Dianna Fuemana’s Birds is another Pacifica two-hander that peoples a bare stage with multiple characters, and as with Black Faggott, the light touch of the presentation counterpoints some pretty strong content down the track. The promo tells us it is “an ode to teenagers and their mums … an urban tale told through the eyes of a young Niuean boy growing up in Auckland’s Avondale Hood-Lands”.

Along with the Niuean notion that birds near a house embody the spirits of those far away (usually passed on), the title could be said to refer to birds who have flown the Niuean coop and those who fly back, the dad who took flight from the home and his son or was it the mum who took flight from a dad, the way a good education and cultural rootedness may help you fly as an adult – and of course to females, as seen from a young male perspective.

Tommy (Ali Foa’i) tells his story from age 11 to 15, its disparate parts held together by the impacts his behaviours have on his solo Mum (Bianca Seinafo) and their sometimes fraught but fundamentally loving relationship. She gave up everything, Tommy tells us, “her career, boyfriend, nightclubs,” to go on the DPB and bring him up. And like any boy crossing into adolescence, her tests her.

Both actors play a range of characters with vivid distinctions. Quite why both bring a mincing camp quality to female characters – specifically Cindy, the hip-hop teacher (in her 40s), and poi-twirling Ngahuia from the school’s Kapa Haka group – is a mystery.

Nevertheless the burgeoning of sexual desire, the cruelty of playground bullying, the injustices that arise at school and in the community, and the value of reconnecting with his cultural homeland are dynamically depicted with a simplicity that belies their acting skills, and those of director Scotty Cotter.  

Because the story is told from Tommy’s subjective viewpoint, we are left to come to our own conclusions on questions relating to under-age boys gaining sexual experience with much older women (although what actually happened in reality is left ambiguous) and whether Mum’s beating Tommy with the wooden spear he brings back from Niue can really be seen as an act of love.

In essence the dramatic power in Birds arises from telling it like it is and leaving us to cope with it.

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I was disappointed to hear that Dianna Fuemana’s play Birds lost funding halfway through rehearsals. I wasn’t surprised, as it wasn’t the only negative funding news I had heard yesterday (am I right?), but to reiterate, I was disappointed. New Zealand is a melting pot of Asian and Pacific culture, and, as Black Faggot and Goodbye My Feleni confirmed earlier in the year, these stories can make for great theatre.

In saying that, Birds isn’t really a show that presents anything identifiably Nieuan in its storytelling. The show focuses heavily on the relationship between mums and teenage boys, and, while this universal theme allows audience members of all cultures to access the play, it doesn’t give them anything to take away from it. In doing this, however, Fuemana successfully avoids stereotyping her characters and relying on tendentious jokes. [More]

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A full house, black walls, a wooden floor, two actors and a story to tell: Birds is a triumph of minimalism, poverty and heart. 

Dianna Fuemana has written a voice we have rarely heard. It is the voice of a poor PI Avondale ‘hood-lands’ young boy as he grows from a super energetic teenager into a complex young man. 

He has a stressed single mum, he hates high school, he discovers sex, he gets angry, he gets depressed, he gets lost, and he lives in the park with his mates and is sent away to the homeland.  His experiences are all dramatically personal are all beautifully told in this exceptional piece of ‘poor theatre‘.  

Birds central image is the fluttering birds at your window.  They are visiting ancestors, here to remind us we are loved and to keep on going no matter what happens.

The thrill of this Birds production is that two actors playing all the parts.

Ali Foa’i plays the main character ‘T’.  The story covers about ten years in T’s life. Foa’i is well over 6 foot tall and a powerful physical presence on stage. I am at first reluctant to accept him as a skinny bright faced 11 year old but as the story unfolds he just takes me into his world. I am there with him as he fights with his mother, plays with the cougar’s nipples, fools around with his mates, falls in love with Ngahuia and discovers his unknown homeland. 

His performance has such heart and commitment to each event that the audience laughs and cries with him. By the way, Foa’i also gets to camp it up a little with some great girl characters and an obnoxious principal. 

Bianca Seinafo switches between T’s Nuiean mother and others, including ‘T’s temptress Cindy, the girls at school, the boys at the park, the old crone and the police.  However it as the mother that she excels.  Stressed by poverty and isolation, she is tough on her boy.  This is no caricature Mum. She is representative perhaps, but Seinafo makes her true, real and believable and is full of heart for her boy. 

Director Scotty Cotter has done an excellent job, with only a short rehearsal period, to find the truth in each of the actors and their scripted characters. Simple staging, clear actions and great dramatic moments are hallmarks of good direction. The technique of actors having conversations with each other, both facing the audience, has been seen before in such production as ‘2’.  Here it is integrated throughout the play and allows the actors room to let the moments occur. 

Birds was originally directed by the writer in a short season at a Nuiean Festival in 2012 at the Mangere Arts Centre.  In this production at The Basement, Ali Foa’i continues to play T and is joined by energetic and creative Bianca Seinafo.  Sharu Delilkan, the producer, has battled to get this show up and running and should be congratulated for her determination and commitment to bringing new voices to the stage.  Let’s hope this show will join a stellar group of touring Polynesian Theatre Productions in the future.  “It’s an ode to teenagers and their mums.” 

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