Landfall Review Online

New Zealand books in review

Float, Float On …

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David Geary

Floating Islanders: Pasifika theatre in Aotearoa by Lisa Warrington and David O’Donnell (Otago University Press, 2017), 284 pp. $39.95

Our quest should not to be for a revival of our past cultures but for the creation of new cultures which are free of the taint of colonialism and based firmly on our own pasts. The quest should be for a new Oceania.–Albert Wendt

The beauty of this book is that apart from being an entertaining and comprehensive summary of the birth and rise of Pasifika theatre in New Zealand, it also serves as a compelling social history.  [Read more…]

Performing Otherwise

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Emma Willis

Performing Dramaturgy by Fiona Graham (Playmarket Press, 2018), 189 pp., $40

If you have picked up a programme for a new play, devised or dance-theatre work, you may have seen the job title ‘dramaturge’ listed in the production credits. But what is a dramaturge? Even for those within the theatre industry, the concept is shrouded in a degree of mystery. It’s a seemingly shape-shifting position that changes according to any given group of people and process. Fiona Graham’s Performing Dramaturgy examines the role of the dramaturge in depth, its origins and many variations within the contemporary context, and analyses it precisely as a dynamic and ‘nomadic’ process. Drawing on her extensive professional experience, Graham weaves together an elegant text that moves between theatre history, theorisation, personal reflection and practical advice in order to answer the question of what a dramaturge does – or might do. As she notes, her aim is to ‘offer insights that will open up all sorts of new creative opportunities for practitioners by unsettling conventional ways of seeing and doing’. [Read more…]

Bridgehead and Beacon

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Simon Cunliffe 

Dawn Raids by Oscar Kightley (Playmarket, Victoria University Press, 2017), 103 pp., $18

Twenty years on from its premiere in 1997, and more than 40 from the events it depicts, Oscar Kightley’s seminal play, Dawn Raids, continues to resonate – and perhaps for more than the obvious reasons.

The raids, a shameful episode in this country’s history, were initiated under the Labour government of Norman Kirk from about 1973 and carried out with renewed zeal by the National government of Robert Muldoon from 1975. They were aimed at finding and repatriating Pacific Islanders who had overstayed their work permit visas. The searches were typically executed in the early hours of the morning and were carried out by immigration officials and squads of police with dogs. Pasifika people were woken from their beds, randomly stopped in the street or singled out at their work places, and asked to show proof of identity and immigration status. Those failing to produce the requisite paperwork were deemed to be ‘overstayers’ and summarily deported. [Read more…]

Barricades, Bewilderment, Bravado and Bravery

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Carolyn McCurdie

Instant Messages by Laura Solomon (Proverse Hong Kong, 2010), 168 pp., $24; Taking Wainui by Laura Solomon (Woven Words Publishers OPC Pvt. Ltd., 2017), 138 pp., $15; Brain Graft by Laura Solomon (Proverse Hong Kong, 2017), 55 pp., np.

Laura Solomon’s fiction, poetry and non-fiction have been published widely, both in New Zealand and internationally, and have gained prizes in international competitions as well as shortlist placings both overseas and at home. Her range is impressive. Each of these three books displays her characteristic energy and inventiveness. Beyond that, I found them very different. [Read more…]

A Mixed Bag

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Christine Johnston

As Much Gold as an Ass Could Carry by Vivienne Plumb, with illustrations by Glenn Otto (Split/Fountain Publishing, 2017), 232 pp., $38

This enticing volume, with its intriguing title, showcases Vivienne Plumb’s previously published work. Including short stories, poems, prose poems, a novella and a play script, it represents a retrospective exhibition of her work. Otto’s whimsical illustrations, his swirls and lines, described on the back cover as ‘exuberant gestures’ and ‘graphic wit’, appear as flamboyant graffiti on the pages. But what can they possibly add to the written word? A mood perhaps, like the canary-yellow dust cover. Plumb’s writing needs no exclamation marks. There is much to be said for white breathing space in a collection of mixed genres and shifting moods where humour and mischief feature alongside tragedy and loss. The reader must confront ambiguity. Meaning is sometimes illusive, fleeting, questionable. [Read more…]