La MaMa To Present Antipodes Theatre Company’s BACK TO TE MAUNGA

La MaMa Theatre will present BACK TO TE MAUNGA by playwright Joel Te Teira, produced by Antipodes Theatre Company, at La MaMa Courthouse from March 4 through March 22. The production is directed by Keegan Bragg and will run approximately 70 minutes.

Back to Te Maunga centers on Tāne and Isaac, two friends who reunite on the anniversary of a close friend’s death. Returning to a cabin at the foot of a mountain from their youth, the pair attempt to process grief through shared memory, humor, and music. Over the course of the night, unresolved tensions and forces from their past emerge, testing the limits of their friendship.

The play explores male relationships and mental health alongside spiritual belief systems and mysticism, asking how cultural context and shared heritage can inform healing. Te Teira and Bragg, both Māori artists living in Naarm, draw on their experience navigating cultural identity away from their homeland, examining the complexities of connection to place and spirituality in a new environment.

“I’m interested in exploring a place for Māori spiritual beliefs in the modern day, and how mysticism across cultures can impact the way we navigate the world,” Te Teira said. “Men’s mental health is often a taboo subject & I’d like to see the conversation open up. The grieving process can take many forms…”

Bragg added, “Because many people who live in Naarm have cultural roots from somewhere other than Australia, the idea that there’s a ‘homeland’ someplace else that drives Joel’s gritty drama is incredibly resonant.”

Antipodes Theatre Company producer Brandon Pape said, “Joel’s writing is raw and muscular, with dialogue that is by turns wryly hilarious and bitingly truthful.”