Overview
Comedy has always been an effective tool for facilitating conversations on serious topics, and stand-up comedian James Nokise knows exactly how to use it to this effect. Rukahu, Nokise's solo show, is an unflinching and comical reflection on the red tape associated with arts funding — and that of Pacific artists' work in particular.
His fictional character Jon Bon Fasi, has managed to squeeze $75,000 out of Creative New Zealand for his new show 'In Search of the Pasifika'. But the senior Samoan artist has whittled away the funding and used it to create nothing more than what the onstage character (but quite clearly Nokise himself agrees) describes as bullshit. The show is laced with references to its one-word title — Rukahu in Maori meaning to lie or deceive — and Nokise throws all Pacific cultures under the Pasifika umbrella term in a way that challenges us to think about the integrity with which we view cultural representations.
First performed on Wellington's Cuba Street in the 2015 NZ Fringe Festival, where it won the Best Solo Theatre and Makes You Think awards, Rukahu is being performed early this month at the Basement Theatre.
Image: Zanetti Productions