Ship Songs
Best known for his role as Martin "Sticky" Stickwell on Shortland Street, Ian Hughes makes playing 14 main characters and numerous minor ones look easy. A master of accents, he switches effortlessly between English, Irish, Chinese, Canadian and Maori personalities. Ship Songs energetically fuses performance skills with captivating stories, impassioned music and cleverly chosen visuals to create a show you can't help but get swept up in.
Overview
What does a good Catholic girl from Yorkshire, a lovable Irish convict and a revered 15th century Mongolian admiral have in common? In Ship Songs starring Ian Hughes these three protagonists are all driven by their desire to go beyond what is safe and expected of them - to get out there, discover the world and all it has to offer.
Smooth operator Ian Hughes, best known for his role as Martin "Sticky" Stickwell on Shortland Street, makes playing 14 main characters and numerous minor ones look easy. A master of accents, he switches effortlessly between English, Irish, Chinese, Canadian and Maori personalities. Not only that but his use of body language to convey each character is impressive. As he guides the audience through different centuries and continents one moment he's the gruff sea captain with downturned mouth and staunchly parted legs, the next he's playing his own mother at the age of 22, the good Catholic girl Gabrielle Barker who is a bit coquettish with legs together, shoulders forward and eyes cast down.
The stand out of the three stories was the adventures of Gabrielle crossing the Atlantic. It's one of the most incredible 'how I met your father stories' you're ever likely to hear and as such this very personal tale provides the heart and soul of the show. While the other two storylines are fascinating, they are not nearly as developed. I would have loved to have known more about the Chinese explorer Zheng He who "discovered the world" but has largely been written out of the history books. Because we are only offered snippets of his story, which is by far the most complicated of the three, at times it seemed more of a distraction that a fully formed part of the narrative. But this is only a minor complaint.
Along with Hughes' performance, the stories are enhanced by fantastic visual projection and the tight live band. Musical legend Don McGlashan and the bearded duo 'The Journeymen' provide the original music which adds a further layer of emotion and humour and they entertain the audience with some fantastically upbeat Irish shanties. The projection also reminds us of where we are and in some parts takes on an almost 3D role. Against this backdrop we watch Zheng He burn alive, Irish convict James Ryan discover the lush paradise that is Aotearoa and the seriously ill first officer Peter Cullen lie in bed with a hole in his head waiting to die.
Ship Songs energetically fuses the performance skills of Ian Hughes with captivating stories, impassioned music and cleverly chosen visuals to create a show you can't help but get swept up in. Hughes tells us at the beginning of his performance that the best stories aren't always the most well known ones and I must say I wholeheartedly agree.
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