I am happy to announce the commencement of a national tour of my solo play Te Tupua-The Goblin. This is an Arts On Tour production and I am very excited to have 20 performances booked from Kerikeri to Invercargill.

This work has grown from decades of my experience, and I am happy to share some thoughts about my practice, and the presence of Noh Theatre in my education, writing and performance.

Evolution of Noh Theatre in Aotearoa.

In 1984 I paid my first visit to Kyoto to study the oldest theatre form in the world, Noh Theatre. Stories of ghosts, demons, haunted spirits and questing souls of demented women, somehow appealed to me.

I have maintained my connections in Kyoto and have made four extended visits to study and dream of Noh, its techniques and conventions, and these practices have blended with all my other influences and understandings.

In my play Te Tupua-The Goblin I draw on conventions and inspirations from my 50 years of performing, teaching, directing and writing theatre. The ancients pondered how to represent a spirit onstage, a ghost. I am challenged and excited by the idea that there should be a curated and finely honed action that will allow spirits of the past to appear in our reality.

How to do this? To bring a form through from a world many will deny even exists, (and for them it doesn’t), but for those of us that do believe the world of the past is everything that has shaped the present and is in fact therefore ‘present’, the mask lifts the veil. There is bridge from that world to this and ritual opens the door for this ancient pathway to be trodden.

The ancestors are with us.

In these four photos you see me, the young artist in Kyoto in 1984 preparing for my first Noh recital, and then two masks made by Richard Homan. These masks are based on the Noh style, a type balanced, pale, ethereal, and have appeared in productions I have made. And finally in rehearsal for Te Tupua-The Goblin and the layering of the Kilt and the Kimono.