A Boy Called Piano is the latest production to feature at Batts Theatre in Wellington. It tells the life story of Faa'moana Luafutu who spent all of his childhood in state care and endured the hardships of prison life. Now in his 60s and a grandfather, he wrote this production, with his son Matthias Luafutu and grandson Tane Luafutu playing major roles as him in his younger life.
A story of pain and anguish that has brought three generations of Luafutu males together. Faamoana says its been a healing experience.
Faamoana says, "This whole process for me was like um, like every writer you write to heal yourself. And I was in jail on my last lag and they made me the librarian, it was the safest place they could put me and I liked reading books. I started to write to heal myself."
Physical verbal and emotional abuse was a daily routine for Faamoana growing up at dozens of different Government state care homes in the wider Auckland area.
Faamoana also says, "There were no checks and balances, anybody can come and look after kids and so they had all these weirdo people in there on the pretext of wanting to look after children but they had their own agenda. Like some of them were paedophiles."
Faamoana says, "through his bad parenting" he almost lost his own son Matthias to the world he had longed to get away from.
Matthias Luafutu says, "I'm so grateful to the arts and theatre that it caught me at a crossroad in my life where I was either going to follow the gangs and destroy things or be creative and yeah I've stuck with the light."
The youngest of the Luafutu's Tane says he's honoured to work alongside his idols.
Tane Luafutu says, "It's been amazing they've always been my idols and that. Every son wants to follow after their father and be like them and just um, its been a healing process for all of us and just where our fathers went wrong and failed and that, assuring them that, that's their demons and I don't carry it for them."
"So this play is not a biographical thing as such it's my experience and what I have seen," Faamoana said.
A Boy Called Piano is a product of The Conch Theatre Company who are currently working on getting the play into the prison system where they feel it will have a positive impact on inmates.