Author(s): Oscar Kightley et al.

Playscripts

Urbanesia is a collection of four outstanding scripts by contemporary Pasifika playwrights, each examining the tension between Western and Pacific Island culture and values and how that tension is being played out in Aotearoa.

A Frigate Bird Sings by Oscar Kightley, David Fane and Nathaniel Lees is a funny and moving celebration of difference. A young fa'afafine is searching for answers to conflicting expectations of identity and duty in this comical and deeply touching play. "...a subtle, beautifully observed study of one of the most precious and intriguing gifts of Polynesian culture - the third sex...a classic of NZ theatre" - Anita McNaught

Taro King by Vela Manusaute takes us to a South Auckland Supermarket where hopes, dreams and low-price taros are feverishly negotiated, and where the workers dream of something bigger and brighter that the glaring lights of aisle four.

My Name is Gary Cooper by Victor Rodger balances post-colonial politics, humour and eroticism as it questions the expoloitation and stereotyping of Pacific peoples by Westerners. My Name is Gary Cooper is a rollercoaster ride through cultural appropriation and sexual deception.

Rushing Dolls by performance poet Courtney Sina Meredith expresses in poetry and drama the complex desires and explosive energy of successful young Polynesian women. Cleo is searching for the perfect job and life in the shiny city but the pressures of family responsibility and following her dreams almost overwhelm her.