Music outstanding in fun, accessible Two Guitars
Two Guitars, Jamie McCaskill and Cameron Clayton, Circa Theatre, March 26.
“You’ve got your priorities all wrong, mate,’’ Te Po (Jamie McCaskill) tells his co-star, Billy (Cameron Clayton) half an hour before they’re to go on stage for a live TV performance.
But who has got their priorities wrong? Is it Billy, whose partner’s mother has just been in a car crash, or is it Te Po, the 40-something musician and absent dad who threatens to abandon their gig because he doesn’t like conforming and being told what to do?
We ponder these questions as we watch Two Guitars – McCaskill’s latest play.
Only a whakapapa Māori playwright could write this work and take a light swipe at the rules within the culture about identity and belonging, and in this case it’s McCaskill (Ngāti Tamaterā), the talented actor and playwright who won the Bruce Mason award a decade ago.
We meet him on stage as the co-lead, Te Po, who with Billy has won a local TV talent show. They’re from different worlds: while both are third-generation Māori, Billy is beginning to learn te reo and has only recently embraced his Māori culture, often feeling out of his depth within it.
The 80-minute play opens as they sing a superb rendition of Muroki’s ‘Rehurehu’, which won them the competition, as a lead in to a radio interview. The radio host (voiced by Pehia King) interviews Te Po in te reo (he’s virtually fluent) about their TV live show that night. Billy isn’t really sure what they’re talking about – the non-te reo speakers in the Circa Theatre audience relate to his embarrassment.
Te Po resists the pressure to be Māori and to perform a prescribed set that night, rather than his own original songs. “They’re trying to mould us into something that they want us to be,’’ Te Po spits, as the stage manager, voiced by Kali Kopae, calls him to the stage manager’s office through an intercom.
But Billy explains why he feels torn between going on stage and supporting his grieving partner. “I was in a mundane office job doing shit day in day out … This came, and being here, meeting you, winning, doing what we love. I never dreamed any of this could happentome.’’
Te Po is less committed. Used to doing his own thing, he gets himself into trouble and underlying this is a man with commitment issues: a telling line is when we realise he forgot to buy a ticket for his 23-year-old daughter who the doorman won’t let in. A shout out to the kids with absent dads, McCaskill sends a moral message when Te Po puts it so perfectly when he says: “If you do have kids, make sure you stay part of their lives because if you’re not it can be a prick of a job getting back in.’’
Two Guitars is funny, and the guitar music and waiata are outstanding – Clayton’s country music talent shines through, as he leads the duo in captivating songs and harmonies. It’s one of the most accessible pieces of theatre I’ve seen at Circa in a long time. Two Guitars is a work which the whole whanau can enjoy.
– Two Guitars runs at Circa Theatre until April 13.