Ngā Tangata Toa

1919 - Taneatua has returned from the war a hesitant hero, a remade man.

His wife Te Wai, proudly escorts him to her father’s remote East Coast marae. Surprising him with the news of the expected arrival of his oldest mate William and her cousin Rongomai, a haunted Taneatua suddenly asks for the return of the pounamu he gave her…

Waiting stoically at the marae her father, Paikea, a rangatira, has given three sons to the pakeha war; he clings to his surviving boy Te Riri, believing he has paid for his sins…

Along with her pakeha husband, Rongomai is coming from the mountains of the south, cradling a legacy of unsettled scores. The dispossessed know when their time has come; her craft tells her so.

Kouka has sculpted a masterly work of eviscerating deceits and moody eloquence, reaching to the very heart of the obsessive nature of revenge. Taki Rua Productions presents a new visioning of Kouka’s celebrated work Ngā Tangata Toa.

Reviews

‘…elemental passions and the dark tragic action of lust, murder, love and long-simmering desire for utu unfolds.’
- Dominion Post

‘In a word: Go.’
- Dominion Post

‘…not to be missed…’
- New Zealand Herald

‘…stunning proof that this country’s first bicultural theatre is on to a winner’
- Sunday Star Times

‘…Kouka has written a brooding, intense and complex epic tragedy that is both enormously challenging and satisfying’
- Laurie Atkinson