Riding Waves, Growing Roots
BATS Theatre, The Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
25/02/2025 - 01/03/2025
Production Details
Producer, facilitator and co-writer – Sarai Perenise-Ropeti
Co-Writer – John Ulu Va'a
Hi out there, it’s me Steve. Have you seen my usos?
Riding Waves, Growing Roots is a thoughtful exploration of the realities of friendships, narrated by a familiar and friendly face. Through brief, meaningful moments, the show reflects on how friendships evolve, sometimes fading or shifting because life happens.
At its core, the show is a celebration of the deep bonds we share, while also acknowledging that friendships, like any relationship, require care and understanding. We’re sure you’ll find something to connect with, as the show offers many variants of friendships. Riding Waves, Growing Roots serves as a reminder of the importance of friends and the ways they shape our lives over time.
The show invites audiences to reflect on the quieter truths of adult relationships, accepting that sometimes we simply don’t have time for each other, and that’s ok. It’s a raw, honest portrayal of the rhythms of friendship and how we navigate the spaces between presence and absence.
BATS Theatre
The Stage
6:30pm
25th Feb – 1st March
https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/riding-waves-growing-roots/
Please rsvp to rsvp@bats.co.nz
Cast
Galo – John Ulu Va'a
Steve – Joshua Leota
Jo – Justina-Rose Tua
Lighting Designer – Isadora Lao
Operator – Alex Dickson
Pasifika Theatre , Theatre ,
60 mins
A brilliant deep dive into the spaces between friendly banter and disrespect …
Review by Salote Cama 26th Feb 2025
“Hi!! I’m Steve! Welcome to the show!”
Each of those exclamation marks are needed. In fact, I think a few more are warranted as Joshua Leota’s Steve welcomes in each and every audience member with a smile that would make his in-show namesake, and possible performative inspiration, Steve Burns of Blue’s Clues, flinch from how relentless it is.
The relentless friendliness is, of course, a performance; a costume to be donned like a bright stripped polo and khaki pants, or a grey t shirt emblazoned with a in-universe show name. But underneath, Riding Waves, Growing Roots is a show about the nature of friendship – how it shifts, strains and sometimes just runs out of time.
At BATS until the 1st of March as part of the 2025 NZ Fringe Festival, it is produced, facilitated and co-written by Sarai Perenise-Ropeti, and co written by John Ulu Va’a. The trio of stars – Steve (Joshua Leota), Galo (John Ulu Va’a), and Jo (Justina-Rose Tua) – play performers in a fictional children’s show, Steve’s Corner, where they are expected to be larger than life, affable, fun. But outside the show, the same rules don’t apply.
Navigating Waves, Entangling Roots
The title – Riding Waves, Growing Roots – suggests a juxtaposition: waves in motion, roots digging deep, but is it really a contradiction? In Pacific wayfinding, waves are a tool of navigation, guiding voyagers between islands, homeward or to a new home. Roots, too, are often thought of as static, something to ground us, but real roots are dynamic. They twist and tangle, constantly shifting in search of sustenance. In Riding Waves, Growing Roots, friendships function the same way. They are never truly still. They bend, break, and reshape themselves.
This theme is embedded in the performances. The characters oscillate between the exaggerated, saccharine enthusiasm of their personas and their more grounded, deeply personal selves. Galo and Jo want to bring more of themselves, more of their Pasifika culture into Steve’s Corner, but Steve resists. So much so that Galo is forced to go by ‘John’ on the show.
The subtext isn’t hard to read. Assimilation. Erasure. Who gets to be seen as palatable for mainstream audiences?
A Stage of Stark Contrasts
The set design mirrors this conflict. It is stark, unyielding, often bathed in a cold blue light (shoutout Lighting Designer Isadora Lao) that no amount of Billy and George (hand puppets played by Galo and Jo) can warm up. It is a battlefield of make-believe, where the expectations of performance collide with the exhaustion of reality.
Galo is instantly likeable. Ulu Va’a brings an ease to the role that makes the character’s heartbreak even sharper. His performance is deeply affecting, stealing the show in quiet moments of both vulnerability and sarcasm.
Steve is intense. Leota builds on that intensity throughout the performance, which is wild because it starts so intense. There’s an almost tragic irony in the character – perhaps a nod to Steve Burns himself? – who, in 2020, released a heartfelt video checking in on the now-grown kids who watched his show. He apologised for disappearing. If even that Steve couldn’t be a good friend, what hope does our Steve have?
Jo is the anchor. Tua has the challenge of playing a character who must hold space between the clashing forces of Steve and Galo. She pulls it off masterfully, grounding their extremes while delivering her own emotional depth.
And then there’s the fight choreography – sharp, precise, and reminiscent of another beloved childhood staple: WWE. Seiuli Dwayne Johnson would be proud. And this is not the point of the review, but I would be remiss to not say that Jo was right when it came to the Rock.
Final Thoughts
Riding Waves, Growing Roots is a brilliant but hard watch. The conflict at the heart of the story hits close to home, and the writing is so naturalistic, so painfully familiar, that I find myself almost relieved when the Steve’s Corner segments appear. Their exaggerated cheerfulness provides a much-needed reprieve from the unflinching reality underneath.
Because that’s what the show ultimately is: a deep dive into the spaces between presence and absence, between friendly banter and disrespect, between the performances we put on and the truths we can’t escape.
A must-watch. Just be prepared for it to sit with you long after the final bow.
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