Frangipani Perfume : Mapaki
Makerita Urale; Dianna Fuemana
One minute we are floating in the clouds, wafted
along on the scent of frangipani, the next minute we hear a toilet
flushing. Languorous movement to Offenbach's stately Barcarolle
is followed by a session of floor-mopping and the line, "I
hate the smell of piss and Janola!". These startlingly original
one act plays from two of our leading Pacific Island playwrights
challenge the usual images of Pacific Islands women with energy,
humour and biting satire. Enormously entertaining, they are packed
with power, fun and robust, vibrant characters.
Frangipani
Perfume movingly explores the painful gap between myth, memory
and banal reality for PI immigrant families; and
Mapaki,
the abyss between fantasy and reality in a disturbing and violent
relationship.
From reviews of
Frangipani Perfume -
"Heaven scent - so fresh and free, so defiant of easy definition, that it can
only be described in words such as pioneering and unique."
The Listener
"Imagine Chekov's Three Sisters bathed in the Pacific and coconut-milked for all its sensual worth
and you've got Frangipani Perfume ... a hothouse of sensuous theatrical
arousal."
Capital Times
"The palagi didn't get all the jokes but there were so many it didn't matter..."
The Dominion
From reviews of
Mapaki -
" ... a startling piece emanating strength and purity ... humour and pathos filled
drama, magnificently achieved ..."
The Package
"... a delicately observed drama ... a tale of lost dreams and broken spirit; a quietly intense
work with raw sincerity."
The Listener
"Fuemana's play has humour and vitality ... the pain and anguish are simply presented and no
easy answers are provided."
Evening Post
Makerita Urale was born in the village of Fagamalo on the island of Savai'i in Samoa, and has worked as a journalist
and free-lance writer of children's stories. Her other plays include
The Magic Seashell and
Popo
the Fairy, and the short film
Hibiscus.
She has worked in New Zealand as Producer in the Arts for many years.
She is currently working as a documentary director in film and television.
Dianna Fuemana was nominated Outstanding New Writer
of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards 1999. Niu Sila born,
her parents are from Mutalau/Niue and Pago Pago/Amerika Samoa. She
has toured
Mapaki extensively
in New Zealand and The United States, and the International Women's
Conference in Athens/Greece 2000. She has since written and produced
three others,
Jingle Bells, 2001
Auckland NZ,
The Packer 2003,
Wellington NZ, Melbourne Australia; and most recently
My
Mother Dreaming, a tale of three generations of women.
