Scattergun: After the Death of Ruaumoko is a bold and ambitious solo performance as the protagonist channels multiple personas, with time and space being just as fluid.
Writer and actress Ana Chaya Scotney (Shortland Street, The Breaker Upperers, Bad Behaviour) has been developing this since 2022 when she was part of the Basement Theatre’s Ideas in Residence programme. Exploring themes and stories for future development.
Scattergun has seen successful performances at Fringe Festivals in Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne. All paving the way for this mainstage debut.
Naturally it has been moulded and shaped along the way, which reflects the work which takes in multiple characters and perspectives and interweaves the human world with the mythical and spiritual.
To quote one biographical source. Ana’s stories often explore themes about the complexities of place and belonging, being of both the Māori and Jewish diasporas. The impact that class, colonial hegemony, and familial grief have on young people in Aotearoa today.
The evolution to its present time version has been assisted by director Sophie Roberts. The most recent production of hers I saw last year was Night of the Living Dead, a fabulous take on a cult classic movie.
The audience are seated around three sides of a square. Agnes the avatar for Scotney, emerges from the fourth side to a bare stage. She will have to hold our attention and bring everyone on this journey.
Her face contorts, grimaces, and stretches as if she’s a pint-sized Jim Carrey. Many gestures are recognisably Māori. There is an element of possession which is unsettling, and we are craftily brought into the position of voyeur.
The loose theme is the death of a five-year-old brother of Agnes, Ruaumoko, and this is his five-year memorial anniversary.
In legend, Ruaumoko is the God of earthquakes and volcanoes. He represents the fiery tempestuous spirit that animates this land and therefore the inhabitants.
The youngest progeny of Ranginui Sky Father and Papatuanuku Earth Mother. He could feel the pain of his mother as she was separated from his father.
Red veined electrical arcs spark over Agnes’ body as the sounds of a tempest rage.
Agnes is channelling multiple characters, and they come from diverse sources.
Scotney has given voice to what she has experienced on maraes in her childhood and youth. The inherent theatricality of people relating ideas and arguments with illustrative stories and parables, all in an easy and natural manner.
The speech is often rapid-fire and tumbles over itself. Some is in te reo, mostly it is English. The manner of the character brought into being gives us some context.
Some meaning can be lost through the speed of delivery. I sensed that for a significant number in the audience, they have been following the evolution of this work and it is more familiar.
Agnes is the human scattergun. She is firing off in all directions to see what may find its mark. Colonisation, colonialism, land rights, capitalism, the Treaty, sovereignty, dispossession and dislocation.
A shift occurs after the halfway point in the performance. We enter the realm of social behaviour and relationship politics. The shift echoes the structure of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
What are the deep spiritual bonds that exist between sexes. If this whole play is not about traversing the Bardo, the intermediate existence between death and rebirth, the latter part surely is.
Scotney is addressing the trauma of her own brother passing away at that same age. This Bardo experience could be a merging with that sibling.
One of the guests at the memorial is a former boyfriend Old Mate. Scotney has made comment about how you go about simulating sex realistically in a solo performance.
This is not to isolate this sequence from any of the others, but in that moment, you can realise what a brave and committed performance this is.
She can uncover layers of the psyche, which can be a terrible and searing process simultaneously with it being an exhilarating one.
Scattergun will be a challenging experience for some. It will not hit all targets as the name itself implies. By firing away at everything, and taking everyone on, she is pointing to a path of resolution. Which is a brave undertaking.
Rev. Orange Peel
Scattergun: After the Death of Ruaumoko plays at Q Theatre until 4 May 2024
Tickets available from Q Theatre
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