The Songmaker's Chair

The Songmaker’s Chair tells the story of a Samoan family, the ‘Āīga Sā-Peseola, which has been in Auckland since the 1950s. Over three generations, the family members have intermarried with Māori and Pākehā to develop what they refer to as the Peseola Way. Central to that way are the magnificent Polynesian exploration and settlement of the Pacific and a songmaking tradition, which Peseola Olaga, the family patriarch, has inherited from his father. At the heart of the play is the love between Peseola Olaga and Malaga, his wife, and how they’ve struggled to give their children a good life in Aotearoa. Theirs is the Peseola Way: defiant, honest and unflinching even in the face of death.