Moving, funny look at friends

Theatre is a magical thing. We gather in the dark to be transported, to feel compassion, to laugh and be moved.

Film critic Roger Ebert described cinema as ‘‘a machine that generates empathy’’. But with theatre you are in the room with living, breathing people and so the connection is magnified.

Niu Sila at the Forge Theatre is a funny, sharp and ultimately moving play that harnesses all those powers with dexterity and skill.

Peter Burton (Gregory Cooper) and Ioane Tafioka (Semu Filipo) are childhood friends in 1980s Ponsonby, one is a middle class ‘‘palagi’’ boy with intellectual parents and the other is a Pacific Islander with a large, extended family.

It is a friendship that crosses race and class barriers; forged in the innocence of childhood, but challenged by the complexities and turbulence of adult life.

The smart, funny and sharply observed script by Oscar Kightley and Dave Armstrong feels drawn from lived experience, but requires a lot from its two cast members.

Cooper and Filipo not only play the two central characters at different stages of their lives, but also transform swiftly and skilfully into a host of supporting characters.

It is a huge challenge, with the two cast members on stage for 90 minutes, switching seamlessly from character to character and shifts in time and location.

But the two cast members handle that challenge with ease, even feeling comfortable enough to improvise and have fun with the audience.

The performances are supported by deceptively simple and intimate staging.

Thoughtful and carefully constructed staging, and powerful and dexterous performances from the cast, are all in service to a very funny and moving play about the enduring power of friendship.