'Where We Once Belonged' is a moving yet hilarious stage adaptation by Dave Armstrong from the 1994 Commonwealth Prize-winning novel by Sia Figiel, Samoa’s first female novelist. Part of Going West Festival 2012, it is directed by Goretti Chadwick and Anapela Polataivao.
This wildly funny and unflinchingly honest coming-of-age story is set in 1970s Samoa, where young Alofa navigates life in her village as she comes to terms with her own changing sense of identity and the price she must pay for it.
Sixteen beautiful and talented young Pasifika performers from the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts brilliantly recreate the Samoan village of Malaefou, where teenage girls gossip, dream about their weddings, tease boys, misbehave at school and worship American TV shows like Charlie’s Angels. But within this seemingly idyllic life, lie dark issues of family violence, religion and colonisation.
Told with a passion and vitality only a young cast can bring,' where we once belonged' is an unforgettable singing, dancing, drumming, laughing, crying-out-loud, warts-and-all celebration of Pacific life.
This production won Dave and Sia the 2008 Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best New New Zealand Play.
“By turns moving, hysterical and thought-provoking, wWhere We Once Belonged deserves to have another life. If it comes to a town near you, make sure you go” - Victor Rodger, theatreview.org.nz Nov 2010.
