A veteran of Wellington theatre, Sarah Delahunty is an award winning playwright. She has sought out these local productions that sparked her interest and hopes they spark yours too! You can contact Sarah via our Facebook page FACEBOOK.COM/SCENEWGTN
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I SSUE 4 | M AY 2018 Pu bli c S er v i c e A n n ou n c emen ts - A N e w D a wn WMB A D x: I dea W orth S preadi n g | Bron të
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WGTN
ISSUE 4 MAY 2018
As Polly Teale expressed it herself in the Guardian in 2005, - “The external lives of the Brontë sisters were dreary, repetitive, uneventful, and yet their inner lives were the opposite. To tell this story we need to dramatise the collision between drab domesticity and unfettered, soaring imagination, to see both the real and internal world at once, to make visible what is hidden inside.” It’s a style described by Jayne as “realism with a twist”. Characters from the books come alive onstage. Charlotte interacts with her iconic Mr Rochester. Emily with her famous heroine, Cathy. Sometimes it feels like the characters dictate the action but then the playwright pulls you back and you realise that they’re just manifestations of imagination. Jayne wants the audience to experience the journey between those worlds.
BRONTË BY POLLY TEALE Presented by Stagecraft Theatre Directed by Jayne Grace Gryphon Theatre Wed 23rd May – Sat 26th May 7:30 Sun 27th May 3:00pm Tues 29th May – Wed 30th May 6:30pm Fri 1st June 7:30pm TICKETS: $25/$20/$15 BOOKINGS: iTicket British playwright Polly Teale has a long-term fascination with the Brontë family. Sisters Charlotte, Emily and Ann published novels under male pseudonyms during the 1840’s - a time when women were apparently unable to enter libraries let
WMBADX: IDEA WORTH SPREADING WRITTEN BY ROBBIE NICOL AND FINNIUS TEPPETT Directed by Stella Reid Comedy Festival Bats Theatre Tuesday May 15th - Saturday 19th 6:30pm TICKETS: $20/$15/$14 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz The “full ungainly title”, according to Robbie Nicol is White Man Behind A Desk and A Mulled Whine present WMBADx: Idea Worth Spreading. Robbie Nicol. First came across him as a fifteen-year-old year old (him, not me), while directing a high school musical (me, not him). Described him then as a “phenomenon”. The description stays relevant. Writer, performer, satirist and general smart human. He burst onto the online scene a couple of years back with White Man Behind A Desk, winning Best Web Show at the 2016 NZ WebFest. Then last year went live on stage, winning Best Newcomer at the 2017 NZ International Comedy Festival. This year he’s back onstage. White Man has entirely turned his back on comedy. It’s a new direction. And right now, apparently a secret... Robbie - the actual white man behind the actual desk - says it can be a challenge matching the issues the team want to explore to the medium they are using at the time. “So, for webseries - it means being clear, direct, and funny, and providing something that’s obviously useful. Within a few
alone write the books. And this is Polly Teale’s third play on the subject. Famous novels, too. Jane Eyre , written by Charlotte, is thought to be the second most-read book in the English language after the Bible... Of course there are people to be found lurking online who suggest the sisters didn’t write Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or the other four novels. That they were the work of their brother Branwell- alcoholic and drug addict, mentally unstable - who produced only a little mediocre writing in his own name. Yeah right. Sure, as one of the few males they had contact with in the wilds of Yorkshire, Branwell would have been inspiration for their male characters. But, as Jayne Grace, the director of Brontë comments, “I think it’s important to note that inspiring parts of something great does not deserve the same credit as creating something great.”
seconds you should be able to go, ‘Oh, okay, if I watch this video for the next ten minutes, I’ll learn how the New Zealand tax system works’. With theatre, we’ve got people coming who are already fans of our work, who are already knowledgeable about politics, and so it’s a space to be self-critical, and to tackle more difficult questions about satire itself.” Robbie is keen to move forward through collaboration. One of his favourite things about the live show is working with Finnius Teppet, who came on board last time, originally as a writer. “ After a while,” says Robbie, “director Stella Reid pointed out that our writing was turning into a double act”. And that’s what the show has become. “A double-act between a dim optimist named Robbie and a slightly less dim pessimist named Finn.” Has the change of government softened White Man? “I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was different,” Robbie admits. “We were starting to get good at satirising the National government. It’s taking a little while to find our feet mocking this new bunch of people.” So what drives the obviously driven Robbie Nicol? He doesn’t know. He just likes doing it. Likes comedy. Thinks the world could be better. Likes questioning things we’ve accepted which don’t seem right to him. Likes to mock bullies. Doesn’t want to imply he’s particularly good at satire - just can’t imagine doing anything else. And his career path from here? “I have no career path other than continuing to work, forcing myself to charge market rates for that work, and then spending that money on more work. I have been tremendously lucky so far, so I’m just going to keep my head down, and hope that nobody tells me I have to stop.” Anyone who tries telling Robbie that will have me to deal with!
“This play,” she says, “ explores how three virgins living in isolation came to write some of the most powerful, insightful and, frankly, erotic books of all time.” The Brontë’s lost their mother as children. Unusually, their father educated the girls. Encouraged them to read Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley. They wrote books themselves from childhood. Their Yorkshire Moors isolation helped create an intricate imaginative world. But later their lives moved through scandal, unemployment, growing debt, sickness, loss and varying successes as they struggled in their different ways to express themselves.
Is it preferable to know a bit about the Brontë’s before you watch this? She thinks you’ll get something out of it either way. “If you know nothing about the sisters, the play’s narrative, and the premise of three Victorian women writing with the odds stacked against them, are still compelling. It would be, even if these women hadn’t written such well-known and well-loved books.” And if you do know a bit about them, she feels you’ll appreciate the playwright’s meticulous research.
I asked Jayne Grace, if the play deals primarily with what it was to be a woman writer at that time, or with the creative, internal world the sisters lived in. Jayne says both.
So. The Brontë sisters weren’t rich, weren’t considered attractive and didn’t come from a titled family. A bleak outlook. “To a degree that’s still true - wealth, whiteness and attractiveness are still a success recipe,” says Jayne. But one hundred and fifty years ago their biggest obstacle was being female.
“I think for the Brontë women these things were one and the same. The element that I’m focusing on is what it was like to be a woman writer, and a Victorian woman without prospects.”
Yet here they are, with us still. Celebrated themselves in plays, novels, the lyrics of songs. These women sound worth getting to know and this sounds like an ideal opportunity.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS A NEW DAWN PRESENTED BY THE NO FEFE COLLECTIVE Written by Thom Adams and Carrie Green Directed by Isobel MacKinnon Comedy Festival Bats Theatre Tuesday 8th May – Saturday 12th May 8:00pm TICKETS: $22/$16/$15 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz As a grumpy old woman behind a laptop, I struggle with a lot of comedy content. So for coverage of this year’s Comedy Festival I have gone with NZ politics. Always something to laugh at there – if you’re not crying with rage. Public Service Announcements is a large scale enterprise, with sometimes as many as twenty-two actors in the cast. It’s an ongoing “equal opportunity political satire”, first created in 2011 by James Nokise and Anya Tate-Manning. This partnership continued until 2017, when his real-life friendship with Jacinda Ardern meant James thought it prudent to resign his post. Anya, among many other jobs on the show, has always played Jacinda - since well before she became our Pregnant Prime Minister. “A New Dawn” is the ninth show in the lineup, written this time by Thom Adams and Carrie Green. Thom has been writing for PSA since 2014, and he answered most of my questions. Do the same people play the same politicians over the years? “Yes,” says Thom. “ Some actors are so essential that we haven’t used their MP’s if they weren’t available.” But
overall they take what and who is in the news as material for the show. Which can create issues. The plot has to remain flexible. Like last year, with the resignation of three party leaders in the six weeks leading up to the election. Or the script has to change midway through the season, as when Judith Collins resigned as a minister. Though the tone has differed a bit over the years depending on the team, Thom describes the shows as always wacky and outrageous. Savage and unflinching in how they take on issues. Tending to centre on some absurd event or issue – yep, sounds like politics. And their philosophy? “If someone is singled out for particularly strong ridicule, it’s because they deserve it, not because of whether they’re left or right,” Thom states. “But also, we’re here to have fun, and to make politics accessible. I know for a fact that there are people out there who have become more interested in politics as a result of watching our show.” Is anything not open to ridicule? “Our first rule is to never punch down. Satire calls out people with power, not people without it. It turns out you can have funny jokes that don’t take aim at disadvantaged members of our community. But we will make fun of rich old white guys and anyone else in power. They can take it. Come at me bros!” Like the sound of this one.
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