‘Blown away’ by key Aotearoa play
Graeme Tuckett
My experience of A Boy Called Piano has been back-to-front. I heard the second-half, completely unexpectedly, as a radio play. A year later, also unplanned, I heard the first-half, as an RNZ repeat. And then, earlier this year, I saw A Boy Called Piano as a documentary at the New Zealand Film Festival.
And now, finally, I have seen A Boy Called Piano on stage. And once again, I am absolutely blown away.
A Boy Called Piano is an autobiographical piece by writer Fa’amoana John Luafutu. As a young kid in Auckland in the 1960s, Fa’amoana was made a ward of state. He was imprisoned – there is no other word for it – in a series of boy’s homes around the country.
With his fellow inmates – again, that is the right word – he was terrified and brutalised until a place on the conveyor belt towards crime, imprisonment and addiction was pretty much guaranteed. Fa’amoana was just 11 years old when he was taken away from his family and fed into the system. He didn’t emerge for a decade.
The story and script that Fa’amoana wrote of his life and the lives of a couple of his best friends inside, is never depressing, or even hard to watch. The genius of A Boy Called Piano is that Fa’amoana focuses on the radiance and irrepressibility of the boys, even as the adults who rule their lives do their best to crush them. There are tough scenes and moments, but the show is so skilfully written and performed, we never look away or block out what we are hearing.
A Boy Called Piano brings all of this to life on the simplest of stages. There is a piano – played by Dave Dobbyn’s favourite keyboardist Mark Vanilau – and a backdrop of three hanging cloths. Three actors – Fa’amoana’s son Matthias Luafutu (Coming Home In The Dark), Aaron McGregor and Rob Ringiao-Lloyd perform nearly all the characters, moving through roles with phenomenal precision. The play is done in 75 minutes flat. By which time half the audience were in tears and every one of us jumped to our feet to give a standing ovation to what we had seen and the team who had created it.
A Boy Called Piano is one of the key pieces of writing to have come out of Aotearoa in the 21st century. As a radio play and as a film, it is accessible, laugh-out-loud funny, hugely moving and completely unforgettable. On stage – it is all of that and more.
A Boy Called Piano is touring the country throughout October. A ticket might cost you about twice the price of a movie ticket, but you’ll remember every minute of this show for years.
And you’ll be powerfully reminded of what actors on a bare stage can achieve, that no movie ever can. Even if you haven’t seen a play performed on stage since you were in high school, you’ll be glad you saw A Boy Called Piano. Just go.