Lunar Attraction

As performance pieces go, its radiance is revealed slowly, even shyly, from darkness to light, like the onset of a full moon—in Fijian, a vula. For presenting Pacific life on stage, there would seem to be no better guide: in the islands, time doesn't run to a clock, but rather follows the lunar pull of the tides. And in Vula, at the Sydney Opera House until June 25, the moon watches over the gentle unfolding of life, from kava ceremony to funeral song. In many Pacific cultures, the moon is also seen as a female deity, and in Vula womanhood is...