The Rangitoto Observer Page 14
Arts / Entertainment Pages
October 28, 2022
Actors roll back the years and the music
Acting up... (from left) Lisa Chappell, director Stephanie McKellar-Smith, Elish Moran and Jodie Dorday are enjoying working together again in rehearsals for a play which takes them back to the 1980s A stand-out cast of leading actors say they are loving the freedom that comes with celebrating female friendship in an ensemble show set to open in Takapuna in November. Lisa Chappell, Jodie Dorday and Elish Moran are currently rehearsing the hit West End show Di and Viv and Rose, in which the 50-somethings play their richly varied characters’ younger selves, complete with a 1980s soundtrack they can all relate to. “Everyone will be tapping their feet,” predicts Chappell. The play tracks their interlinked lives and affections over the years in ways reminiscent of the criss-crossing of their own careers and that of director Stephanie McKellar-Smith. It is 25 years since North Shore-raised Chappell – who went on to star in the hit Australian television show McLeod’s Daughters – last worked with co-star and producer Dorday on an Auckland Theatre Company production. They renewed their friendship while living in Sydney in the early 2000s, when Chappell was at drama school and getting by with shop work. Dorday, daughter of Auckland cabaret legend Debbie Dorday, acted in both Sydney and Melbourne, and later lived in Bali where she too set up a cabaret. McKellar-Smith knew the women well before those days, having come through Theatre Corporate and Auckland Youth Theatre, but it was from her time in Christchurch that the
connection was made with Moran, a Court Theatre veteran. Chappell and Moran were invited to join the Fusion Productions play after Dorday’s original cast from a festival performance in Wellington in early 2020 could not be reunited for a northern tour, following a series of Covid delays. Third time lucky, it’s on at the intimate PumpHouse Theatre, which Chappell says is her “favourite place to work”. This is her second outing there in just two months, after a run in Campervan. Dorday says the venue is getting increasing attention as an ideal home for quality theatre. Jennifer Ward-Lealand, is directing a play there the week before Di and Viv and Rose opens. The PumpHouse suits audiences keen to return to live theatre but with some lingering hesitancy about travelling too far from home. “There’s an audience in Devonport and Takapuna that wants to see intelligent theatre,” says Dorday. The location is also appealing to the actors, with all bar Moran being based north of the Bridge. Chappell and Dorday both moved back to New Zealand around eight years ago. After living in Mairangi Bay, Chappell moved to Puhoi a year ago to experiment with tiny-house living. The country setting helps her focus on writing scripts. Dorday lives in Hobsonville Point and McKellar-Smith at Wellsford, with
a day job co-managing Centrestage Theatre in Orewa. Chappell said she was drawn to the play because “I loved the theme of female friendship – it’s something really important to me.” Talking to the Observer during a break in rehearsals, the women’s camaraderie is obvious. The lead crew members are female too. Dorday says the show has “a lovely warm nurturing female energy, which is unusual”. Playing the positive character of Rose was enticing to Chappell, because she reminded her of her younger days. “It’s so rare for a woman in her 50s to play someone who is 18. I think it was a challenge to see if I, as a menopausal woman, could find that energy.” The women say that despite competition for roles throughout their careers, the theatre world is largely supportive and forms a family of its own. “The world is our oyster now,” says Dorday. “I feel it’s the bringing together of Team Wahine Toa – PumpHouse pakeha style. Chappell says they are kept dexterous in their work by audience interaction. “The funny thing with audiences is they can literally interpret the shows – one night you do a rollicking comedy and then next it’s a serious drama.” • Di and Viv and Rose runs from 10-20 November at the PumpHouse Theatre, Takapuna. Tickets $35, with concessions available. Book at pumphouse.co.nz.
