Dog & Bone

Theatre Marae as live performance

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In 2017, Te Rākau presented a full public production of Helen Pearse-Otene’s Dog & Bone at Soundings Theatre in Te Whanaganui-a-Tara (Wellington), New Zealand.

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 In 1869, savage lives were cheap and colonial greed reigned supreme. 

The second Taranaki Land Wars saw vicious fighting in the north,
while officials in Wellington used the power of public perception

as a weapon that changed Aotearoa New Zealand’s race relations forever.

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Tāiki and Kurītea Kenning are brothers with the same dream - peace and security for their home of Te Miti. Being on opposing sides of the war, they have very different ideas on how to achieve it however.

 

Compelled to act as scout for the British Constabulary to keep their home safe, Tāiki must fight the battle of smiles and pleasantries in Wellington with those who covet every blade of grass on his land.

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The Undertow

Dog & Bone was presented as Chapter 2 of a quartet of plays called The Undertow, in an epic repertory theatre event at Te Papa Tongarewa.

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The quartet explores our bi-cultural history and significant events in Aotearoa New Zealand through the eyes of six generations of one family.

 

While themselves works of fiction, the plays are deeply researched and rooted in the history and the sentiments of the times in which they are set.

 

All four chapters of The Undertow were filmed by professional cinematographers to create digital theatre recordings. Find out more about The Undertow and access the recordings here.

 

Resources

You can get your own copy of The Ragged and all the plays in the Undertow series, or watch the television series online.