The Haka Party Incident / Transmission

In these two new plays from excellent New Zealand playwrights (Katie Wolfe and Stuart McKenzie) heavy hitting concepts are treated for modern audiences. Firstly the titular The Haka Party Incident presents the issues that surrounded the misappropriation of the haka by the engineering department at Auckland University and the understanding of the practice from the Māori viewpoint and the implications that came along with the challenge, and the adaptations that would come from the challenge.

Similarly, Transmission deals with the media, specifically the media during the pandemic and the presentation of our former Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. In the play, McKenzie uses the language of Ardern to present ideologies, opinions and the presentation of facts that underpinned so much of that time. The fact that the use of exact words and phrases adds so much weight to the argument, and demonstrates the ability of rhetoric - when used purposefully - to create quite sizeable outcomes.

Verbatim theatre is a format that is known but not hugely taught these days in the classroom and has become some what of a commodity in modern theatre. The opportunity to blur the lines between what is real and what is imagined is a wonderfully grey area through which teachers are able to develop and construct reality in meaningful and fascinating ways. Verbatim theatre is the use of words and phrases that have been curated, verbatim, from the subject of the play.

Both plays are an excellent resource to present students with the facts of the language, but also the way that the words on the page are only ever one side of the equation: the incorporation of emotion, tone, inflection and confidence adds an incredible amount of weight to the discussion. For teachers, there is little that will help students comprehend life long lessons around speaking and writing than these two examples from magnificent playwrights.

Title: The Haka Party Incident | Transmission

Author: Katie Wolfe | Stuart McKenzie

RRP: $24

Publisher: Playmarket

ISBN: 9780908607747

Publication: 2022

Format: Paperback

Ages 13+

Reviewer: Chris Reed

Recommendation: Recommended

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