Tongan Theatre Play Hearts of Men Reviewed by Hūfanga Dr ‘Ōkusitino Māhina ^Featured

 Playwright: Albert Māteni

Director: Vela Manusaute
Producers: GYM CMB - Vanessa Jones & Albert Māteni

Actors:
Gus: Aleni Tufuga
Tevita Snr: Jason Manumu'a
‘Ofa: Malia 'Ahovelo
Tevita Jnr: Albert Māteni
Aaliyah: Ana Corbett
Tonga: Mic Falesiu
Young boxers: Tonga & Rocky

The theatre play Hearts of Men by upcoming Tongan playwright Albert Māteni was first debut at Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, the premiere showing of which ran from 5th till 14th April, 2018. An excellent piece of Tongan theatre, Hearts of Men is truly a great work of art and indeed a major success.

Hearts of Men retells the life story of a Tongan boxer Tēvita Lolohea, which focuses on the hardships he endures in life, with a view towards realising his dream of winning gold for his country at Olympics. The story revolves around the theme of self-belief which influences and influenced by life as a whole.

Hearts of Men is made up of distinct but closely related scenes, which are thematically ordered in sequence into a unified whole. These multiple scenes are framed by the all-embracing Tongan social values of respect (faka‘apa‘apa), humility (fakatōkilalo), relationship (tauhivā) and loyalty (mamahi‘ime‘a).

Hearts of Men highly succeeds in unifying strands of intersecting ideas within and across the scenes, transforming them from a situation of chaos (felekeu) to a state of order (maau) through sustained symmetry and harmony as internal artistic qualities to produce beauty, the hallmark of all arts.

The success is brought about by the combined critical insights of the dramatist, producer, directors and actors, where the intersecting or connecting and separating tendencies are mediated in the creative process, having the external effects of warmth (māfana), fieriness (vela) and climaxed-elation (tauēlangi).

While the limited use of Tongan language, translated into English as the chief medium, adds vitality to the whole of Hearts of Men, translation always presents problems of human meanings and practices, especially in their temporal-spatial, formal-substantial (and functional-practical) arrangements across cultures.

While the play Hearts of Men, taken as a theatre piece, can be considered a single work of performance art, the content is made up of a number of other performance artforms, which include boxing (faiva fuhu), courting (faiva ‘eva), singing (faiva hiva) and dancing (faiva haka) amidst many others.

Yet, the use of the performance arts of comedy (faiva fakaoli) and tragedy (faiva fakamamahi) throughout the whole play subtly stands out, respectively involving the mediation of the interplay between normality and absurdity and between sociality and animality, with the respective outcomes of laughter and shame.

It may be fair to say that Tongan theatre is both with and without walls. For example, kava drinking (faikava) is conducted inside the fale as a theatre, used merely as a means for the simultaneous performance of a multiplicity of arts as story-telling (faiva talanoa), singing (faiva hiva), and dancing (faiva haka).

As for Tongan theatre without walls, a classic case would be grand social and ceremonial celebrations (kātoanga) of some national significance, such as royal coronations and weddings, where poetry, music and dance, as well as oratory, both speech-designing and speech-giving, are gracefully performed.

George Bernard Shaw, renowned Irish comic dramatist and literary critic, once said that if there is no conflict then there is no drama, and in similar ways, John Anderson, famous Australian realist philosopher and art and literary critic, argued that everywhere in reality is conflict, and there is nothing above the battle.

But, tāvāism as a philosophy of reality, unlike both Shaw and Anderson, advances a view that, everywhere in reality, as in nature, mind and society, is intersection, and there is nothing above connection and separation (and, that order and conflict are of the same logical status, in that order is itself a form of conflict).

A must-see play, Hearts of Men is truly championed as a great effort and a good work of art (and literature) in and of itself in both human conception and action, where intersecting or connecting and separating social meanings and practices are mediated and transformed in original, creative, and innovative ways.

Reviewed by Hūfanga Dr ‘Ōkusitino Māhina, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, Anthropology and Art, Tonga International Academy (TIA) & Vava‘u Academy for Critical Inquiry and Applied Research (VACIAR), Tonga‘eiki / Tongatapu / Tongalahi & Vava‘u, KINGDOM OF TONGA