New production Home Made made no sense – and perfect sense

Massive Theatre Company’s new show talks about home through the eyes of five different young people. Ātea editor Liam Rātana went to the opening night.

Hawaiki. It’s not necessarily a place, but more a concept. A spiritual home for Polynesians around the world. It’s where we return after we leave this realm for the next.

“It’s wherever you make it,” I remember an uncle once telling me. It stuck.

Watching Massive Theatre Company’s new production Home Made on Wednesday night reminded me of the concept of Hawaiki. Directed by Denyce Su’a (Talosaga), Home Made is an hour-long ode to home from five young artists. Each devising actor describes what home means to them – the smells, sights, memories, feelings, and most importantly, the people.

Walking into a packed Te Pou Theatre in West Auckland, I first noticed there was no set besides a black stage and a couple dozen lampshades hanging from the ceiling. There were a variety of shapes, colours and patterns across the shades. They spoke symbolically to the show’s celebration of diversity, which was evident in the cast of actors and their stories.

Māui Hitchens, Phoebe Reyneau, Manunui Rainey, Tyla Tuala-Vaimasenu’u and Tom Webster joined together to help tell each other’s stories. While it began with a song and dance, the show quickly moved into deeper themes as the actors took turns sharing their memories of home with the audience.

Hitchens spoke poetically and vulnerably about their parents – their love, dreams, divorce, and the confusion of it all. The depiction of their mother as Rangitoto and father as Takararo tussling back-and-forth as they traversed the trials of their relationship felt a deeply Māori way to tell the story, aiding Hitchens with their portrayal of the emotions and feelings from the events.

The set design at Te Pou Theatre was simple, yet effective. (Photo: Massive Theatre Company / Andi Crown).

Rainey spoke fondly of his upbringing in Tūrangi, which was contrasted with the fast pace of life in Tāmaki Makaurau. His heart yearns for home, but he finds solace in people he meets in the big smoke. They share a love of anime, music, and eventually form relationships Rainey comes to value dearly. Now, he feels like he has two homes. His story gave me an appreciation for the difficulties many face shifting from small-town New Zealand to the cities, particularly the loneliness and longing for home.

Reyneau’s story focused on her 100-year-old grandmother living with dementia. It’s a tale of grief and fear of losing a loved one. Although she is worried about missing out on fun with her friends, Reyneau also accepts that her grandmother won’t be here much longer, so clings to her while she still can.

Webster talked about growing up knowing he was different and his battle to suppress that. Eventually, he learned to embrace the fact he enjoys looking out of windows, or obsessing over trains. His was a story of self-acceptance, and finding home within yourself. Webster delivered a convincing performance which encouraged the audience to bask in their uniqueness. I found it one of the most powerful parts of the show.

The last to share their story was Tuala-Vaimasenu’u. She spoke candidly about the death of her grandmother and the impact that had on her sense of home, plus the joy of meeting her partner. Her story felt the most timid of the quintet, perhaps speaking to her conservative Polynesian heritage, which can discourage people from being too vulnerable in front of strangers.

With dialogue making up a large portion of the show, the integration of dance theatre throughout served as a welcome buffer between each character’s tale. While it broke the heaviness of some of the kōrero, it also felt forced at times, filling space where it perhaps didn’t need to.

As someone born on the cusp of the Millennial-Gen Z divide, I recognised a lot of the production was Gen Z coded. Though this was perhaps to be expected – the actors are all young, and they’re talking about their childhoods – it was refreshing to hear references to One Piece and Frank Ocean lyrics in a production. 

Māui Hitchens (left) and Tyla Tuala-Vaimasenu’u. (Photo: Massive Theatre Company / Andi Crown).

The thing about Home Made is there’s no through story, so it’s initially a bit hard to make sense of what’s going on. But it soon becomes obvious the theme being carried across the show is a love for home. Whatever it looks or feels like, it’s what shapes us.

Like Hawaiki, home is whatever, wherever, whoever we make it. It’s where we feel the love.

Home Made is showing at Te Pou Theatre until Saturday 25 July and at OneOneSix in Whangārei from July 29-31. Get your tickets here.

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