What If...

After I read Whale Rider, I had a interesting question in my head, and the book itself cannot explain which is that what if Kahu is a boy? I am curious what would happen? Does it matter that much if it’s a girl or boy? We all know that in the Maori culture people follow the old story and rules, and this is why when Koro knew that he would have a eldest granddaughter instead of grandson, he felt so dispointed and sad. He believed in that only the eldeast son can take the responsibility to lead the whole Maori people to a brighter future, however this time a girl became the leader. Through the whole book there are so many details have shownd me how much Koro doesn’t like the fact Kahu is a girl which also make the ending so dramatic and even more touched when Koro finally said I love you to Kahu.

I have an idea to have two different story present on one stage. I want to have Kahu’s father story be presented on the stage left and Kahu’s story on stage right. I choose Kahu’s father because of two reasons. The first reason is that he was the eldest son in the family who supposed to be the leader, but he failed even if he was the son. Another reason is that Maori culture also involves the relationship between  past and future which can be shown in the connection between daughter and father. I want to have a narrator in the middle who is a kind of god character who knows both of these two stories, and the narrator will tell the audience what’s happening on each sides and actors will have to act out the scene. I want to show how Koro expect the son to be the leader, and be super straight and serious to him. Then he ignores Kahu completely, but Kahu is the perfect person to be the leader. At the beginning, they just act on their own side, but at the point when Kahu find the stone. I want to change it to Kahu’s father gets the stone first, but then he throw it Kahu. I want to use his giving up to show how he doesn’t like to be the leader. Then I also want to show that he hands the stone to Kahu to represent the connection between daughter and father, past and future, darkness and hope.

I want to put the magical realism in the conversation between Kahu and her father when he was young. I want them to have a conversation base on how Koro treats them the difference and their hope. Kahu wants to be the leader but she doesn’t have the chance while the young father has the chance and ability, but he doesn’t want to, so he hand over the stone to give the duty and hope to the daughter’s hand and let her finish the responsibility. It seemed unreal, but I think this will be a great idea and performance to give people the idea the connection between past and future, also gender doesn’t influence you to be a good leader or not.