“Thanks very much for your play and performance at the Meteor. I was in the audience on Friday evening and was so impressed with both the script and your excellent and versatile performance. I do hope you take the play further afield-try to get TV coverage etc”

“This solo piece begins disarmingly with John Davies apparently as himself offering a fine Mihi, then linking ritual with whakapapa, embarking on an account of his own ancestry.
This opening devise is left behind once a dialogue develops between the narrator and his rollicking seaman forebear, Graham the Scot.
The earnest imprecations and interjections of the narrator take on an increasingly tame, helpless stance as the ancient mariner’s stories of the past parade, sing, chant or writhe around the stage.
Davies revels in the physical, incantory, nature of the telling. With agility of voice and limb he presents us with a parade of at least a dozen extraordinary characters and events, traversing seas and generations, speaking in many tongues.
The title increases in significance as the character of Te Tupua the Goblin grows.
At heart is a desire to open a window on the past, to unmask some cultural misunderstandings in our history.
There is a surprising awareness of how misfortune can bring belonging; of having to grow into the faces we wear.
In the end confrontation with the mask comes only when it is lifted.
Davies is an experienced practitioner in devised theatre, a story teller and risk taker.
Using minimal props he relies on raw tools-the voice, the body, the imagination and the story.
And what a well told story it is.
This play should be seen by more than the small enthusiastic crowd who attended the Flaming Fringe’s opening night.”