The Pohutukawa Tree

As I sit here waiting for the Year 12 Production of the Pohutukawa Tree I found myself looking up reviews of the play by Bruce Mason.

It is strange sitting here surfing the Internet before the play starts in the audience reading about what the play is about.

It is set in the small town of Te Parenga just after the Second World War. Aroha Mataira struggles to keep her family together in the face of new challenges and Johnny's alcoholism. The play shows the struggles of Maori people to keep their land and culture intact in the face of change and how actions in the past continue to have consequences for later generations.