NEW ZEALAND – A theatre group in South Auckland is using classic English literature to break down negative stereotypes surrounding Maori and Pasifika people in New Zealand.

The Black Friars theatre company is made up of mainly Pasifika young adults who, for the past ten years, have been re-telling Shakespeare plays within a Polynesian context.

Their aim is to keep talented Pasifika and Maori youth off the streets and on the stage.

It’s not often you see a group of young Maori and Pasifika kids performing Macbeth in south Auckland – an area often stereo-typed as socio-economically disadvantaged with lots of criminal activity.

It’s also the same community which has raised many of New Zealand’s great heroes – Sir Edmund Hillary, the late Jonah Lomu, and World and Olympic Champion Shot putter, Valerie Adams.

The Black Friar Theatre company wants to break down negative stereotypes and build on positive examples for south Auckland youth.

Their mission statement includes re-telling classic literature in a way that’s relevant to their community – like Shakespeare’s MacBeth.

“We have a particular focus on re-storying. Our particular commitment is to south Auckland and to Pasifika people,” said Michelle Johansson who co-directs the play with Billy Revell.

Revell said the theatre group had been challenging stereotypes since they began.

“When we first started out people kind of said that Pasifika people couldn’t do Shakespeare,” he explained.

“We wanted to prove them wrong because Shakespeare is something that we were interested in.”

Revell said they wanted Pasifika people to understand that Shakespeare’s themes were universal.

“We’ve done Othello, I mean that dealt with a lot of jealousy and stuff like that, and we’ve done Merchant of Venice. So it’s sort of finding a way in for our young people as well, by making it relevant and accessible to them.”

The Black Friar’s version of Macbeth is set in an imagined Hawaiki, with themes drawn from all Polynesian cultures using dance, costume and music.

Musical Director Siosaia Folau took lines from the script of Macbeth to help incorporate with music into the play.

“I sort of grabbed a lot of Pacific refrains, just some real common ones that everybody knows and just trying to weave that into the music,” he said.

“It’s the way we Pasifika people tend to tell our stories you know, through music and dance.”

The play is self-funded with a cast of volunteers who auditioned from the local community.

The youngest actor is only five-years-old, and the three witches who represent different island nations are played by school students aged between 15 and 16-years-old.

Johansson said it had been a special process.

“We’ve got 50 people in cast and crew, and that’s a pretty incredible amount.”

“Just to be part of the rehearsal process leading up to it and sitting in a place in Otara where there’s all these Pasifika people sitting around doing Shakespeare, in their own time, off their own back and bringing it.

“It’s just a bit of magic, I think.”

Among the theatre company’s activities, they’ve written and produced shows for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival and the Auckland Fringe Festival.

But off stage, they are also social activists working in churches and communities addressing youth suicide, as well as holding workshops for teachers and students around the Pacific region.

They have actively supported the Freedom for West Papua movement, protests to raise the minimum wage and also the recent ‘Park Up For Homes’ campaign which raised awareness of homelessness in Auckland.

“All of that stuff is very important to us and the way that we sort of see ourselves contributing to a solution to that, is offering our young people somewhere that they can be heard.” said Billy Revell

Macbeth, the Polynesian adaption of it, is showing at the Mangere Arts Centre in South Auckland until September 4.

- RNZI