{"id":3499,"date":"2013-03-25T06:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-24T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dfmamea.com\/?p=3499"},"modified":"2013-03-25T05:35:56","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T16:35:56","slug":"le-tonu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/le-tonu\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Tonu"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Polynesian<\/a>
Polynesian Laboratory: Max Palamo, Fasitua Amosa, Beulah Koale, and Shadon Meredith. (Absent: Amelia Reid-Meredith.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further to my earlier<\/a>\u00a0burblings<\/a>, it’s only fair to give my thoughts on the latest iteration of P Lab’s latest work*. Le Tonu (The Decision)<\/a> spends a day – the birthday of the family patriarch – with three generations of a Samoan family, each with its expectations of life both in New Zealand and in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

The actor’s are more polished in their roles – to be expected in a second go-round – and just as near pitch-perfect as last time. The direction is tighter and nigh invisible – the pacing, movement and tone enough to move me to tears again. And the story – very relevant to any adult with parents well into their retirement years – is as sharply told and succinctly performed as before. \u00a0It doesn’t overstay its welcome – its hour-long running time is over before you notice it – and grips from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

So was I as enamoured of this run as last year? No. This is due in large part to my familiarity with the plot – a lot of the material has carried over from its maiden season, with some beats deepened, and others dropped (and obviously not missed) – and with familiarity a few flaws and Hitchcockian fridge-moments can be discerned.\u00a0 It’s thanks to the collective’s active ingredients of talent, experience and skills that an entertaining and moving evening of theatre is pretty much guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Do I recommend this to friends, family and random strangers?\u00a0 If they missed last year’s run, then\u00a0absolutely<\/em>. \u00a0If, like me, friends\/family\/strangers have seen the previous season and loved it, then I’d suggest that it’s optional – they certainly won’t be disappointed if they revisit the old man’s birthday party.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: \u00a0<\/strong>the co-directors,\u00a0<\/em>Shadon Meredith & Amelia Reid-Meredith<\/strong>, are directing the 2013 premiere season of\u00a0Goodbye My Feleni<\/a>, while P Lab principal <\/em>Fasitua Amosa<\/b> was in To’ona’i<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0Don’t worry: reviews of local\/ethnic theatre will be rare things here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Further to my earlier\u00a0burblings, it’s only fair to give my thoughts on the latest iteration of P Lab’s latest work*. Le Tonu (The Decision) spends a day – the birthday of the family patriarch – with three generations of a Samoan family, each with its expectations of life both in New Zealand and in the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Le Tonu”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[644,647,646,20,650,922,645,648,254],"class_list":["post-3499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theatre","tag-amelia-reid-meredith","tag-basement-theatre","tag-beulah-koale","tag-fasitua-amosa","tag-hypothesis-one","tag-le-tonu","tag-max-palamo","tag-p-lab","tag-shadon-meredith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3528,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions\/3528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}