Play based on real life tragedy of an innocent man shot by police
Award winning playwright Aroha Awarau's new play about motorway shooting.
Officer 27
by Aroha Awarua
The Basement Theatre September 22 - 26
Award winning playwright Aroha Awarau has a new play opening this month at Basement Theatre.
The play, which he has written and produced, is topical and Pacific-themed, focused on an issue that has been in the headlines internationally recently, notably in the US – the unintentional shooting of bystanders by police.
There have also been examples in New Zealand, as in the case of Halatau Naitoko who was shot by police during an armed offenders alert on the Western Motorway. Aroha Awarua, who is journalist at the NZ Woman’s Weekly, interviewed and became friends with Ivoni Fuimaono, Mr Naitoko's mother.
The play developed from that experience. He says it follows a similar line to the actual events.
“After her son is accidentally shot and killed by a police officer, Niuean mother of seven Tulia disappears inside her own grief. She realises that closure will only come from a meeting with the man who took her son’s life."
The play also focuses on the friendship between the mother and a teenage Pakeha boy, who she meets at the cemetery.
“I've cast NZ's premiere hula dancer Aruna Po-Ching as the lead, her first major theatre role. But she's no stranger to acting. She's played the wife of Oscar Kightley in the TV3 hit show Harry, and Temuera Morrison's wife in the BBC series Tatau, filmed in the Cook Islands."
Playing her husband is experienced Tongan actor Joe Folau, who has been in Peter Jackson's King Kong and Shortland Street.
The play has already had some success having been a finalist in the 2015 Adam NZ Playwriting Awards, and it also won this year's Brown Ink, the best Maori and Pacific play chosen by Playmarket.
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John Daly-Peoples
Fri, 11 Sep 2015
Fri, 11 Sep 2015
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Play based on real life tragedy of an innocent man shot by police
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