October 10, 2023
Māori theatre flies high
A show brings together Māori theatre and circus acrobatics will premiere in Canada this month, before opening in Aotearoa next year.
Te Tangi a te Tūī is a collaboration between Te Rēhia Theatre and The Dust Palace.
Co-writer and producer Amber Curreen says it evokes the songs and mimicry of the tui to tell a story of love & loss between Māori, patupairehe & the natural world in the face of colonial impact.
She says it’s similar to Cirque du Soleil with the scenery made with equipment that is used for the acrobatic and aerial displays, and for other uses through the performance.
“There’s some that looks like a leaf and also kind of looks like the inside of the wing of a bird. So it’s metal, and you can play that so it sounds like a wind instrument,” Curreen says.
Te Tangi a te Tūī was commissioned by Urban Ink, an arts and media collective located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples of British Columbia and Washington.
It opens at The Cultch in Vancouver on October 19.