FALEMALAMA written and directed by Dianna Fuemana. Presented by Harbourfront Centre and Planet IndigenUS at the Enwave Theatre (231 Queens Quay West). Friday-Saturday (August 21-22) at 8 pm. $25. 416-973-4000. See listing.
Although playwright Dianna Fuemana is firmly rooted in New Zealand, her latest show has a Canadian connection. She began writing Falemalama, which gets two performances at the Planet IndigenUS Festival this weekend, while touring another show in Peterborough in 2006.[rssbreak]
“My mother had recently passed away, and I got a call from a theatre company in Minneapolis asking if I was working on something,” she tells me, on the phone from Auckland.
“I knew I needed to write this piece about my mother, and it just seemed like the perfect time to do it while I was away from home. I don’t think I could have written it at home. It was too close to my heart, and I needed the distance.”
The show, which has played successfully in New Zealand and been broadcast on national TV, chronicles the journey her mother made from American Samoa to New Zealand.
“It’s a story about moving and migration, being uprooted and adapting both to new environments and also to the people you’re with,” says Fuemana, the youngest of eight children. “It’s the story of her survival and strength raising lots of children and moving around a lot.”
Fuemana, whose previous plays include Mapaki and Jingle Bells, says she’s indebted to her mother’s storytelling skills. Into adulthood, she lived next to her mother for years, and the older woman would help out with gardening and cleaning, constantly evoking the past.
“She’d tell stories about her upbringing, how she met my father, what her life was like prior to coming to New Zealand,” she says. “She talked about what made her who she is, and I think she was telling me this to help me realize who I was, too.”
Falemalama, which in English translates roughly as “house of light,” is indeed a family affair. The cast includes Fuemana’s daughter Reid Elisaia and nephew Ali Foa’i.
The writer/director, who’s part Samoan and part Niue, has done a lot of travelling and has come to realize that New Zealand’s indigenous people are among the strongest indigenous communities in Western society.
“Politically, we’re very strong. I think because of that, others who come from the Pacific to New Zealand have been able to assume their identity.”
She’s excited to bring that sense of pride to Canada – along with a new kind of theatre.
“I help tell the story through Samoan dance, Pacific music – it’s a blend of contemporary and traditional performance,” she says. “There’s dance, storytelling, strong lighting elements to evoke the different worlds of the story. You don’t see much Pacific theatre touring the world.”
glenns@nowtoronto.com
