Latest Review and Information About Last Day of Performances

CROSSING LINES. Wellington Perspectives. Performance.  Exhibition.  Exhibition LAST DAY 19TH MARCH  Performances LAST DAY SUNDAY 20TH MARCH 6PM & 8PM 6PM  RACE RELATIONS DAY EVENT Hosted by Human Rights Commission  VERY LIMITED SEATING 8PM  BOOK eko.bookings@gmail.com  04 384 9988 (leave a message) Tickets $20 Waged $10 Conc. $5 Child Book: eko.bookings@gmail.com LATEST REVIEW Reviewed by Lynn Freeman, 16 Mar 2011 originally published in Capital Times Images: 1. Alana Kelly, 2. Helen Mitchell New Zealand Aotearoa as we know is a land of migrants, yet we have never really figured out how to make the past few generations of migrants genuinely feel at home. Some demand assimilation – if you come here be prepared to become totally Kiwi, but what does that mean? This is just one of the questions examined in Crossing Lines, a Maori-Somali collaboration two years in the making.  Very rarely, you experience a frisson of excitement right from the opening seconds of a play. In this massive warehouse, you first see an ever evolving videoscape of an abstract horizon while listening to a series of voices talking about the land, belonging and tangata whenua.  The lights come up and we peer into a space that feels a little scary until we are beckoned in to see the photographs and read the messages along the back wall. At this point the cast still haven’t resorted to dialogue, we don’t need to speak the same language to understand each other.  When words to come they are filled with meaning. Umilkheir Amin and Mohamed Osman bring us the Somali perspective. Matariki Whatarau and Maria Rose MacDonald, the Maori perspective. In one eloquent scene, the Somalians join a queue where the woman is initially invited to the front. But the other two get annoyed when she invites her Somalian friend to join her there. There is jostling for position, done comically yet it makes an important point. At the same time we encourage migration, we also treat them as a potential threat.  Jennifer Lal excels herself with her lighting design for the cavernous space, it is achingly beautiful at times. The directing team have worked with the four actors to produce a series of vignettes, each one potent and resonant.  This production comes directly from the heart, and you will leave feeling hopeful, uplifted and excited about the future. You can’t ask for more than that.  Crossing Lines Eko & The Southern Corridor Project  Directorial Team: Heather Timms, Teina Moetara, Penny Fitt  Producer: Lisa Maule at 70 Cable St (opp. Te Papa), Wellington Until 20 Mar 2011  Reviewed by Lynn Freeman, 16 Mar 2011 originally published in Capital Times _______________________________ http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=3825