PINAY Play

Written by Marianne Infante, PINAY is a 90-minute play that follows the De La Cruz family as they emigrate to Aotearoa from the Philippines in 1991 during the eruption of the volcano Mount Pinatubo, and later survive the Ōtautahi Christchurch earthquake in 2011. The play is a tribute to and acknowledgment of the experiences of Filipino migrants in Aotearoa, honouring their stories of survival, love and loss.

‘Pinay’ is the colloquial term for a Filipino woman, and the play centres the complicated relationship between two strong-willed pinays: an immigrant mother and her assimilated daughter as they navigate race, culture, religion and messy family dynamics; chronicling the lengths we will go to change for the ones we love.

PINAY was developed and written through Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off the Page initiative in 2018. From that initial playreading, it went on to premiere to full houses for a 2-week season at Basement Theatre in 2019. PINAY won 2019’s Auckland Theatre Awards award for Excellence for Overall Production and made history as Aotearoa’s first Filipino-Kiwi multilingual theatre script, mixing English, te reo Māori and Tagalog.

in an interview with NZ Herald, Director James Roque said:

Despite being the third largest Asian migrant group in New Zealand, Filipino people remain under-represented on the local stage and screen and in the media in general. It would have been a pipe dream 10 years ago or when I was at drama school [2010–12], I would have struggled to find enough trained actors to anchor a show like this and put it on a mainstream stage in Auckland.

Infante also shared her thoughts with Stuff about the driving force behind PINAY:

Filipinos were just happy to coexist. Happy to be here, to be in your health system or the best cooks in town. We’re well overdue for our specific voice and story to take up space. We are so ready to take charge of our own narrative. I’m stoked to see what happens and can’t wait for that to carry out with all the other diverse communities too.

PINAY had its theatrical debut at Basement Theatre from the 13th to the 24th of August 2019. Directed by James Roque, it featured an ensemble cast featuring Marianne Infante, Donna Dacuno, Richard Perillo, Lucas Haugh, Marwin Silerio and Matiu Hamuera.

‘REVIEW: PINAY (Proudly Asian Theatre)’ — Theatre Scenes

‘Interview with Marianne Infante, Actor and Playwright of PINAY’ — Happy World Korean TV

‘NZ theatre adds another chapter to its history with opening of new play’ — NZ Herald

‘PAT Presents the Very First Filipino-NZ Play’ press release from Proudly Asian Theatre