By Glenn Burns
The Factory. Written by Vela Manusaute. Music by Poulima Salima. Directed by Manusaute and Anapela Polataivao. Kila Kokonut Krew. Canberra Theatre, June 24 and 25.
The Factory from New Zealand’s Kila Kokonut Krew is a heartfelt tribute to the Pacific Islanders who worked hard, suffered discrimination and finally found a place in New Zealand after immigrating there in the 1950s and 60s. It is vibrantly performed by its ensemble cast and impossible not to like.
The Boss: A scene from The Factory. Credit: Andrew Malmo
On Sean Coyle’s effectively simple set which represents the factory through brick columns and scaffolding, writer and co-director Vela Manusaute unfolds his story of Losa (Milly Grant) and her father Kavana (Aleni Tufuga) who come from Samoa seeking a “land of milk and honey” which will allow them to provide for their family left behind.
The play’s action comes from the interactions at the factory - with the workers, who are mostly Islanders, and with the autocratic and racist factory owner (Paul Glover) and his more sympathetic son, Edward (Ryan Bennett). There are echoes of West Side Story in the story of an ethnic group trying to establish an identity in a new land and in the hostility of the fathers to the romance which develops between Edward and Losa.
With feeling: A scene from The Factory. Credit: Andrew Malmo
The glories of this production are in the intensity and richness of the singing – both individually and in the ensemble work - and vitality of the dancing. The choreographer, Amanaki Prescott- Faletau, provides dance routines that go from the traditional to disco and the largely Samoan cast respond with a celebratory athleticism.
Salima’s accessible, appealing music also ranges over a variety of styles and accompanies songs of home, of work, of love and of aspiration which play an important part in telling Manusaute’s story.
And costume designer Seraphina Tausilia has done a great job supplying the ensemble with work clothes, with traditional Samoan garb and with clothes so accurately representing the fashions of the 70s that audience members of a certain age should be acutely embarrassed.
Grant does a fine job as Losa. Her singing is affecting and her performance nicely conveys the tension created by her character’s increasingly divided loyalties. Tufuga gives a commanding performance vocally and dramatically and Taofia Pelesasa, as the lively union rep, Mose, proves a very charismatic performer.
Though the story-telling is occasionally a bit rushed, Manusaute’s story is successful in highlighting the hardships endured by the Islander immigrants and in celebrating the immigrants’ hard work, their love of home and family and the contribution they made to New Zealand.
New Zealand musicals don’t come our way very often but if there are others as good as this – bring them over.