Matariki puppets light up legends
Young audiences lapping up imaginative glow-in-the-dark puppet show created on smell of an oily rag
How do you fit a 5m taniwha in a four-seater Toyota Vitz hatchback? When former BBC costume designer Sarah Burren decided to make a children’s theatre show about Matariki that was the first of many creative challenges she had to confront. Then there was the fact she had no money but a heap of talented South Aucklanders urging her on. The answers?
Design the taniwha so it can concertina-fold down to sit on the front seat and fill out 30-plus funding applications to get the show on the road. Which is now what’s happening with a glow-in-the-dark puppet show that will travel from Auckland to
Northland and back to Auckland.
Given some of those funding applications were successful, the four performers, accompanied by some 40 meticulously crafted puppets and a two-strong crew, will travel in a van. The first performances are at Takapuna’s PumpHouse from tomorrow till Friday then the cast and pile into that van and hit State Highway 1 to the Far North.
There’s no animation, no rigging, no complex sound or lighting design — but there are UV puppets — used to bring to life the “seven sister” stars of Matariki.
The story goes that they find themselves on a rescue mission when one of their number is accidentally pushed out of te rangi (heaven).
Ah, says choreographer Teone Matthews, there’s a plot twist; oldest star sister Matariki saw the youngest, Waipuna-a¯-rangi, fall but wouldn’t let another sister, Uru-a¯-rangi, speak up. But Matariki soon realises everything is not all right with the universe if one of the sisters is missing.
Matthews says it’s the kind of show he’d have liked to have seen as a boy.
“As a Ma¯ori child, you always hear stories and our culture is about storytelling, but you never got any of the visuals,” he says. “Kids connect better when they can see things.”
As a Ma¯ori child, you always hear stories and our culture is about story-telling, but you never got any of the visuals. Teone Matthews
Last year, to test the waters, the show was performed in Papakura and Porirua where young audiences lapped it up, say cast members Tavai Puni Tupaea, Mita Tupaea, Rokalani Lavea and Ani Nuku.
“They couldn’t believe it was just the four of us doing it all,” says Ani.
Questions about how it was made were quickly followed with those about who does the singing because it sounds like Broadway professionals but, once again, it’s the cast themselves.
Burren, who founded Northlandbased Little Green Man Productions, describes as a wonderful way for young New Zealanders to learn about the myths and legends of their country — and to be inspired by what can be achieved on the smell of an oily rag.
She has some 476 productions, around the world, to her credit and is fairly used to making the most of a limited budget.
What does a costume designer turned creative director know about making puppets? Part of Burren’s work at the BBC involved making the “morning attire” for none other than the foxy Basil Brush(es).