Tim Finn, a national icon who needs no introduction, is touring his latest production White Cloud around the country. A collaboration with playwright Ken Duncum, the show “examine(s) the cloudy question of identity, and its powerful relationship with place and people.”

Renee Liang caught up with Tim as he landed (briefly) at the Nelson Arts Festival.

How did the idea for White Cloud come about?

I saw a play of Ken Duncum's, Horseplay, loved it, and reached out to Ken to see if we might work on something together. He came back with the idea of exploring Pakeha identity, given that our common ground was growing up in the North Island of NZ.

Tell me about your collaboration with Ken Duncum. How do you work together?

Ken was in France on a writing fellowship, I was in Auckland. He set me tasks such as gathering family snapshots, memoirs, journals, and in our case home movies. We then began sending each other examples of these materials. He began writing poems, editing memoirs, and I began writing songs. It flowed really quickly and we only actually met once in Auckland during the whole process. We now joke about avoiding actual meetings as we begin work on a new project.

You're a white pakeha male: are you allowed to question your identity?

I'm not sure what this question means? All I can do is quote one of my own songs, "Who are we, why does it matter, the more you look at it, the quicker it shatters." In other words, and certainly as I understand Buddhist philosophy, self-identity is always a cloudy issue.  So to proceed from more of a philosophical standpoint, I was liberated from any socio-political entanglements. Free to explore the poetic truths revealed by old photos and writings.

Has the show changed much during its development? Is it still changing as it tours?

As I tour the show I am finding the improvisation of addressing the audience directly each night, in each place, is adding a whole other layer to the show. I am finding ways to draw the audience in deeper and deeper to what the poems, songs and movies are saying. Ken's first thought was that it would be a "show", with no fourth wall.

Is music inherently theatrical?

Someone said to me that they weren't surprised to hear I was interested in working in theatre, as my songs were always very theatrical. And that rang true for me. Songs like I See Red, Dirty Creature, Nobody Takes Me Seriously etc always demanded more of me on stage than just standing there singing. I'm not sure that is true of other singers, other performers.

How did Sue Healey work with you to put together the images?

I gave her the songs, and dad's 8ml movies. She worked painstakingly to edit our home movies, her own family movies, and some footage she herself had shot on 8ml. I loved the construction she created, and only asked for a couple more shots of mum, as I had realised how much the work had become for me an act of devotion towards our mother, who is greatly missed. One day when I was thinking about the song White Cloud Black Shadow an Irish 20p coin tinkled on the pavement in front of me. I took it as a sign. The coin now nestles next to my OBE in a drawer, both taken out only when the kids ask to see them.

What are you hoping audiences will come away with?

I have had men come up to me saying with great feeling that it made them think of their mothers. I can ask for no better reaction. But Ken's point was always to say that he and I are ordinary New Zealanders. There is nothing extraordinary in our mementos. All Pakehas have similar touchstones lying in their drawers. Let's take them out, examine them carefully, immerse ourselves in the lives that came before. Let's celebrate that "ordinariness", and so create something "extraordinary" together. "Salvage something that we need to remember, from the wreck of history, family images of fading splendour, where they lead I'm following".

What are you working on next?

I have a few more theatre projects I am developing.  I have one, a musical called Ladies in Black, programmed in 2015 at QTC in Brisbane.