Jerome David brought along his 12-year-old daughter Stania David who has just started reading Shakespeare.
JEROME DAVID: It's fantastic, the show was pretty good. The music was, oh...they [the music team] are the one who make the show.
Macbeth is showing at the Mangere Arts Centre in South Auckland until the 24th September.
