| Abstract/Description |
POETRY, but not so you'd know, kept an audience captivated at Massey University yesterday afternoon. Poet Tusiata Avia makes use of music, dance, lighting and deft characterisation to dramatise selections from her Pacific-centred work.
Wild Dogs as a theatre piece is quite distinct from the newly published volume of poetry bearing the same name. Adopting a range of personas, Avia delivered 17 interconnected poems, none of them read, all of them direct and all, despite their Samoan references, readily accessible.
Chosen for their thematic value, not every one finds itself included in the extended printed collection either.
Beginning with a Samoan dance, the poet then stabbed open a large can of Pacific Brand corned beef with a machete. In other poems, Aunty Fale and her palagi partner loomed disquieteningly large, with Bingo the mangy village dog romping alongside.
Prime Minister Helen Clark may have apologised to Samoa, but in another startling image, there she is on the beach, trussed and waiting for the umu nevertheless.
Refreshing, fluent, candid and humorous, Avia's presentation based on a heritage of traditional oral storytelling, lifted this vital female perspective on Pasifika well beyond the printed page. |
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