In 1902, the exhumed bones of 499 Chinese miners bound for reburial in their homeland were lost off the coast of New Zealand when the ship carrying them, the SS Ventnor, hit a rock and sank in Hokianga Harbour.
The Bone Feeder uses this historical fact to pose the question of how one can honour a past that’s distant in terms of time, geography and culture and to examine the conundrum of being caught between two worlds that faced New Zealand’s original Chinese immigrants and continues to perplex their descendants.
The themes are embodied by the journey (both physical and emotional) of fifth-generation Chinese New Zealander Ben (Kevin Ng). He travels to the Far North to discharge a filial obligation and reconnect with his past, but gets more than he bargained for when he encounters ancestor Kwan (Gary Young) and the trio of ghosts who are his companions (Charles Chan, Llanyon Eli Joe and Willie Ying, at times channelling the Three Stooges).
Director Lauren Jackson patiently teases out the concerns of Renee Liang’s play in this elegant, graceful production that skilfully uses techniques from Asian and European theatre traditions: performers are flown on high wires; there’s puppetry, singing and shadow play; and music and sound effects are provided live by four musicians with traditional Maori and Chinese instruments.
She also marshals her 19 performers well, eliciting particularly strong performances from the quietly authoritative Young and Rob Mokaraka, who exudes a low-key magnetism as a laidback local ferryman who doesn’t so much commune as hang out with the disinterred miners’ restless spirits.
THE BONE FEEDER, by Renee Liang, directed by Lauren Jackson, Tapac, Auckland, until November 20.