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A weeklong festival will offer a taste of contemporary Pacific Island and Maori performance from New Zealand.

Entitled Pasifika Styles, it will include new writing, black comedy and visual theatre and is part of an ongoing project run by the ̽��ֱ��'s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Downing Street.

" ̽��ֱ��Pasifika Styles Performing Arts Festival, like the ongoing exhibition, will be a new and unique experience for much of its Cambridge audience, reflecting the richness and complexity of contemporary Pacific art and culture through powerful performances by internationally acclaimed artists", said Festival Director Alexander Leiffheidt.

̽��ֱ��festival includes the international premiere of and what remains on the evening of 31 May and 1 June at the Playroom.

̽��ֱ��play is by Miria George, an accomplished playwright and published poet of Cook Island and Maori descent. Directed by Hone Kouka, an internationally acclaimed Maori playwright and director, it features the talents of five emerging South Pacific actors.

Niu Sila, a funny and poignant play written by two of New Zealand's top comedy writers, Oscar Kightley and Dave Armstrong, will be performed at the ADC theatre on 31 May and 1 June - a story about a friendship spanning over thirty years, two cultures and one multicultural neighbourhood.

This award-winning play, presented in the UK for the first time with help from the NZ-UK Link Foundation, has been seen by over 16,000 New Zealanders.

“Though Niu Sila is set in suburban New Zealand, the theme of inter-cultural friendship is universal. Any person in England who has grown up with people from different backgrounds and cultures, be it Muslim, Hindu, West Indian, Chinese or Eastern European, will immediately relate to this celebration of multicultural friendship,” say co-writers Oscar Kightley and Dave Armstrong.

̽��ֱ��third production, Frangipani Perfume, is a black comedy by Samoan-born Makerita Urale, one of the leading figures in New Zealand's Pacific theatre world. Frangipani Perfume will be performed on 29 and 30 May at the Playroom - a sensual play written for an all female cast that explores opera, sexuality, pious churches and romantic dreams.

Frangipani Perfume was recently described as “so fresh and free, so defiant of easy definition that it can only be described using words such as pioneering and unique” by the New Zealand Listener.

On Tuesday 29th May, an exciting day of free activities will take place at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Rosanna Raymond and Natasha Vaike will be giving hula classes, leading visitors in traditional Pacific games, teaching the techniques of hula skirt making and telling stories using the Museum's unique Oceanic collections.

"We are committed to creating a UK platform for Pacific-born artists to ‘speak back' to European audiences through their art, in their own words and on their own terms," the project's Creative Director Rosanna Raymond.

̽��ֱ��visual arts exhibition in the Museum will remain open free of charge until February 2008, displaying the work of 30 New Zealand artists, ranging from established stars to cutting-edge newcomers.

Tickets are available from the ADC box office or online. To buy tickets for any of the performances or find out further details about the programme, click on the link to the right of the page.