FCC/Tusiata Avia
A provocative and dynamic show about colonisation, race and racism, by a New Zealand born Samoan female writer.
IntroductionThe show brings to ferocious life Tusiata Avia’s The Savage Coloniser Book, for which she became the first female Pasifika poet to win the Ockham Award for poetry. Under the artful direction of the equally formidable Anapela Polata’ivao, Avia’s unapologetic and clear-eyed examination of race and racism, the colonised and the coloniser, is full of bold humour, courage and lacerating truths.
Synopsis
he voices of Tusiata Avia are infinite. She ranges from vulnerable to forbidding to celebratory with forms including pantoums, prayers and invocations.
And in this electrifying work, she gathers all the power of her voice to speak directly into histories of violence.
Avia addresses James Cook in fury. She unravels the 2019 Christchurch massacre, walking us back to the beginning.
Avia’s unapologetic examination of race and racism is full of bold humour, courage and lacerating truths:
The work features Samoan schoolgirls playing a game of patty-cake while singing about the atrocities on Nauru, and a red sequinned Pacific Island maiden planning to kill Captain James Cook.
A Tour Guide offers instructions on how to be in a room full of white people. She describes the contortions we make to avoid blame.
And she locates the many voices that offer hope.
※ Pantoum: A form of poetry that originated in Malaysia, emphasizing the theme of the poem with a certain repetitive structure and creating unique rhythm.
One of Aranui’s finest, Tusiata Avia crushed it with her first poetry collection, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, which she toured around the world for several years as a one woman show. In 2020 she was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to poetry and arts and the following year became the first female Pasifika winner of the Ockham award for poetry with her fourth collection, The Savage Coloniser Book.
Multi-award-winning director and actress Anapela Polata’ivao is from the villages of Vailoa ma Vaiusu in Upolu and Fagae’e ma Safune in Savai’i. Since graduating from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2000 she has directed diverse works such as Alofagia Le Opera with Sole Mio and the Pasifika musical The Factory. In 2024, Anapela was awarded an ONZM(The New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to Pacific performing arts, and also won a PANNZ Fame Award for performing arts.
Best known for turning his daddy issues into a cottage industry, Wainon-born playwright Victor Rodger created the theatre entity FCC (Flow, Create, Connect) to give his Pasifika mates roles that placed them at the heart of the narrative. Celebrated for his hit play Black Faggot, he was named an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit in 2021 for services to theatre and Pacific arts.
Writer Tusiata Avia
Director Anapela Polata’ivao
Producer Victor Rodger for FCC
Costume Designer Elizabeth Whiting
Set Designers Brad Gledhill, Rachel Marlow
Choreographer Mario Faumai, Tupua Tigafua
Composer David Long
Stage Manager Chrissy Vaega
Lighting Operator Peter Davison
Production Manager·Sound Engineer Emily Hakaraia
Cast Stacey Leilua, Joanna Mika-Toloa, Mario Faumui, Ilaisaane Green,
Petmal Petelo,
Iuni-Katalaina Polataivao-Saute
Tour Producer Andrew Malmo
Assistant Producer·Tour Manager Kasi Valu
Fa’afetai tele lava to Creative New Zealand, PANNZ
Premiere 9 March 2023, Rangatira, Q Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
Commissioned by Auckland Arts Festival
Subtitle Translation Jasmine Jeemin Lee
FCC is based on three concepts: the FLOW of energy; CREATING platforms for
Pasifika practitioners; and
CONNECTING emerging practitioners with seasoned veterans. Established in 2015, FCC
has toured throughout
New Zealand and performed Off Broadway in 2019 with their multiple award winning
production of Wild Dogs
Under My Skirt, which has also recently completed an Australian tour.
FCC debuted their acclaimed new work The Savage Coloniser Show at Auckland Arts
Festival in 2023, which
went on to tour in New Zealand in 2023 and 2024 including to the Aotearoa New
Zealand Arts Festival, and
to the Seoul Performing Arts Festival in October 2024.