"The energy's still there". I saw the striking myth-play Ao Marama last year when John Hudson and Chris Balme brought it to the Commonwealth Literature Conference in Laufen West Germany after a sell-out season in Munich and before a repetition of their success in East Berlin.

The script of Ko Maui, as it was then called, was in German and Maori the players Munich-based students of theatre arts. Hudson gave an authentic ,account of Maui, a wily, ambitious and arrogant hero. Toby Mills does even better in this production. Of course the Maori cast has the edge on the Ko Maui group for authenticity. But Mills doesn't rely simply on his Maoriness. He is an actor in whom the spirit of the theatre - its humour, grace and generosity is very much alive. He's a dancer, too. All his movements are a delight.

But the dance-play as it was originally conceived, even under the Ko Maui, title, was never a one-man show.

Hudson as director has melded his new group of five actors into a tight unit in which all take turns in playing centre stage. Craig Fransen was memorable as the bristling war god, Tu. One of the best co-operative scenes was the presentation of Maui's heroic feat of fishing up the North Island. His two brothers, Tu and Tangaroa (Fransen with Shayne Farquhar) not only helped to make the deed even more marvellous by their disbelief in some humorous Ironic asides; the two actors made an excellent job of creating the rocking canoe.

Most of the time props were displaced by action-mime, but there was also good use made of masks for the different faces of Maui, and of the mere and taiaha. In fact the fire-eating in the Mahuika story nearly stole the show.

Entertainment doesn't have to be expensive and high-tech, this show makes plain. Musician Russell Scoones provided an exciting score of simple sounds.

I've seen this sort of presentation of legends before, by groups like Te Ohu Whakaari and Merupa Maori. The stories as such must be fairly familiar to a New Zealand audience (if not to the Germans, who flocked to see the play for its curiosity value). But that is no reason not to see them re-told in a new way, and to take your children if (as it is hoped) Ao Marama tours your part of the country. It's got a wit and style of its own, and packs quite a charge.