Keep Your Nose Clean
Bats Theatre
February 1999

Bats Theatre begins its 10th year with this premiere performance of a play entitled keep your nose clean. I'll begin by recalling a line from Krishnan's Dairy "Suspend your judgement".

This play is set in a prison cell. The two characters are on remand. Bear in mind that remand is pre-trial incarceration and is reputed to have subhuman conditions. One character is Maori and the other is Samoan. Their stories unfold; as you might expect, the stories are not nice but context ameliorates.

I had anticipated needing my handkerchief for a discreet wipe of the eyes before the lights came up but this isn't overdramatised, sensationalised, pathos written to sell newspapers. The characters tell their stories in their time with their perspective.

The script is the outcome of the ideas of the three performers - Jim Moriarty, Ole Maiava and Fa'amoana Ioane - and writer/director John Vakidis. As you can see, this is a right old cultural mix and that is reflected in the script and the performance.

I have been a dedicated Jim Moriarty fan since the day I saw his performance in Michael James Manaia. I held the belief that it would be hard to top that for a theatre experience but keep your nose clean is up there. Moriarty himself says that this present work is equal to Manaia. His role as Mark demands a physically energetic performance and a great emotional range. Moriarty meets these demands with the seeming consummate ease that around 30 years experience brings.

Ole Maiava plays Ti'a the bewildered Samoan with access to neither justice nor hope. He flicks from the comic to the dramatic; he is tender, scared and desolate.

This is Fa'amoana Ioane's debut as a theatre musician. He plays New Zealand blues guitar in a way that weaves perfectly into the text and the action.

You will leave with keep your nose clean with some ideas on your mind and some things to talk about. As the performance is only an hour 20 mins long you have time for a night-cap and a de-brief downtown before you head home.

Bats Theatre is fundraising to purchase their building. A number of special fundraiser events are planned for this year so check them out when you are looking for some affordable, stimulating entertainment. Contact bats@freemail.co.nz

Bats are delighted to have the effective and generous support of Wellington City Council. In 1998 the theatre grew its audience numbers by 2,000. Look froward to seeing you there this year to help them better that.