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DIANNA FUEMANA’S GRITTY COMEDY - THE PACKER |
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By Ron Hansen |
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Direct from a series of
successful shows at the Edinburgh Fringe and in Melbourne, Auckland
playwright and director Dianna Fuemana brings her gritty black comedy,
The Packer, to Auckland’s The Edge.
Fuemana’s one-man show is a snapshot of contemporary Auckland life, a
place of state housing, drugs and cultural collision. All is told
through the eyes of Shane (played by actor Jay Bunyan), a young Westie
living with his alcoholic mother while working a dead-end job as a box
packer.
Shane’s world is turned upside down when a beautiful Niuean girl, Pina,
and her father move in next door. “It’s a growing-pains story for
Shane,” Fuemana says. “He’s stuck in this dead-end job and then meets
this Polynesian girl, who really inspires him into thinking there’s
more to life than living with Mum at home and cruising off to town.”
Shane falls deeply for Pina but she remains out of reach. Through his
infatuation and a complex web of character relationships with friends
and his dysfunctional mother, the audience experiences his journey of
self-discovery.
The Packer also explores the cultural negotiations taking place in
contemporary New Zealand society. Fuemana says that she wanted to write
something relevant to her audience. “I wanted to write something quite
young, sexy and funky. When people come to my shows it’s always good to
see them making connections between their own lives and things that
happen in the play.”
The role of Shane was a change for Bunyan who is best-known as teen
heart-throb Jack Scully on the eternally popular Australian television soap
Neighbours. His celebrity profile was useful in generating press coverage when
Fuemana took the play to Edinburgh in August. Both Bunyan and the play received
rave reviews and after the first week, all the shows were sold out. A festival
newspaper Three Weeks in Edinburgh said:
“Jay Bunyan (yes, Jack from Neighbours) successfully seduces his audience with
an energetic performance, flipping schizophrenically from one caricature to
another as he weaves an amusing tale of a ‘down and out’ youth in love.”
Perhaps Bunyan’s greatest achievement is creating a convincing portrait of Pina. |
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Fuemana’s one-man show is a snapshot of contemporary Auckland
life told through the eyes of Shane who falls deeply in love
with Pina, a beautiful Niuean girl. (Photo: Jodie Hutchinson) |
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The role of Shane is played by Jay Bunyan who is best-known as
teen heart-throb Jack Scully on the eternally popular Australian
television soap Neighbours. (Photo: Jodie Hutchinson) |
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‘The Packer’ by Auckland playwright and director Dianna Fuemana
at The Edge following a series of successful shows at the
Edinburgh Fringe and in Melbourne. (Photo: Jodie Hutchinson) |
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Although the story is told through Shane’s eyes, Fuemana says Pina is the hero
and The Packer is a Pacific story.
“The story continues to change the stereotypes and the way New Zealanders
perceive young Pacific Island women. In this story, the woman is really spunky,
socially smart and has a university education.”
Fuemana is excited about the increasing numbers of Pacific Island stories being
told in New Zealand. “More and more, I think, Pacific Islanders are telling
their stories. You see it in Pacific hip-hop, music, film, theatre, visual arts,
and contemporary dance. It’s all been really significant. There’s a lot of
experimental writing out there and it sells. People are interested in it.”
When Fuemana was growing up, there were very few true Pacific Island stories
being told in New Zealand. She remembers clearly how excited she was when Blake
Carrington from the television programme Dynasty discovered that he had a black
sister. Young Pacific Islanders these days have a lot more to identify with.
“The young Pacific Island girls in Melbourne who saw the show were blushing all
the time. There’s this feeling that ‘Oh my god, that’s about us’,” Fuemana says.
Fuemana hopes that the increase in Pacific Island stories will extend to other
cultural groups in New Zealand. “I hope that the Polynesian push in contemporary
art will encourage new migrants to develop their own sense of place here through
the arts.”
The Packer is also a New Zealand story about this country’s evolution into an
international and multicultural society. “I think it’s about sharing the place
that we live in, being more part of it, having ownership and a sense of place.
Pacific Islanders are feeling a sense of place here now.”
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Copyright Event Polynesia Ltd.
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