Golding Girls inspired by lockdown

By Chris Valli

Four women. Four weeks. At Level Four. March 23, 2020 and a certain pandemic.

The Boathouse Theatre’s next play, Golding Girls, directed by Bridget McNamara is a light-hearted look at life in lockdown written by Taranaki playwright Shona Wilson.

The play follows four women who unexpectedly find themselves thrown together for a snap Level Four lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. A laughout-loud ride of disharmony, hormonal issues and hilarity ensues; complete with masks, a DIY Christmas tree, a lot of pyjamas, and everyone’s lockdown favourite — new hobbies.

Bridget says the appeal of a comedy set during a lockdown of the pandemic presented the chance to reflect on recent history, and it is also a comedy enjoying the ups and downs of womanhood.

The cast is a combination of very experienced thespians with Deborah Cox, Margaret Pringle and Abi Balasoglou while newcomer to the Boathouse stage is Juanita Smart.

“Deb and Margaret are fabulous comedic actresses, well known for that to Marlborough audiences. Abi has built a wonderful character for Hannah, she makes the dramatic parts real but also has excellent comedic timing,” says Bridget. “Juanita has been involved in theatre for a long time, but not on stage. She is showing herself to be a skilled actress.”

With a script which reflects on the new territory that was a pandemic and information overload in March 2020, what does Bridget remember about the Level 4 lockdown?

“My husband and I were overseas in March 2020, we had to cut our trip short and fly back urgently from the States before flights were cancelled. We were watching Trump in the States doing the daily press conferences, we were there in Chicago when overnight all restaurants and bars were shut down by the Governor, and we flew home two days before the first lockdown was announced. It was a dramatic time, full of uncertainty but also full of the best of humanity too in many ways.”

Bridget says the play will resonate as the central theme focuses on relationships and how ‘we’ feel about ourselves affects how we relate to others.

“Just because we don’t see eye to eye, doesn’t mean we can’t ultimately find common ground and get along. It’s a play about the seasons of life, and it is a play about fun and humour. It’s a lovely thing to sit in an audience and all laugh together.”

Golding Girls is on at the Boathouse Theatre from Wednesday, June 14 - Saturday, June 24 with a matinee on Sunday, June 18. Tickets are available at the ASB Theatre.

Marlborough District Council has been successful in its bid to gain further central Government funding to help repair its stormdamaged roads. Two heavy rain events in July 2021 and August 2022 caused extensive damage across its network running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Last week the Waka Kotahi board agreed to fund 95 per cent of $52.39M, or $49.77M. The Council would provide the remaining five per cent, or $2.62M.

“This is fantastic news and I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this outcome,” Mayor Nadine Taylor said.

“Thanks in particular to Waka Kotahi for agreeing to the financial assistance rate (FAR) of 95%. I understand and appreciate the Government is under significant pressure and facing funding requests from North Island regions for the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery and rebuild.”

To The Editor

The editor reserves the right to

SPCA and Marlborough Four Paws are pleading for help because they are running out of funds and overflowing with cats and kittens. They want councils and the central government to help. SPCA is offering cats/kittens at half price. This will only increase their problems as those that accept this offer will find that cat food is expensive and not half price.

My suggestion is only desex when the cats have been adopted. All cats that have been with these organisations for more than a month will be euthanized.

Four Paws trap and release stray cats but being desexed and fed doesn’t stop these cats from catching birds, especially fledglings, and playing with them until dead, but not eating them.

These organisations need to get the central government to make it compulsory to register all cats and kittens, same rules and cost as dogs. Desex and microchip, $62, otherwise, $92.

Colin Geertson Easthaven Place Blenheim

The advertisement (May 31) warns of an imminent 1080 poison drop on publicly owned Molesworth Station and part of privately owned Muller Station.

As a pest operator I hunted possums on Muller Station, contracted by the Marlborough District Council. The nature of the country, makes it ideal to hunt possums and ground poison which I did using pindone. Numbers were reduced to very low levels.

Dropping 1080 poison is expensive and everything that ingests it dies. Originally developed as an insecticide, it kills invertebrates vital to the natural ecosystem. Applying deer repellent is questionable as it simply doesn’t work effectively.

My understanding is that OSPRI monitors stock herds with the skin test. This is highly questionable as the skin test is about 25-30% error prone. So a TB infected animal passed falsely as “uninfected” remains in the herd, likely to infect other stock. There are far more accurate tests, such as the blood test.

In 2016 the government told Parliament, 9830 possums were autopsied for TB. Not one had TB. While it is quite acceptable to try and protect farmer’s income, 1080 poison is not the way to do it.

Laurie Collins Westport

Can I say as a past road transport signal engineer, whilst there is nothing wrong with dual, triple or even quadruple signage, as seen in many Asian countries, the country’s major language should take precedence over any minor language, either within that country or an overseas one. To not do so will cause unnecessary confusion and can lead to accidents.

For instance, the Māori name for school is Kura, yet by putting it first, on the sign, suggests the name of the school ahead is Kura. It must also be remembered that NZ has around four million overseas visitors a year, the majority of which will be English language speakers, whilst for the others, English will be their second language, so it is easy to see how putting Māori first will cause confusion. We already fail to use international road signage, such as a solid yellow stop line instead of a white one, and a solid white line for give way instead of a dotted white one. It must also be remembered, that by Māori’s own reckoning, less than 100,000 people converse daily in Te Reo.

Chris Davies

Past traffic signal engineer