Discussion questions
The following questions can be used to look closely at any text of a New Zealand play or extracts from it.
Questions
What specifically represents New Zealand in this play?
You might consider the following:
Place
Are specific place names used? Are these authentic? If the play offers a fictionalised idea of a type of place in New Zealand, what place and what aspects of place are suggested?
Time and events
Are specific historical events mentioned? What and when? In what ways, and for which cultural groups, have these events been important in New Zealand’s history? What attitudes did, or do, various groups in society have to the event(s)?
Period/era
Is the play set in one or more particular times in New Zealand’s present or past? What aspects of the era(s) does the play focus on and reflect?
Time of writing
Is the play set in a different time from that in which it was written? If so, what social ideas of the time of writing may have impacted on the topics and theatrical style of the play?
Historical characters
Do any of the characters represent actual people in New Zealand’s past or present? How close to reality is their representation? If aspects of such characters have been highlighted or fictionalised, what is being suggested about the character?
Character as part of social groups
Do any of the characters, whether played as single characters, as ensemble, or in chorus roles, represent the ideas and behaviours of different social groups from New Zealand’s past or present?
Culture
Are cultural beliefs and practices specific to New Zealand’s different ethnic communities used in the play? If so, how: in the narrative actions, the theatrical design, the performance style, the dialogue?
Performance styles
Does the play include styles of performance that are distinctive to New Zealand? Does it include the traditional Māori performance styles of haka, waiata, whaikōrero? Does it include performance styles that are distinctive to other New Zealand cultural groups, such as movement, song, and storytelling from the Pasifika nations or movement, mask, and puppetry from Asian and southeast Asian nations?
Language – te reo Māori
Does the dialogue include te reo Māori? If so, is it translated by other characters or by the playwright? Is there a glossary? Is te reo used in casual conversation or in formal situations? Are words and phrases in te reo interspersed with English, or are there full dialogue tracts in Māori? Who speaks it and how fluently?
Language
Is any of the language specific to New Zealand, for example, relating to our flora or fauna, or to social systems, such as the language of government and education? Are colloquial expressions used that may not be understood outside New Zealand? If so, what aspects of our culture do these expressions represent?