It would be a great accomplishment to have just one show in the New Zealand Festival but this year choreographer and theatre artist Lemi Ponifasio has had the task of preparing two – Stones in Her Mouth, opening tonight, and The Crimson House.
In 1995 Ponifasio founded the company MAU in Auckland where he is based, a group of dancers and artists from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Originally from Samoa, Ponifasio’s use of striking images, movement and interplay of light and dark have taken him and MAU to audiences at the Edinburgh International Festival, Vienna Festival, Holland Festival, New York’s Lincoln Center and Santiago a Mil in Chile.
Despite the international acclaim, Ponifasio is happy to be premiering his latest work The Crimson House right here in New Zealand.
The theatre artist’s inspiration for all of his shows starts with something he feels deeply about, he says.
“There is always a sense of something to address but you’re not going to get a lecture from me in the theatre or anything.”
The Crimson House is inspired by how Ponifasio’s career has inevitably changed his life and intensified the feeling of being under surveillance.
“I travel a lot and my life is about passports, surveillance, always someone telling me where I should be, even this interview was set up for me. I have close friends surveyed and raided by police and the whole world is like this.
“These things happen all our lives and it started from Adam and Eve, God surveilled them, as soon as you’re born society tells you what to believe what reality is.”
Stones in Her Mouth, which premiered in Belgium last year, draws on the tradition of Maori women as writers of poetry and chant, presenting social and political themes through oratory, choral-work and dance.
“I’ve always wanted to make this work and find a way of relating with women – especially Maori women – so the work is really about their power and beauty and not Maori song and dance or women necessarily fighting for something.
“I’m not a fighter of anything, I just invite people to a conversation.”
Ponifasio believes theatre is a give-and-take experience between creator and audience.
“The audience needs to work hard, they are not going to McDonald’s but the theatre. I prepare things and they are special guests but theatre for me is not spectacular fireworks and being famous, it’s a more quiet thing.
“People should prepare when they come to the theatre to confront their own ideas.”
Ponifasio says the New Zealand Festival creates a rare opportunity to develop Kiwi artists and issues.
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“The festival should not just be to bring in artists from overseas so that we can learn about other behaviours, because there’s many conversations that need to be had in this county, too.”
Stones in Her Mouth, Opera House tonight and tomorrow, 7pm.
The Crimson House is performed tomorrow and Thursday, St James Theatre, 8pm.
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