18 Apr 2012
Internationally acclaimed NZ Cook Island playwright Miria George presents her first stage play in 3 years, "Sunset Road".
Sunset Road is the much anticipated stage play from controversial New Zealand born Cook Islands playwright, Miria George.
Miria’s plays include the provocative and what remains, boutique musical He Reo Aroha (co-written with Jamie McCaskill), and the gritty Urban Hymns, which have been performed in international festivals around the world including the United Kingdom, Hawai’i, Australia and Canada to much acclaim.
Sunset Road is Miria’s first stageplay since the unflinching Urban Hymns in 2009. Her focus recently has been producing theatre, with works including the multi award winning I, George Nepia in 2011 and the epic Tu for the New Zealand International Arts Festival in 2012.
Miria’s journey from poet, to playwright to theatre producer now sees a welcome return to playwrighting with this coming of age drama. Schooled in New Zealand, the Cooks Islands and Costa Rica, Miria is the daughter of renown Cook Islands visual artist Ian George.
Sunset Road is Miria's first play focussing on her Cook Islands whakapapa. The world premiere season will be perfomred at Circa Theatre, 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington: June 20 – July 7, 2012.
Sunset Road is written and directed by Miria George and features design by Tony de Goldi (New Zealand International Arts Festival 2012 Hohepa), Ulli Briese (New Zealand International Arts Festival 2012 Tu), Karnan Saba (New Zealand International Arts Festival 2012 Tu) and Cook Islands dancer and choreographer Tai Paitai.
Sunset Road is a highlight event of Wellington’s Matariki Celebrations, which runs alongside Matariki Development Festival 2012, an international indigenous playwrights festival also at Circa Theatre.
For more information, high-res images and to arrange interviews, please contact:
Hone Kouka, Tawata Productions
021 128 9004
tawata@tawata.co.nz
Synopsis
Akarongo mai...
Summer, 1975. Rotorua, New Zealand.
Jimi Hendrix, motorbikes, ika mata and the dawn raids.
It’s two days before twins Luka and Lucia finally cross in to adulthood. Free, they roam the steam filled streets of Rotorua on Luka’s trusty Bonneville and dream of taking on the world. Luka desperate to escape, Lucia to become Miss Geyserland.
The twins work with their devout father at the local sawmill, uninspiring to them, for him where he has been since he first brought his family to this dry and broken land. A near death experience drags father back to memories of Atiu, Cook Islands and the secrets and mistakes of his past, shaking the family’s foundations and ultimate love of each other.
A coming of age. Sunset Road.
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