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eBook details

• Title: Michael James Manaia: The Personal is Political.
• Author : JNZL: Journal of New Zealand Literature
• Release Date : January 01, 1999
• Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 189 KB

Description

[This paper was written in 1993--Ed.] In 1991, actor Jim Moriarty played two Vietnam veterans in Downstage productions. While there are obvious parallels between Clean, in the revival of the original version of Greg McGee's Foreskin's Lament, and the title character in John Broughton's Michael James Manaia, the revelation of Cleans violence only precipitates questions, whereas Michael James Manaia goes a long way towards answering the question of why Mick could kill his own child. Broughton's text delves deeper than McGee's through limiting its focus to one man. Colin McColl's direction emphasised this exploration of Mick's psyche and conditioning by setting his memories and statements in a confessional framework and Tony Rabbit's design easily enabled the shifts in time and location necessary to include Mick's past as well as his present. Within this scope, Mick's story encompasses those of his father, brother and son, and by implication, those of generations of brutalised and violent New Zealand men. Michael James Manaia's public expression of the pain and suffering engendered by myths of masculinity goes against New Zealand men's traditional emotional and vocal repression, shocking audiences into questioning a society which produces such individual violence and misery. Mick's personal story became political on another level when, after seasons in Wellington and Dunedin, performances at the 1991 Edinburgh Festival confronted British audiences with the consequences of imperialism. This essay discusses Michael James Manaia in terms of the personal consequences of geographical and cultural imperialism, Mick's sense of identity and masculinity from his Maori and Pakeha histories and cultures, his consequent attitude towards women, and the possibility of transcending such social conditioning. Fortunately, the play also offers the possibility of individuals healing from social wounds: Downstage subtitled the play as 'One man's fight for peace within himself'. (1)

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