The towering bloke sitting beside me, in the BATS Stage space, tells me he booked for Grass Roots because it involves rugby but he knows nothing else about it; he prefers to come to plays with no preconceptions. And he goes to a lot, now he’s retired. The galvanised pipe goal post that comprises the set reassures him he’s made the right decision (Set and Lighting Designer: Scott Maxim).

The publicity, which I have read, promises “a heartfelt and charming musical about the colossal culture of rugby … a queer boy embarks on an epic odyssey through the New Zealand Rugby ages … [an] historical exploration of takatāpuitanga, masculinity, fatherhood, and what it means to grow up in Aotearoa.”

When writer/performer Raureti Ormond (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) skips nimbly onstage to ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ (The Clash), adorned in striped tights and top, claiming, “I’m the new guy”, it’s anyone’s guess where he will land in the cauldron of rugby culture. His preferred position is a question – cue risqué jokes – and his quest for a brand name to rival the likes of ‘Pine Tree’ and ‘Foreskin’ lands on a choice that confirms he “plays for a different team”. The audience, including my companion, is loving it.  

Abetted by his ball-on-a-stick ‘Concussionator’ device that, on the commands “touch, pause, engage,” knocks him into earlier eras, and AV Designer Grace O’Brien’s epic sweep of historical images, mostly moving, Ormond delivers more than the promised odyssey through the New Zealand Rugby ages. Manifesting as a British toff, he begins with the legend of Rugby’s origin in the 1820s (the William Webb Ellis story).

A geographical malfunction gag brings the rugger chap to New Zealand in 1870, accompanied by an operatic soundtrack, and a paean to Rugby Culture ensues, leading to Ormond’s rendition of the Tom Jones classic, ‘The Green Green Grass of Home’. Earlier he has crooned The Warratahs’ ‘Sailing to the Other Side’, more well-known numbers pepper the performance throughout, and every time the music track is TOO LOUD. Yes, Orman has a head-mic, we can hear his voice but the music should accompany him, not dominate.

The All Blacks get a good run in the show but it’s the titular Grass Roots of rugby culture that Ormond zeros in on, in a way that is surprising yet heart-warming. I won’t give the show away here, it’s for you to experience on your own terms. Some people may feel it gets a bit preachy but if you think of those elements as oratory on the marae – that’s how it works for me, anyway.

The publicity says Grass Roots is “Created for rangatahi and whānau” and the final sequence has that honest-chat feel, not least with its resolving of the truth games that have been played. No director is credited in this 90-minute production. Given the sense it has more than one ending, a directorial-cum-dramaturgical outside eye could interrogate the objectives and possibly trim it a bit. On the other hand, the ‘but wait, there’s more’ endings offer new ways of considering what we have just experienced.

Grass Roots is about more than rugby. It’s a ‘love letter’ to … more than just that (no spoilers). My companion tells me he’s surprised to find tears in his eyes. Me too. The talented Raureti Ormond has entertained us in a way that is touching, gives us pause and certainly engages.

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