80s Back to the
Watching TV was part of the work for the cast of a new comedy play, writes Dionne Christian
At 17, Levi Kereama is too young to remember and appreciate the joys of life in 1980s’ New Zealand: no social media, waiting a whole week for the next episode of your favourite TV show (and being a month behind with Smash Hits
magazine, sent “direct” from the UK), vinyl records and afternoons at the local dairy playing “Spacies” and eating 20c lolly mixtures. And they were big enough to last the entire afternoon.
But Kereama may be starting to feel as if he’s time-warped back to those seemingly kinder, more innocent days. He plays the lead in the retro comedy Astroman, by award-winning Ma¯ ori playwright Albert Belz, who says he wrote it as a counter to all the trouble in the world today.
Belz told the Court Theatre in Christchurch that, as a child of the 1980s, he wanted to write a love-letter to the decade and Astroman was the result.
“There was a real sense of optimism and confidence that anything was possible in the 80s. Communism and apartheid were crumbling, the colours were getting brighter, the music bouncier, the action movies more explosive.”
Astroman, a co-production between Auckland and Te Re¯ hia theatre companies, arrives for the city’s annual arts festival having already achieved a rare feat. It was staged at the Melbourne Theatre Company, previewing the same evening as a New Zealand version opened at the Court Theatre in Christchurch.
Auckland director Tainui Tukiwaho has insisted on creating an “80s vibe” in rehearsals, playing hits from the decade and bringing in a genuine Space Invaders machine so Kereama and his young co-stars get used to playing them.
“After all, he’s got to look like an expert,” says Tukiwaho, noting that when asked to improvise playing spacies several of the young cast acted as if they were playing X-Box. “Some knew to stand up but had the controls in the wrong place. We older ones were like, ‘that’s not right’.”
It might just be the one role where Kereama is actually encouraged to play games, watch the TV channels where hit 80s shows still play and take a fresh look at movies like The Karate Kid,
which gets a special mention in Belz’ script.
Yes, says Kereama, he now knows the “wax on, wax off” line from the movie and he’s been musing on a world without mobile phones and social media but, when you get down to it, he doesn’t reckon kids today are too different from their counterparts in the 80s.
“The conversations are still the same; kids still joke and make fun of each other.”
And there are still bullies and growing up to do — which is what Kereama’s Astroman character, 14-year-old Hemi “Jimmy” Te Rehua, faces.
Jimmy rules at the Whakata¯ ne Astrocade Amusement Parlour thanks to his domination of the Pac-Man and Galaga high-score charts. Bright kid he may be, but that puts him on the outer with several of the local boys so Jimmy’s mum (Miriama McDowell) and the grumpy owner of the Parlour (Gavin Rutherford) set out to teach him a few lessons about the game of life.