F S E AS O N O S H H IT A M NS O D N O L E TH
1
MAJOR SUPPORTERS
FUNDER
CORE FUNDER
UNIVERSITY PARTNER
PRESENTING PARTNERS
PRINCIPAL PARTNER
PRINCIPAL FUNDERS
Thanks to the supporters of Auckland Theatre Company
A fresh approach to ICT managed services
Telecommunications Partner
2018 BENEFACTORS
SUPPORTING PARTNERS
MEDIA PARTNERS
Proud to be NZ’s Most Awarded Winery and Sponsor of Auckland Theatre Company
ATC PATRONS AND SUPPORTING ACTS
CAST Yetta Solomon — Jennifer Ludlam Nat — Andrew Grainger Leo — Adam Gardiner Eileen — Hera Dunleavy Carol — Jodie Dorday Mickey — Joe Witkowski Bernice — Holly Hudson Gerard — Simon Leary Monty Minsky — Logan Cole Rosa — Ava Diakhaby Walter — Simbarashe Matshe Titus — Augustine Dube Vern/Harry Farris — Jonny Brugh CREATIVE Playwright — Ryan Craig Director — Colin McColl Set Designer — Daniel Williams Costume Designer — Nic Smillie Lighting Designer — Jo Kilgour Composer & Sound Designer — Adrian Hollay PRODUCTION Production Manager — Joel Crook Company Manager — Elaine Walsh Company Manager (Maternity Cover) — Eliza Josephson-Rutter Stage Manager — Kate Sibley Assistant Stage Manager — Lauren Andrews Assistant to Director — Jack Powell Technical Manager — Kevin Greene Lighting Operator — Zach Howells Props Master — Becky Ehlers Wardrobe Supervisors – Ruby Read & Penelope Pratt Set Construction — Rollercoaster AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR HELP WITH THIS PRODUCTION: Janet Hepi, Auckland Bearings, Andrew Uren, Eunice Defries, Field Rubber, First Scene. The ASB season of Filthy Business is the sixth Auckland Theatre Company mainstage production for 2017/18 and opened on August 16 at ASB Waterfront Theatre. The production is approximately 2 hours 30 minutes long and includes a 20-minute interval. Please remember to switch off all mobile phones and noise-emitting devices.
1
WELCOME TO THE ASB SEASON OF FILTHY BUSINESS We all have our own ways of measuring progress and our own stories about the things that matter to us. We are pleased to bring playwright Ryan Craig’s story of Yetta Solomon and her family business to ASB Waterfront Theatre. ASB has a long and dedicated history of supporting cultural and community initiatives, and our principal partnership with Auckland Theatre Company has created exciting opportunities for us to continue supporting the arts. We know the importance of the industry in shaping New Zealand’s future success and we look forward to helping realise this potential. Whatever your goals and however you choose to measure them, we’re here to help you get one step ahead. As a leading provider of integrated financial services in New Zealand, ASB is committed to championing creative innovation, and we acknowledge the role the arts play in developing healthy and vibrant communities. In the meantime, we trust you will enjoy the ASB season of Filthy Business and the tribute it pays to the entrepreneurial outsiders who have become the beating heart of every modern society.
2
Welcome from ASB
3
Director Colin McColl
WELCOME to the New Zealand premiere production of Filthy Business by British playwright Ryan Craig. Family and immigration are at the heart of this terrific new comedy. Over hundreds of years, London’s East End has been home to immigrants from all parts of the world. Huguenots, Jews, Muslims, West Indians, Africans and South Asians have worked long, hard hours in small businesses in the East End to create new lives for themselves and their families. Yetta Solomon in Filthy Business is one of this intrepid breed. Channelling Brecht’s Mother Courage, she will do anything to keep the family in the business and the business in the family. As soon as I read the play, I knew Yetta Solomon was the perfect role for the formidable talent and comic skill of Jennifer Ludlam, so I’m grateful she was able to take time out from her demanding Shortland Street schedule to come and play with us. She’s joined by a team of comic actors, both experienced and rookie; some are straight out of drama school and all are a joy to work with. Many thanks to our stellar design team and the Auckland Theatre Company production team for realising this work and period so expertly. It’s been great fun putting it together. Enjoy.
Photo credit: Lynne Cardy
4
Director’s Note
Order your
DESSERT/WINE pre-show and we will have it ready and waiting for you at interval.
Make a night of it at Halsey St Kitchen, ASB Waterfront Theatre. Dine from our pre-show mid-winter menu made with fresh, local ingredients. PRE-SHOW DINING: TWO HOURS BEFORE EVERY PERFORMANCE | PH (09) 632 1962
Set Designer Daniel Williams
LONDON is a giant melting pot of visual stimulation; every corner you turn has a history and a story to tell. There really is no other place quite like the East End. It feels almost as though every brick has a memory; just imagine the sights it has seen. Brick Lane was the main inspiration behind the set design of the ASB season of Filthy Business. The area has such rich character... from its people to its streets. The old Jewish corner stores of the 1960s are so recognisable, crammed up next to each other like cards in a deck as their goods spill out into the pavements like drunken cockneys after a night out at the pub. I wanted the set to evoke a collage feeling of Brick Lane: towering walls reminiscent of tenement buildings with mismatched windows and finishings. It’s emblematic of the time rather than a true depiction of the era. Solomon’s Rubber is based on so many of these shops – bins exploding with product, offcuts, odds and ends, years’ worth of goods on display – it’s a place where everything is for sale. I’m probably a hoarder at heart, so filling this theatre with mountains of stuff has been such a treat for me. I hope you enjoy all the nooks and crannies of this hyper-detailed world of Solomon’s Rubber; I’m sure you can see how much fun we have had creating it!
Photo credits: Lynne Cardy
6
Creative’s Note
COMMUNIT Y � CULTURE � HEALTH � BEAUT Y � ST YLE DÉCOR � TR AVEL � FO OD � DRINK � NET WORK
IS PROUD TO BE AN AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY MEDIA PARTNER FOR 2018
SAVE
45% To celebrate, we are offering all Auckland Theatre Company guests an exclusive MiNDFOOD magazine subscription offer. Subscribe today for $60 for one year (11 issues) and receive a bonus MiNDFOOD notebook. Visit MiNDFOOD.com/shop-ATC to subscribe to MiNDFOOD
Design Notes
7
JENNIFER LUDLAM
ANDREW GRAINGER
ADAM GARDINER
CAST JENNIFER LUDLAM Yetta Solomon Jennifer Ludlam graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School the year it was established (1970). She is one of New Zealand’s leading actors and has worked extensively on stage and television, both here and in Australia. Jennifer’s Auckland Theatre Company appearances include as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and as Violet Weston in August: Osage County, for which she was awarded the 2010 New Zealand Herald Best Performance of the Year, and the production won the Metro magazine Best Theatre of the Year. Other stage highlights include Silo productions’ When the Rain Stops Falling as Elizabeth Law and Boys Will Be Boys as Arthur, for which she received the Excellence Award at the Auckland Theatre Awards. Other awards that she has received include Best Actress at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards for the television series Cover Story (1996) and the same award three years earlier for the telemovie Undercover. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Toi Whakaari Award for Graduate Excellence. In 2004, Jennifer was appointed a member of The New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to the Arts. She is currently on screen, playing Leanne Miller in Shortland Street. ANDREW GRAINGER Nat Andrew Grainger’s career as an actor began in the 1980s in England. Highlights from the UK include: performing in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and South Pacific on London’s West End; appearing on TV’s Pride and Prejudice, Heartbeat, Eastenders, The Bill and The Governor; appearing in feature films Mean Machine, In the Beginning and David Copperfield; and working alongside Robert Redford in Spy Game. After emigrating to New Zealand, Andrew has rapidly built up an impressive collection of credits including The Breaker Upperers, Westside, 6 Days, The Shannara Chronicles, When We Go to War, The Cult, Shortland Street, Outrageous Fortune, Spartacus, Super City, The Dark Horse, Ash vs Evil Dead, Meg, 25 April and Making of the Mob 2: Chicago. For Auckland Theatre Company, Andrew’s most-recent credits, include The Cherry Orchard, Nell Gwynn, Billy Elliot the Musical, The Ladykillers, Jesus Christ Superstar, Guys and Dolls, Awatea, Once on Chunuk Bair, Chicago, The Heretic, Anne Boleyn, Little Shop of Horrors and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. ADAM GARDINER Leo Adam Gardiner’s first production with Auckland Theatre Company was in 2003 with performances in Play 2.03, New Gold Dream and Ladies’ Night. He has worked with ATC on numerous productions and in various capacities since then. His most recent appearances for ATC have been in Other Desert Cities, Midnight in Moscow, Black Confetti, In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), Rupert, Polo and as the Troll King in Peer Gynt [recycled].
8
ASB season of Filthy Business
HERA DUNLEAVY
JODIE DORDAY
JOE WITKOWSKI
Recent screen credits include Mahana, Born to Dance, Pike River, Friday Night Bites, Agent Anna, Dear Murderer, 1953, The Brokenwood Mysteries and as Thomas Jefferson in The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen. HERA DUNLEAVY Eileen A graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, Hera Dunleavy has worked for all of New Zealand’s professional theatre companies. Highlights include The Master Builder, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Proof, Top Girls and The Blue Room. Shows with Auckland Theatre Company include Uncle Vanya, God of Carnage, The Crucible, August: Osage County, Calendar Girls, Midnight in Moscow, Rupert, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Nell Gwynn. Hera’s most-recent appearance was in The Cherry Orchard. JODIE DORDAY Carol Jodie Dorday started her theatre career with Auckland Theatre Company’s Dancing at Lughnasa in 1995 and the ATC stage is still very much her happy place! In fact, it was the lure of playing Mrs Wilkinson in ATC’s Billy Elliot the Musical in 2016 that brought her back to New Zealand. She’s loved every minute of being home and continuing her acting journey. In May, she fulfilled a bucket-list goal by performing Roger Hall’s one-woman play, The Book Club. She was humbly surprised at the success of the season and is now producing a tour later in the year. Jodie’s performing highlights include working alongside her mum, Debbie Dorday, at Burgundy’s, Sydney Theatre Company’s King Lear, playing Trish (Cheryl West’s mum) in Westside, and Anthony McCarten’s film Via Satellite, for which she picked up the Best Supporting Actress award at the Nokia New Zealand Film Awards. Jodie has recently lived in Bali with her son JJ and spunky husband, Troy, and enjoyed scooting around with the odd stray dog on her scooter and drinking fresh coconut juice! She would like to acknowledge the support of her wonderful agents Kathryn Rawlings and Ascia Maybury and her fabulous mum and hubby. Sit back, relax and laugh… JOE WITKOWSKI Mickey Joe Witkowski is a 2017 graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School. His first professional theatre role was in Fortune Theatre’s Into the Woods last year. Joe has starred in various amateur theatre productions, including The Adding Machine, Lost Cause, Caucus, Caucus, Harvest, Dawn and Black Confetti. His screen work includes Saturn Sheets and An Arm and a Leg.
Cast
9
HOLLY HUDSON
SIMON LEARY
LOGAN COLE
HOLLY HUDSON Bernice This is Holly Hudson’s second production with Auckland Theatre Company, having previously appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird in 2016 as Mayella Ewell. Since graduating from The Actors’ Program in 2015, Holly has worked in New Zealand stage and screen productions, notably The Brokenwood Mysteries and FLAPS Retouched. This year, she has joined the writing team for the fourth season of TVNZ web series Auckward Love. Most recently, Holly was nominated for Best Performer in the 48 Hours Film Festival. SIMON LEARY Gerard Simon Leary graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (BPA in Acting) in 2010 and the University of Otago (BA in Theatre Studies) in 2007. Recent theatre credits include Switzerland, Three Days in the Country, The Father and A Servant to Two Masters at Circa Theatre – Wellington’s professional theatre. He starred as Watson in both The Fortune and Centrepoint Theatre’s productions of The Hound of the Baskervilles. TV credits include Dirty Laundry, Hillary, War News and as the voice of Spottywot in Pukeko Pictures’ new cartoon, Kiddets. Simon has written and acted extensively for Radio New Zealand’s drama department featuring in Exit Stage Left and the award-winning You Me...Now! Simon received the Wellington Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer, and was nominated for Outstanding Performance for his role as Truffaldino in A Servant to Two Masters. LOGAN COLE Monty Minsky Since graduating from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2017, Logan Cole has worked in Wellington with directors Stella Reid (The Christmas Detention Centre) and Leo Gene Peters (Safe. For The Moment), as well as making and writing his own show (The Universe is Pretty Big and I’m Afraid of Sex) with a small company of beautiful theatre makers. He has always loved devising theatre and has done so with Christchurch company Two Productions for a long period of his career, before and during drama school. This year, Logan was in the short film Bats, directed by Michelle Savill, which featured in this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival. Logan is like a big toddler who loves the stage and performing for people. He is looking forward to the challenge of the ASB season of Filthy Business, learning from a marvellously experienced cast of actors, and cannot wait to bring forward what he has to offer. AVA DIAKHABY Rosa Ava Diakhaby is a 2015 graduate of Unitec. Since graduating with Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts degree, she has been involved in creating and devising works in Auckland, including the all-female sell-out season of FLAPS (2016) and FLAPS Retouched (2017). This year, she and Frith Horan co-created the two-woman fringe show Cool Behaviour that had a sell-out season at Q Theatre. Other theatrical highlights include Auckland University Outdoor Summer Shakespeare’s production of The Tempest (2016), directed by Benjamin Henson, The PlayGround
10
ASB season of Filthy Business
AVA DIAKHABY
SIMBARASHE MATSHE
AUGUSTINE DUBE
JONNY BRUGH
Collective’s season of The Rime of the Modern Mariner, sell-out Fringe show Wigging Out (2018), Auckland Theatre Company’s HERE & NOW productions of Alice (2018) and BOYS (2017), and Auckland Theatre Company’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar (2014). Recently, Ava has guest-starred in Funny Girls, PSUSY season 2 (2017) and hit web series Auckward Love season 3, and has been involved in the writing team for the fourth season of the show. SIMBARASHE MATSHE Walter Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Simbarashe Matshe found his love of theatre and the arts at an early age. After emigrating to New Zealand and spending most of his teens in Wellington, he eventually moved to Auckland to pursue acting. He has been featured in many TV commercials and screen projects such as Frontiersman, Ash vs Evil Dead and Mortal Engines. This is Simbarashe’s first project with Auckland Theatre Company and he is extremely excited to be working with such a talented and creative cast and crew. AUGUSTINE DUBE Titus Augustine Dube, originally from Rotorua, has recently moved to Auckland to study biomedical science at The University of Auckland. Augustine’s performance training has consisted mainly of Speech and Drama, completing grades 1–7 at an honours level along with an ASB speech diploma and Trinity Guildhall ATCL diploma, both passed with distinction in 2017. Augustine was awarded the Outstanding scholarship for NCEA drama and, in 2017, he travelled with the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand, Young Shakespeare Company (SGCNZ YSC) to London to perform as Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, at Shakespeare’s Globe. Earlier this year, Augustine was a part of Auckland Theatre Company’s HERE & NOW Festival where he performed in Tender. JONNY BRUGH Vern/Harry Farris Comic actor Jonny Brugh is best known as Deacon the Vampire from New Zealand cult comedy feature film What We Do in The Shadows and as Monty McNamara on Australian comedy drama, 800 Words. In 25 years, Jonny has stuffed numerous awards under his belt since his ‘heady’ early days as half of legendary, multiple-awardwinning, absurdist comic entity Sugar & Spice and with his current comic gang Flashdance. The gang has devised and produced many comedy shows: most notably, its international hit My Brother And I Are Pornstars and its award-winning film The Gondola. Jonny has worked with comedy greats Jemaine Clement and Duncan Sarkies on the podcast Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, Mike Minogue on the sketch comedy web series True Stories from the Water Cooler and with Australian comedy Soul Mates. Look out for Jonny’s latest feature film appearances in Waru and Mega Time Squad, premiering in cinemas worldwide throughout 2018. Cast
11
IN REHEARSAL
Photo credits: Brad Fisher
12
Playwright Ryan Craig
THERE WAS USUALLY a point in the school holidays when my father, finally exasperated by my aimless lolloping about the house, insisted I come into work with him. He ran a mattress, bed and foam rubber shop on the Holloway Road. It was a family business. My father had started on the markets in his early teens working alongside his cousin, father, uncles, and grandfather, who’d created the business from off-cuts he’d collected working as a tyre-fitter in a tram factory. He’d met and married my great-grandmother in London, but both had arrived as Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. They began the business from their house in Stepney and, with their four sons, sold bits of rubber on markets in Leather Lane, Lower Marsh, and Dalston Waste. These market people were, out of necessity, tough, inventive, volatile characters, and as the business and the family grew to dominate the retailing of rubber in the 50s and 60s, tempers were easily ignited and the firm and its power struggles became legendary. By the time of my appearance there in the late 1980s my father had struck out on his own and ran a shop with a staff of around eight or nine. This included my grandfather and great uncle, a couple of men called John who carried, cut, stuffed, and sold, some drivers/bumpers, an Iraqi bookkeeper, and, in the basement, a couple of machinists – a sister of one of the Johns and a Nigerian émigré. All these busy people politely tolerated me, but, in truth I was entirely useless. I couldn’t sell, I couldn't measure, I couldn’t wrap, all I could do was aimlessly lollop about. I do, though, vividly remember the shop; its petroleum stench and the teeming chaos of the oozing Dexion shelves and the heaving stockroom and the dog-eared order books and, everywhere, the piles and piles and piles of foam rubber. I remember the euphoria of the big sale or the new idea, but also the constant pressure my father felt, the daily struggle to stay afloat; the seemingly ever-present threat of liquidation or closure. So, while this play and its characters are absolutely a work of fiction, the action is rooted in a very specific time and place. In short, I’ve taken total liberty to both plunder the past and re-invent it. – Ryan Craig, London, 2017
Playwright’s Note
13
RYAN CRAIG
COLIN McCOLL
DANIEL WILLIAMS
CREATIVE RYAN CRAIG Playwright Ryan Craig was Writer in Residence at the Royal National Theatre Studio from January 2012 to March 2013. His plays for the National include The Holy Rosenbergs, Our Class and We Lost Elijah. Other plays include Filthy Business (Hampstead Theatre), How to Think the Unthinkable (Unicorn Theatre), Talk Talk Fight Fight (Tricycle Theatre), The Glass Room (Hampstead Theatre), Broken Road (BAC/ Edinburgh Fringe – winner of a Fringe First), Happy Savages (Lyric Studio/Edinburgh Fringe) and What We Did to Weinstein (Menier Chocolate Factory), for which he was nominated for the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Playwright award. Television includes The Musketeers, Robin Hood, Waterloo Road and Hustle, all for BBC1, and the film Saddam’s Tribe for Channel 4. In 2005, he was Writer in Residence at BBC Radio Drama and his radio plays include A Question of Judgement, Bloodsport, Resolutions, English in Afghanistan, The Lysistrata Project, Hold My Breath, Portugal, The Great Pursuit and Looking for Danny. Current projects include The Ghost Map for the National Theatre and Father of a Million Babies for Echo Lake films. COLIN McCOLL Director Colin McColl has directed for the Norwegian National Theatre and the Dutch National Theatre, as well as leading New Zealand and Australian theatre companies. He is the only New Zealand director to be invited to present his work (Hedda Gabler) at the official Edinburgh Festival. The production played to great acclaim and also was presented at other festivals around the world. Colin has won Best Director at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards several times – including for his Circa Theatre production of A Doll’s House. In 2015, Colin directed Emily Perkins’ new version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House for Auckland Theatre Company. He has directed more than 50 productions for Auckland Theatre Company. His opera-directing credits include Quartet (New Zealand International Arts Festival 2004), La Bohème (Wellington City Opera), The Italian Girl in Algiers, The Marriage of Figaro and The Prodigal Child (NBR New Zealand Opera). In 2009, he remounted his production of The Italian Girl in Algiers for the Scottish Opera. In November 2007, Colin was honoured for his artistic achievements and excellence at the eighth annual Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Awards. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in June 2010. DANIEL WILLIAMS Set Designer Daniel Williams graduated with a degree in Performance Design from Massey University and Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2006. His career has seen him design sets and costumes for work all over New Zealand and internationally. In 2013, he won the Q Theatre Auckland Newcomer Award at the Auckland Theatre Awards, he has been nominated multiple times at the Chapman Tripp theatre awards and won the Weta Workshop Set Designer of the Year in 2008. For Auckland Theatre Company, he designed sets and costumes for Enlightenment, When Sun & Moon Collide and BOYS as part of the HERE & NOW Festival at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. In 2017, he worked on the World of WearableArt Awards Show as the Associate Director. Currently, he is designing Silo Theatre’s epic production Mr Burns. You can check out more of his work at danielwilliamsdesign.com
14
ASB season of Filthy Business
NIC SMILLIE
JO KILGOUR
ADRIAN HOLLAY
NIC SMILLIE Costume Designer Nic Smillie has worked in theatre, film and television as a costume designer for 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Textile Design from Victoria University of Wellington. Projects for the Auckland Theatre Company include Peer Gynt [recycled], To Kill a Mockingbird, A Doll’s House, Paniora!, Midnight in Moscow, Awatea, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cabaret, August: Osage County, Romeo and Juliet, The Pohutukawa Tree, The Wife Who Spoke Japanese in Her Sleep, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Where We Once Belonged. Nic has also worked with Colin McColl on many theatre productions based in Wellington; highlights have been Cabaret, Sweeney Todd and Top Girls. Her costume design highlights for screen include the 2016 Samoan language feature One Thousand Ropes, written and directed by Tusi Tamasese, and the Air New Zealand Screen Award for Contribution to Design for the television series The Insider’s Guide to Love. Her operatic designs include The Italian Girl in Algiers, staged in Auckland and Glasgow. Currently based in Helsinki, Nic returns to New Zealand regularly for costume design projects. JO KILGOUR Lighting Designer Jo Kilgour is an Auckland-based lighting designer and technical/production director with extensive touring and festival experience. Her work in technical management includes The New Zealand Dance Company (NZDC), Auckland Arts Festival, New Zealand Festival, Christchurch Arts Festival and Taranaki Arts Festival. Her lighting design credits include Under the Mountain, Nell Gwynn, Amadeus, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime, The Book Club (Auckland Theatre Company), Kiss the Sky, The Absurdity of Humanity, Lumina (NZDC), Rushes (Malia Johnston), The Owl & The Pussy-cat (Tim Bray Productions), Ihimaera (Auckland Arts Festival 2011), The Pickle King (Indian Ink Theatre Company), Vita and Virginia (Circa Theatre), The God Boy (Downstage Theatre), Woman Far Walking (Taki Rua Productions/NZ Festival 2000) and Skin Tight (Tidy Theatre Company). Jo’s lighting design (along with Rowan Pierce’s AV design) for Malia Johnston’s Rushes won the Auckland Fringe 2017 Production Design (Lighting & AV) award. ADRIAN HOLLAY Composer & Sound Designer Creating evocative, atmospheric and melodic music is Adrian Hollay’s main motivation as a composer. Over the past decade, he has written music for theatre and films in New Zealand and in his native Germany. Adrian has, most recently, composed works for Melbourne-based classical music trio Plexus and solo violinist Sarah Curro. In 2018, he launched the electro-pop project, Boskermusic.com. In addition, Adrian is an accomplished and award-winning music producer and sound engineer. His recordings have been released on music labels Naxos and Atoll, as well as being broadcast on public radio stations across the globe. In 2017, his work was awarded Silver at the New York Festivals Best Radio Program Awards. Proud of his strong relationship with Auckland Theatre Company, Adrian has designed sound and composed music for the company’s productions of The Glass Menagerie, Other Desert Cities, Anne Boleyn, The Gift and Badjelly the Witch. To find out more, visit hollay.com
Creative
15
THE BUSINESS OF BEING JEWISH by Alan Gold
For such a tiny and largely discrete group, the Jewish community's impact on all aspects of New Zealand’s growth and global standing is remarkable.
16
ASB season of Filthy Business
THE SMALL New Zealand Jewish community, like similar communities in almost all nations throughout the world, is currently suffering from an identity crisis. Assimilation, identifying with Jewish culture and history but not with its ancient religion, and the maelstrom of politics in Israel and the Middle East are causing issues of belonging for Jewish people everywhere. New Zealand’s Jewish community is tiny compared with the mainstream population, yet three Prime Ministers – Francis Bell, Julius Vogel and John Key – have all claimed Jewish ancestry. And the contribution of Jews towards New Zealand’s growth and prosperity has been far greater than their numbers would suggest. For such a tiny and largely discrete group, the Jewish community's impact on all aspects of New Zealand’s growth and global standing is remarkable. Yet, apart from a handful of synagogues and cultural associations, Jewish life in New Zealand goes largely unseen. But with the Auckland Theatre Company’s forthcoming production of Filthy Business, a play by British playwright Ryan Craig, New Zealanders will come face to face with archetypal Jewish characters who loomed large in the East End of London in the permissive era of the '60s and '70s. Craig’s semi-autobiographical play is set in a family rubber business in East London, towards the end of the '60s. His central character, Yetta Solomon, has built an impressive rubber retail business, despite shortage of money to buy stock, the crisis in the British pound sending businesses to the wall, and new and increasingly aggressive competition. She is the typical matriarch: surviving against the odds. However, the one challenge she’s ill-equipped to survive is the way in which her children and grandchildren want to assimilate into the wider culture, and do things with their lives other than work in a rubber shop. As a metaphor for the identity problems which migrant families suffer over the generations, it is a play which will resonate with most New Zealanders. Britain, after the Second World War, was in a frenzy of cultural experimentation and growth for the mainstream British population and, particularly, for its youth. It was a different story, however, for
The Business of Being Jewish
17
A group of Jews protesting against Hitler’s anti-Jewish doctrine assembled in Hyde Park, London, England in 1933 holding signs which read "Boycott the German Jew- Baiters". From The Pageant of the Century, published 1934. Contributor: Hilary Morgan / Alamy Stock Photo.
the Jewish community, scarred by events before and during the war, which were still the central issue governing the ways in which most Jews thought. Even during the 1930s, before the Holocaust, the London Jewish community was assaulted culturally and physically by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. Deliberately confrontational and inflammatory, Mosley organised for his legions of Blackshirts to march through London’s East End with the intention of provoking mayhem. His association with Hitler’s visceral anti-Semitic speeches resonated deeply within the London Jewish psyche. After the War, when the true horror of the Holocaust was widely known, the East End Jewish community began to disperse to other parts of London, and much of the safety and security, which large numbers bring to a migrant community, were lost. By the late ’60s, Jews, along with many in the mainstream population, had gained considerably from the rapid pace of business and professional development, and many Jewish families, whose grandparents had been impoverished refugees living in the East End, had now risen high up the social and economic ladder. Yet this dispersion to the North West and other parts of London had a diluting effect on community life. This pattern of generational movement in migrant populations is common to many different communities. The initial large-scale Jewish
18
ASB season of Filthy Business
migration to the United Kingdom grew out of the hideous pogroms against Jewish communities in Southern Russia, Poland and the Baltic States. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish families left their homes and most of their possessions behind as they escaped marauding thuggish groups burning entire villages and Jewish ghettos. They were resettled in London and East Coast America, initially living in close-knit communities, huddled around slum houses, speaking the universal Jewish patois of Yiddish, and using the newly established synagogues as both community centres and houses of worship. But, when their children grew up, learned English at school and went on to higher education, they often avoided the typical clothes and behaviour of their parents and grandparents, and showed little interest in maintaining family traditions. Inter-generational conflicts naturally arose, becoming an irrepressible movement as the educated youngsters were able to assimilate into the wider community. Unlike African, Pakistani and Indian secondgeneration migrants who had come to England to seek a better life, the second and third-generation Jews didn’t stand out because of the colour of their skin. Indeed, most were unidentifiable from the mainstream, other than by their surnames. And Jews were able to enter every profession and business, contributing far beyond their numbers. They were most noticeable in the world of academia,
The Business of Being Jewish
19
and also in entertainment, especially Hollywood. Time magazine once noted that 80 percent of all stand-up comedians in America were Jewish. There are lots of theories to explain why humour is such a perennial theme in Jewish life, from Saul Bellow’s assumption that Jewish humour combined laughter
Craig’s hugely successful play will show audiences many sides of the Jewish character, as well as the angst suffered by all migrant communities as they assimilate with the mainstream culture. and trembling, to Sigmund Freud’s belief that it was a defence mechanism, to the irrepressible Mel Brooks’ comment that “If they’re laughing at you, they can’t bludgeon you to death”. To quote the late American novelist, Philip Roth: “A Jewish man with parents alive is a 15-year-old boy, and will remain a 15-year-old boy until they die”. And, again, to quote the brilliant Jewish comedian, Larry David: “I may loathe myself, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m Jewish”. When audiences have seen the matriarch in Filthy Business, they’ll truly understand the nuances of what Roth and David meant. Craig’s hugely successful play will show audiences many sides of the Jewish character, as well as the angst suffered by all migrant communities as they assimilate into the mainstream culture. And there’s little doubt that it will resonate with those New Zealanders whose ancestors came by ship or plane to a country on the other side of the world, and somehow managed to make a successful life separated from their history and culture.
20
ASB season of Filthy Business
YIDDISH GLOSSARY
SCHMENDRICK an ineffectual, foolish or contemptible person
SCHLEPPER
someone or something that is tedious, slow or awkward; a drag
rubbish DRECK meshugga crazy
pisher trouble
an insignificant or contemptible person
SCHTUCK
schtarker a man of great strength
headKOPF bubbe grandmother
boychick
a term of endearment for a young boy or a young man
meshugganah a strange, eccentric or irresponsible person a woman who is a gossip or busybody
YENTA
Yiddish Glossary
21
WHAT’S ON AT ASB WATERFRONT THEATRE SEPTEMBER Black Grace presents
CRYING MEN Dance by Neil Ieremia
6 – 8 September Exploring masculinity through a Pacific lens and dance, Crying Men traces the journey of three generations of Pacific men, living in a new land and dealing with the impact of the loss of a matriarch who brought balance to the traditional expectations of masculinity with compassion, tolerance and strength. Auckland Theatre Company Giltrap Audi season of
RENDERED by Stuart Hoar From September 18 In a Middle Eastern desert, Major Aria and her mercenary accomplice are on a secret mission to meet up with a New Zealander who’s defected to ISIS with his Arab wife. Meanwhile, at the Auckland Writers Festival, kindergarten teacher Miranda receives an offer she can’t refuse from a charming American visitor. Soon these six lives are inextricably entwined in a web of intrigue, danger and espionage.
OCTOBER OH WHAT A NIGHT! October 9 “The Boys Are Back” for their fourth New Zealand tour this October! Returning from Las Vegas, and incredible sold-out concerts around the world, Oh What A Night! is the kind of evening that has toes tapping to the infectious songs of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons.
NOVEMBER Auckland Theatre Company ASB season of
SHORTLAND STREET – THE MUSICAL Music and Lyrics by Guy Langford Book by Guy Langford with Simon Bennett By arrangement with South Pacific Pictures
From November 14 Indulge your guilty pleasure with an unforgettable night out of side-splitting laughs and '90s throwbacks. Relive the cliffhanger storylines injected with gutbusting musical numbers including “Not in Guatemala Now” and “The Five Wives of Doctor Warner”.
22
ASB season of Filthy Business
New Zealand’s Most Awarded Winery
No great wine ever came from a spreadsheet. Winemaking is an art, not a numbers game and our winemakers and viticulturists understand this. They pick our grapes based on flavour and ripeness, not on achieving a certain yield. It’s a luxury we have from being family-owned which means everything we do is for the good of what’s in the glass. For us it’s simple: our wine is far more important than how many zeros are on our balance sheet. So open a bottle of Villa Maria and experience what passion and dedication taste like.
OPEN ANOTHER WORLD
TM
George, Founder, Owner
23
TAKE A SEAT FOR THE CHARACTERS IN YOUR FAMILY. Make a donation to the ASB Waterfront Theatre for someone you love. With only 70 seats remaining, chances are running out for you to claim a seat for a theatre fan you care about. Join more than 400 seat donors in supporting Auckland Theatre Company by making a Take a Seat donation. To reserve a seat or find out more about the Take a Seat programme, email Simon Tate at simon@atc.co.nz.
24
ASB season of Filthy Business
PRODUCTION SUPPLIERS
rollercoaster.co.nz
propellornz.wixsite.com/props
kelpls.co.nz
firstscene.co.nz
fieldrubber.co.nz
waughbands.co.nz
dunlopfoam.co.nz
BEAUTY AND PRODUCT SPONSORS
OFFICIAL MAKE-UP SPONSOR M.A.C cosmetics offers a large selection of make-up, skin-care products and nail-care items. Visit Smith & Caughey’s or one of the M.A.C stores: St Lukes, Britomart or Botany Downs.
26
TAKE YOUR BUSINESS
CENTRE STAGE
CONTACT WILL ROOKE will.rooke@qmsmedia.com | 021 02612005
qmsmedia.com
27
TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS
PROJECT FUNDERS
PROJECT PARTNERS
MAJOR FUNDERS
FOUNDATION PARTNERS
T H A N KS TO T H E S U P P O R T E R S O F
THE CHARTWELL TRUST LOU & IRIS FISHER CHARITABLE TRUST PUB CHARITY SIR JOHN LOGAN CAMPBELL RESIDUARY ESTATE SKYCITY AUCKLAND COMMUNITY TRUST
FOUNDING BENEFACTORS, PATRONS AND DONORS
AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY Artistic Director Colin McColl ONZM Chief Executive Lester McGrath Mana Whenua Cultural Advisor Herewini Easton Creative Development Associate Director: Lynne Cardy Literary Manager: Philippa Campbell Youth Arts Coordinator: Nicole Arrow Production and Premises Production Manager: Joel Crook Company Manager: Elaine Walsh Company Manager (Maternity Cover): Eliza Josephson-Rutter Venue Technical Manager: Josh Bond Venue Technician: Johnny Chen Technician: Zach Howells Marketing and Communications Marketing and Communications Manager: Natasha Gordon Publicists: Siobhan Waterhouse and Vanessa Preston Graphic Designer: Wanda Tambrin Marketing Campaigns Manager: Nicola Brown Digital Marketing Coordinator: Brad Fisher Visitor Experience Ticketing and Front of House Manager: Gary Barker Food and Beverage Manager: Richard Pepper Front of House Manager: Ralph Corke Ticketing Administrator: Joni Nelson Ticketing Executive: Melissa Handley FOH Supervisors: Cally Castell, Eliot Youmans
28
Development and Venue Sales Development Manager: Emma Burton Development Coordinator: Simon Tate Events and Sales Manager: Bernadette Norfo Event Coordinator: Romana Trego Business Development Manager: Geeling Ching Administration and Finance Finance Manager: Kerry Tomlin Senior Accountant: Nick Tregerthan Senior Accounts Administrator: Michelle Speir Company Administrator: Jan Pitout Administration Coordinator: Jade McCann Executive Administrator: Natasha Pearce BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair: Gordon Moller ONZM Jonathan Bielski Vivien Bridgwater Karen Fistonich Isaac Hikaka Katie Jacobs Scott Kerse Derek McCormack Graeme Pinfold We acknowledge The Theatre Foundation Trustees for the philanthropic support provided to Auckland Theatre Company activities. CONTACT ATC 487 Dominion Road, Mt Eden PO Box 96002 Balmoral, Auckland 1342 P: 09 309 0390 F: 09 309 0391 atc@atc.co.nz atc.co.nz
Supporters of ASB Waterfront Theatre
FOUNDING CORPORATE PARTNERS PLATINUM PARTNERS GOLD PARTNERS SILVER PARTNERS
ATC PATRONS Margot and Alastair Acland Margaret Anderson John Barnett Betsy and Michael Benjamin Greg Blanchard and Carol Weaver Michelle Boag Adrian Burr and Peter Tatham Julie and Brian Cadzow Paul and Barbie Cook Roger and Maryanne Dickie Kim and Annette Ellis Trevor and Jan Farmer Stephen and Virginia Fisher Cameron Fleming Michael Friedlander Dame Jenny Gibbs Michael and Stephanie Gowan Ross and Josephine Green Stuart Grieve and Antonia Fisher Sue Haigh Rod and Penelope Hansen Allyson and Paul Harvey Anne and Peter Hinton Michael and Dame Rosie Horton Rod and Julie Inglis Sally and Peter Jackson Robert Johnston and Stella McDonald Len and Heather Jury Brian and Jan Keene Ross and Paulette Laidlaw Margot and Paul Leigh Sir Chris and Dayle Lady Mace Peter Macky and Yuri Opeshko Jackie and Phillip Mills Michael Moore and Andrew Gelonese Christine and Derek Nolan Denver and Prue Olde Heather Pascual Barby Pensabene Hon. Dame Judith Potter Maria Renhart Robyn and Malcolm Reynolds Fran and Geoff Ricketts Mark and Catherine Sandelin
Mike Smith and Dale d’Rose Philippa Smith-Lambert and Chris Lambert Joanne Smout and Janmarie Thompson Gilli Sutton Lady Tait Julie and Russell Tills Kit Toogood and Pip Muir Simon Vannini and Anita Killeen Susan and Gavin Walker Sir James Wallace Ian Webster and Jianni Felpas Dona and Gavin White Fran Wyborn Annemarie Yannaghas ATC 2017/18 SUPPORTING ACTS Our Standing Ovation Supporters Sandy and Alan Bulmer Rob Nicoll Matthew Olde and Jacqui Cormack Brian and Pam Stevenson Scott and Louise Wallace Our Take A Bow Supporters Shane Compton Lex Forrest Nick and Steph Francis Sandra Greenfield Rosemary Langham Caroline List Jocelyn Lowe Mike and Debbie Whale ATC welcomes Supporting Acts donations throughout the year. CONTACT BOX OFFICE ASB Waterfront Theatre 138 Halsey Street, Wynyard Quarter Subscriber Hotline: 09 309 3395 General Box Office: 0800 ATC TIX (282 849) boxoffice@atc.co.nz
Auckland Theatre Company
29
TRUTH LIES B E T R AYA L
G I LT R A P A U D I S E A S O N O F
RENDERED BY STUART HOAR From SEPTEMBER 18