14 Aug 2017
In a world where water is scarce, how far will you go to protect it?
Bringing vitality and physicality to the stage, The Night Mechanics is a new play from Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer-in-Residence Mīria George (Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa, Cook Islands).
It is the story of a small, drought stricken Māori community in the middle of Aotearoa that becomes the flash point of resistance against ‘the water company’, a multi-national corporation more powerful than the government.
“Is this the future?” asks Mīria George. “Water is the final frontier for Māori, Pasifika and the world beyond. With water bottling in Aotearoa a current point of conversation and contention we are only just beginning to debate the potential impact of this important resource, should its access be compromised or quality be damaged.”
Brought to the stage by Tawata Productions, The Night Mechanics is the final piece in Mīria George’s Water Trilogy, which includes the award winning play ’The Vultures’ (2016) and the performance installation ‘Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky’ (2017). It is inspired by the modern fight for clean water, and is a tale in which water is no longer free and where dreams no longer exist.
Mīria George has gathered five actors, who all bring to the production a fierce connection to water from their own diverse cultures. They are successful playwrights in their own right who each bring an added dynamic to recreate what it is that we call normal, says Mīria George.
Playwright, actor and Wellington Theatre Award winner Carrie Green (Ngāti Porou) is joined by local actors Sarita So (Khmer Cambodia) and Natano Keni (Samoa), who recently launched their own production company, I Ken So Productions, with the play ‘Riverside Kings.’ Auckland-based rising talent Ahi Karunaharan (Sri Lankan Tamil) and Malaysia-based stage and television star Dawn Cheong, who returns to Wellington after six years fresh from being named Most Promising Actress at the Malaysian Film Festival earlier this year, complete the cast.
Preview Tues 29 August, 6.30pm
Weds 30 August - Sat 9 September, 6.30pm
The Heyday Dome, BATS Theatre, Wellington
Share this
