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Review ArchiVE
FLIPSIDE
Written by Ken Duncum
Directed by Kate Louise Elliott
Starring Nick Dunbar, Ricky Dey, Stephen Ure and Greg Johnson
Compelling play never despairing
Reviewed by David Collins for The Tribune, June 1, 2011
The best thing about a play dealing with men pushed to physical and mental extremes is that when a police car sounds its siren driving past the theatre, it fits seamlessly into the show's brooding collage of a soundscape.
Four men survived 119 days at sea when their boat, the Rose-Noelle, overturned.
Much like the sea they find themselves adrift in, the play pushes and pulls, moving from the present to various points in the past and back again.
Essentially two stories are laid next to each other, yet, while they seemingly diverge at their respective conclusions, both are about survival.
Sure, there are moments of despair – but the play is never despairing.
The hope of the characters is eventually rewarded at the end of the first half (in a fantastic scene of exaltation) and it carries through to the end. Nick Dunbar, Ricky Dey, Greg Johnson and Stephen Ure all have their share of the heavy-lifting story and, emotion-wise, and all do an excellent job.
Flipside is a beautiful example of how a small thing can represent so much more. A comb becomes a knife, a brush becomes a radio, a flannel becomes a fillet – all little touches working together to suggest something bigger.
A line of light running along the back wall is the entire Southern Ocean, then shifts to become the sun.
A single sheet might gently move as a bedroom curtain, yet suddenly turn frantic, a sail bustling in a storm.
So many moments, too, that stick in your head like barnacles on the side of an upside down boat: the hilarity of a constipation cure or when the first fish is caught; how what's essential when they flip over (water, food) isn't essential when they reach land (photos, letters); or the eerie calm of that first night on land after all that's come before.
An exploration into friendship and what happens when you endure something extraordinary with others, Flipside is compelling stuff.
This is brilliant theatre- script and production wise
Reviewed by Mary Bryan
This is brilliant theatre- script and production wise.
It is a play that demands an extremely good director, outstanding actors with good diction, split second timing, superb staging and lighting.
Centrepoint's production delivers on all counts. It is worthy of any international arts festival.
Flipside is based on the true story of the trimaran Rose-Noelle, which sailed out of Picton on June 1, 1989 for Tonga, but a few days later, off the Wairarapa coast, was capsized by a massive wave.
With the multi hulled yacht floating upside down and the cabin partially filled with water, the four-man crew took shelter in the aft cabin- Rose Noelle's owner John Glennie (Stephen Ure) Rick Hellreigel (Ricky Dey) Jim Nalepka (Nick Dunbar) and Phil Hofman (Greg Johnson).
For 119 days, the men drifted until finally landing on Great Barrier Island.
In recreating the epic event – worthy of any I Should Not Be Alive documentary- Duncum has used flash backs and a bedroom set where the double bed alternates being that and the yacht.
The play opens with bed- ridden crew member Rick, who survived the ordeal, only to be struck down with a fatal cancer. Caring for him is Jim who instead of returning to the US .stayed on to help Rick's wife (never seen).
The audience then embarks with them and the other crew members - -on a voyage and experience unlike any I have experienced in years of reviewing national and international drama.
Brilliant use of lighting and sound effects in a split second turn the bedroom into a storm tossed , raging sea.
With the yacht overturned, the bed becomes the cramped cabin. From there the men call on every ounce of mental strength as they fight not only to survive the sea but conflicting personalities.
Each of the four's infuriating traits and strengths are expertly portrayed- the angst and the joy of the crew at each set back and minor triumph to the extent you live through the ordeal with them.
Flipside is a play that any boatie, be they a theatregoer or not, will relate to –as well as the public.
Thank you Centrepoint for staging and staging so well Flipside.
Raw and rugged, dramatic, compassionate and uplifting love song of the sea
Reviewed by Richard Mays for Theatreview, Wednesday, June 1, 2011
In 1989, the newly commissioned trimaran 'Rose Noelle' was smacked over by a huge rogue wave on its maiden voyage from New Zealand to Tonga. Its crew of four spent an unprecedented 119 days huddled in the vessel's upturned hull as it drifted in the South Pacific before being wrecked on rocks at Great Barrier Island.
Adapted from Capsized written by American Jim Nalepka, one of the crew, it hass taken a dozen years for this award-winning New Zealand play to make the Manawatu stage.
While a wait that long for such an insightfully profound piece of theatre from one of the country's best writers – Duncum picked up the 2010 $100,000 Katherine Mansfield Scholarship – is, to say the least, unfortunate, this production goes a heck of a way towards making amends for the delay.
Backlit along the length of two walls by a fluorescent blue waterline, Nicole Cosgrove's striking utilitarian set is based on a sturdy queen-sized bed mounted on a slightly raised tilted platform. Its open-framed curved headboard serves as ships wheel and hatch opening; its mattress doubles as the mariners' cramped and stuffy four-man berth and as the sick-bed of wreck survivor, Rick Helreigel.
While Flipside is a shipwreck saga, it's really a story of friendship and love – one narrated from the perspective of Jim in a superbly seamless and accented realisation by Nick Dunbar. An instructor at Outward Bound, Anakiwa, Jim has been befriended there by Rick, kayaker and photographer. Despite the American not having any sailing experience, Rick convinces him to sign on for the voyage.
Captain and 'Rose Noelle' boat-builder John Glennie, played by Stephen Ure, is a single-minded man convinced his creation, in a line lifted straight out of the Titanic shipyard manual, "will never ever flip." He has other short-comings too – "The radio is for emergencies. This is not an emergency!" – and is often at odds with the instinctively 'take-charge' Rick.
Fourth crew member is the 'infuriating' Phil Hoffman. Greg Johnson's recalcitrant character starts out as the being one who the other three would probably elect to eat first when the rations run out.
Laced with laconic humour, the four disparate personalities act out life confined in the hull with a compelling intensity coupled with an unexpected degree of physicality. They create an authentic bobbing bubble of complex interaction, philosophy, passion, pathos and resilience.
Like all terrific theatre, Flipside is a multi-layered piece, and the survival scenario has its universal aspects that transcend historical circumstances. The four could just as easily be members of a rock band who, while no longer in tune with one another, still find themselves bound by contractual and creative necessity, and remain locked in a relationship almost as intimate and often as uncomfortable as marriage – even to the extent of admitting that during their prolonged crisis, there was no place else they'd rather be.
The on-board survival scenes alternate with Jim tenderly caring for Ricky Dey's semi-paralysed Rick some eight months after the ordeal. The return of the 'beaten' cancer that the character has briefly alluded to in the first act may indeed explain some of his tersely-worded reactions during the big upturned drift.
Dey strikes exactly the right balance in switching between the ailing and survival-mode Rick. The poignant irony is that, having survived four months afloat, the character is brought low by a malignant tumour, while Jim is unable to return the lifesaving favour he owes his buddy and 'Rose Noelle' shipmate.
At the helm of Flipside, director Kate Louise Elliot charts her own deft set of navigating skills, quietly and expertly piloting this raw and rugged, dramatic, compassionate and uplifting love song of the sea home, to prolonged applause from a full opening night auditorium.
There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply going to see it.
Captivating drama
Reviewed by Joan Ford for the Feilding Herald, Thursday, 2 June, 2011
The trimaran Rose-Noelle sailed out of Picton at the beginning of June 1989. The crew of four were heading for Tonga. A few days later off the coast of Wairarapa a giant wave flipped the multi-hull yacht. For 119 days the four men drifted until finally landing by what some in sailing circles call a miracle on Great Barrier Island.
The on stage crew of John Glennie (Stephen Ure) owner of the ill-fated Rose-Noelle, Rick Hellreigel (Ricky Dey) Jim Nalepka (Nick Dunbar), Phil Hofman (Greg Johnson) delivered strong performances. They worked skilfully together as they told this dramatic story of four very different personalities overcoming insurmountable odds to drift back to land. A raft of emotions will wash over them. Sometimes funny, sometimes full of despair.
Nicole Cosgrove designed a stunningly simple set that captured the audience’s belief throughout the play that this was a capsized yacht. When the story flicked back and forth in time it became the bed of crewman Rick Hellreigel, having overcome his ordeal on the Rose-Noelle, he was later to battle terminal cancer. Fellow crewman and friend Jim Nalepka helped nurse Rick during his final ordeal. Playwright, Ken Duncum has based his play “Flipside” on Jim Nalepka’s book Capsized (co-authored by Steven Callahan). It is Jim that provides the anchor to this story as he circumnavigates the world that this crew now occupy and their endurance to survive.
Gareth Hobbs (sound designer) created a startling effect of ensuring that the audience were on this boat as it capsized. Ably assisted by lighting designer Jennifer Lai the off stage crew produced a captivating enhancement to this New Zealand drama.
Kate Louise Elliott directed this well-crafted production. There are some very poignant lines delivered that will capture your thoughts and leave you talking and mulling them over for a long time.
Trial of survival at sea
Reviewed by Emma Goodwin for the Manawatu Standard
In a second, their lives turned upside down and they became the focus of not only a country, but the world.
Four men, one boat and a series of stuff-ups created a piece of New Zealand history that has been turned into books, documentaries and a play.
Flipside, the story of the capsizing of the Rose Noelle in 1989 has been the given the Kate Louis Elliott treatment at Centrepoint and is a piece of theatre that depicts not ony the story, but how the men survived through their friendships and pure determination.
With a simple set of a wooden bed that doubles as the stricken vessel, the actors leap from past to present and future without any confusion.
Jim (Nick Dunbar) narrates you through the play, identifying the emotions each sailor was feeling and how the changing dynamics affected moral.
His deep connection with Rick ( Ricky Dey) is the lynchpin of the play and the pair ably demonstrate the ups and downs of a friendship in such confined and stressful conditions.
Kudos must go to the sound and lighting team of Gareth Hobbs and Jennifer Lal , who created an incredibly atmospheric environment.
With quick scene changes in a very filmic environment, the technology is a vital element to making this play work.
There are also elements of dark humour as Duncum gives all four men respect, character and integrity in a modern legend that most in the audience remembered well.
The Rose Noelle may have ended up a wreck, but Flipside keeps sailing with the wind.
Conjugal Rites
Written by Roger Hall
Directed by Kate Louise Elliott
Starring Alison Quigan and Tim Bartlett
Conjugal play all rite
Reviewed by David Collins for The Tribune, April 6, 2011
Connections can be peculiar things. Elizabeth Taylor dies, I queue up her sublime film, Giant, to watch where she stars opposite Rock Hudson, and Gen and Barry (played brilliantly by Alison Quigan and Tim Bartlett) riff about Hudson early on in Conjugal Rites.
It is clear from the start the connection between Gen and Barry doesn't travel the path of least resistance.
The show opens with a perfect example of the familiarities, ticks, and habits that form the currency of any long-term relationship. This morning has a little more significance than usual, however, since it just happens to be the morning of their 21st wedding anniversary.
Whether it's teenage children struggling to find their way, or elderly parents steadily losing theirs, Gen and Barry are at an age when they find themselves having to look after generations above and below.
Gen has swapped her earlier life as a stay-at-home mum for a career in law and is doing rather well with it.
But that success is beginning to not sit very well with Barry.
Interactions that were playful slowly take on a nastier tone.
They begin to drift apart – both in spite of, and because of, their best efforts.
To say anymore would be telling, but this is a really funny show.
To be sure, things take a darker turn in the last half hour (although some audience managed to still find plenty of laughs), but it's not a jarring shift.
Roger Hall's script has a fine balance – navigated by Quigan and Bartlett in excellent fashion.
We see how strangely – and selfishly – people can act when a relationship reaches a plateau, yet not blame themselves if it starts to sour. To quote Sandman: "We build our traps ourselves, then we back into them, pretending amazement all the while".
Ultimately, Conjugal Rites is a lovely play and hilarious in places.
How else can I explain why a line about Ribena is still making me cackle?
An easily enjoyable production of a fine play
Reviewed by John Ross for Theatreview, Sunday, April 3, 2011
Take one middle-class bedroom and one middle-aged, professional, urban, Pakeha couple, doing the various kinds of stuff you do in bedrooms over a chunk of time. Fancy making a lively full-length comedy (with a bit of drama mixed in) out of that, as Roger Hall has. Amazingly, it works.
Amazing, also, to realise that this play, which as the author's programme note says, "went on to do very nicely thank you," including morphing into a Pommie soap that went through two whole series, had its premiere production here at Centrepoint, back in 1990.
I can recall that production sufficiently to recognise that this one is a bit different, shifted to a later decade (there's a cordless phone, from the beginning), and with a few changed bits of text. Roger Hall has a marvellously sure gift for nailing speech-modes and behaviour in ways that are amusing (sometimes quite funny) yet feel right, and the play does not feel dated.
Someone or other has said, too, that ninety percent of interpretation is in the casting. Being able to cast two such talented, skilled and experienced actors as Alison Quigan, as Jen, and Tim Bartlett, as Barry, is excellent, yet the director needs then to achieve a synergy with them, as to what they can best do. Doubtless, Kate Louise Elliott has here done so; and the timing and nuances and facial expressions are splendid.
With Tim Bartlett, especially, already manifestly middle-middle-aged, he does not seem to get significantly older; nor is there a very strong sense of a shifting power balance between the two, because right from the start he is a bit jaded vis-à-vis his career as a dentist, which remains same-old same-old, and his wife is already quite feisty, although she has not yet got very far in her law firm. So, the emphasis is rather on her developing an area of her life outside the marriage, among her lawyer colleagues, and Barry's reaction to that, and on his own belated fling with a patient, and the consequences of Jen's full discovery of that – which means there's a good deal more happening in the second half than in the first.
Still, their one successful sexual congress, with both of them actually lying flat side- by-side, giving utterance to their thoughts and responses, is a very funny happening.
Offstage somewhere intermittently are their offspring (one of each), other family members, friends, a dog, a whole city (in this production it's Palmy North), evoked in one way or another. Still, what the play comes back to is: how can two individual people with some spirit and differing interests go on living with each other, year after year after year? It's not made too easy.
Nicole Cosgrove's set design is good looking and efficient, and her costume design is lively, with Jen especially having to make some quick offstage changes, especially as she moves more upmarket. Graham Slater's lighting design is capable. Some ingenuity has clearly gone into the choice of songs played before and between episodes.
This is a very good and easily enjoyable production of a fine play.
Making Marriage
Reviewed by Joan Ford for the Feilding Herald, Thursday, 7 April, 2011
Conjugal Rites debuted at Centrepoint in 1990. Back then it certainly struck a chord with many people. The audience watched Gen and Barry in the bedroom as they fumbled through the dynamics of where their marriage was in relation to careers, finances, children, ageing parents and how these factors impact upon them as a couple.
After 21 years of marriage it is inevitable that time has sped up on them. Body shape will change and a few medical niggles will occur. It can be difficult trying to meet the constant demands from other people upon their time. Keeping up with family and work may leave Gen and Barry precious little time for each other. Routine becomes the master of their lives. Will they survive any rot that might try to come in?
21 years later this latest production of Roger Hall's clever play will have just as much impact on an audience. An attractive and realistic set designed by Nicole Cosgrove allows an audience to laugh, gasp and sympathise with Gen (Alison Quigan) and Barry (Tim Bartlett) as they manoeuvre around the realities of their marriage.
Kate Louise Elliot quips in the programme, "I heard the other day:
Marriage is like a deck of cards. When you start out all you need are two hearts and a diamond. By the end of it, you're looking for a club and a spade."
With two outstanding actors taking the stage, you will be guaranteed loads of laughs as they take the audience through the pitfalls, pleasure and those moments of pain. The script remains fresh; delivering a message that marriage might be hard work at times, but if the foundations are solid the humour and love remain. Go see a piece of theatre that reflects who we are and how we go about the business of marriage.
Hardly a hiccup in perennial Hall
Reviewed by Emma Goodwin for the Manawatu Standard, Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Take one play, one set, two actors and a bucketful of truth and you have Roger Hall's Conjugal Rites.
Hall has a knack of putting human frailties and behaviour through the humour mill and coming up with something that is both poignant and funny. It helps to cope with life's trials and tribulations when you can laugh at them from a distance.
He has a habit of making you feel that he has been looking through your windows and reading your diary.
Conjugal Rites is a delightful play about Gen (Alison Quigan) and Barry (Tim Bartlett) and their 21-year-old marriage and the things a middle-aged couple have to deal with such as growing kids, drooping bodies and balancing careers and family.
In the capable hands of Quigan and Bartlett, the play is almost guaranteed a safe sailing and it delivers, with hardly a hiccup here and there in dialogue.
With a six-week season in store, that isn't going to be an issue and any creases will get ironed out along with the wrinkles in the bed sheets.
Director Kate Louise Elliott has done a sterling job of letting these actors loose to bounce off each other. She has trusted them to get the job done and they have delivered.
Excellent timing, warmth and believability have combined to make Hall proud that his work can still be current and relevant years after it is written.
It's a testimony to his and the actors' skill.
Yes, there are tears but they come with both joy and pain and it will be your stomach, not your heart, that aches when you walk out the door.
Vive la difference
Reviewed by Richard Mays for The Guardian, Thursday, April 7, 2011
Gen and Barry have been married for 21 years, and as many of their friends and acquaintances have failed to last the 'until death us do part' distance – it seems a fair enough question to ask. As Roger Hall's classic examination of a middle-class marriage proceeds, the answer to that ironical question soon becomes obvious – nothing. As far as marriage break-up is concerned, Gen and Barry are just late starters.
Conjugal Rites premiered nationally under Alison Quigan's direction at Centrepoint in 1990. It was popular enough to enjoy a reprise season in 1991, with Quigan as Gen. The double bed dominating the boudoir brings back the memories of those productions, even if the stage furniture this time around is more salubrious.
With an offstage teenage daughter and older ne'er-do-well son, Gen and Barry are approaching empty-nester status. Having re-entered the workforce, Gen has retrained as a lawyer and is employed by a hotshot legal firm. Their re-jinked domestic arrangements now include separate bank accounts, and working out who owes who what is a situation Barry appears to resent, especially with his wife's salary rapidly closing on his.
At least, this gives him something to grumble about, and the play opens on a couple who are steadily drifting apart. In certain ways, Conjugal Rites revisits some of the themes explored in Hall's Middle Age Spread. There is the same ambiguity about the ending.
As Gen and Barry, Quigan and Tim Bartlett fit the roles admirably, quickly establishing and then expanding the relationship. There is not only familiarity in their portrayals, but affection - and apart from rushing one or two of Hall's ironic quips and the odd stumble, great timing and pace.
These two seasoned performers succeed in making this liaison both authentic and compelling. And while the play is a product of its pre cellphone and social networking time – it probably wouldn't work the same if texting and Facebook were available - nothing is diminished. The strong relationship and social dynamic, incorporating some of Hall's best lines, easily prevail over the play's period factor.
Those who booked early to catch Quigan's temporary return to Centrepoint, certainly have their savvy rewarded. Conjugal Rites is a great watch.
FOur women
Presented by the Kila Kokonut Krew
Written by Leilani Esmae Manu Saute
Starring Anapela Polataivao, Stacey Leilua and Tavai Faasavalu
Krew Trio pull off snappy little show
Reviewed by Emma Goodwin for the Manawatu Standard, Monday, February 28, 2011
One stage, one washing line, two boxes, three actors and four women.
That's all you need to create a great show that will have your sides splitting and your minds contemplating the relevance of beauty within varying cultures.
The show presented by the Kila Kokonut Krew from South Auckland had its worldwide premiere in Palmerston North on Saturday night to a packed house that left satisfied.
Anapela Polataivao, Stacey Leilua and Tavai Faasavalu are three talented actors in their own right but put them together with a few props and allow that talent to shine unfettered and you have a powerful combination.
Four Women asks you to look closely at your perception of beauty with a trip to a Miss New Zealand Samoa pageant, a journey few in the audience would contemplate.
Covering the dichotomy between being an obedient Island girl and showing off all your best attributes to strangers, the trio manages to pull off the task with ease, pinpointing with gentleness the innocence of a culture trying to survive and compete in the Western world.
Faasavalu's comedic timing and athleticism allows him to leap between several characters with minimal effort and while his portrayal of a Pacific Island minister may seem a little less than reverent to some, it is done with affection and more than a little truth.
Leilua takes her size 11 feet and tries to squeeze them into high heels while knotting a lava lava several different ways, when she is not putting them in her mouth with her questioning attitude that is the bane of her competitive and social climbing aunty's life.
Polataivao has matriarch down pat. It's a brave God that does not answer her prayers.
Short, sharp, snappy and deliciously funny, this show was a good choice to start Centrepoint's season.
Grab your coconuts and see it before it sails away.
A lovely, heart-warming show
Reviewed by John Ross for Theatreview, Monday 28 February, 2011
Pasifika girls!! You want to, sure, you really can be a Big Brown Barbie (or not so big), a beauty princess, and whatever else you choose to be! That’s the key message of this feisty show, devised by Leilani Esmae Sieni Salesa with this young Samoan theatre collective, Kila Kokonut Krew. South Auckland-based, their Four Women enjoyed its world premiere in Palmy last night.
It’s a rumbustious, inventive, perceptive, vital, humorous three-hander, with two women and one man each playing multiple roles, or just dancing, ensemble. At the start, there’s the man dancing vigorously down-stage centre, with the two girls up-stage, trying to follow, rather lamely. At the end, it’s the character Woman One who’s in the centre, totally come into her own.
The title Four Women is a tad misleading. Really, there’s Woman One (Stacey Leilua), first as a twelve-year-old, then as a late-teens-ager, and her Aunty (Anapela Polataivao) and their respective side-kick friends or rellies. Aunty, having to act as her niece’s de facto mum, does her best to keep her impulsive charge in some sort of order, and dreams of having her win a Miss Samoa (NZ) contest. Now wouldn’t that be proof of her success, in bringing her up!
In practice, a girl who takes as her hero and role-model Sesame Street’s Miss Piggy, because she’s a strong-willed individualist and an envelope-pusher, is not going to be that predictable.
There’s a marvellous episode in which Woman One, as a school-kid, exploring a butcher’s shop’s vile-smelling rubbish bin, finds unexpected wonder and beauty in an eye. There’s a couple of very funny scenes in church, with the unscrupulous minister (Tavai Faasavalu) seeking to extort vast sums from his congregation.
This kind of show, with one sequence after another, needs a smooth flow from one into the next, and Vela Manusaute, the director, has managed this admirably, with nothing on stage except a long clothes rack with the costume-stuff draped over it for quick changes, and a couple of boxes, for instant furniture. Certain sequences have plenty of vigorous music.
As this is its first outing it may get the odd bit of fine tuning, somewhere along the line. Some of the dialogue races on a bit too quickly, for my ears, though one does get the gist of it. But then again, this is not the Kila Kokonut Krew’s first production, so they know what they’re doing; they are all well-trained; and they work exceedingly well together. It’s a lovely, heart-warming show.
Polynesian fun
Reviewed by Dave Mahoney for The Guardian, Thursday, March 3, 2011
Oh what a night! The 90 minutes of this hilarious and skilful production flew by and left me wanting more.
The title, Four Women, is somewhat misleading as the two hugely talented female actors, Anapela Polataivao and Stacey Leilua, are supported by an equally accomplished male, Tavai Faasavalu.
This beautifully crafted play sees Polataivao and Leilua take the roles of two characters, each from the one family. They have no names, just numbers - one to four. And what commanding characters they are. From the moment we meet Leilua's "size-11 feet" we are transported on a journey to be part of an all-important Samoan beauty contest.
The delicious Polynesian humour had the theatre rocking as the audience roared with laughter and saluted the performance with bursts of applause throughout.
Each actor brought their loveable characters to life, none more so than when "aunty" has a couple of chats to God where she seeks some divine intervention in the outcome of a beauty contest.
The staging of this production is simple and oh-so effective. And the direction and script is flawless with the occasional delicious malapropism tossed in to keep the laughter coming.
Four Women is a theatrical gem and makes for a memorable night out.
Reviewed by Joan Ford for the Feilding Herald
Thursday, 3 March, 2011
“South Auckland's most wanted artists, Kila Kokonut Krew formed as a collective in 2005, spearheaded by Vela Manusaute and Anapela Polataivao. The Kila Kokonut Krew present poignant, hilarious and dangerous stories of the Pacific experience; stories told by children of the great migration to Aotearoa, and challenging the stereotypes of Pacific Islanders as bank robbers, cleaners, villains, the fat guy, broken down families and gangsters.”
From the opening lines after a frenetic dance instructor took a zumba class, Woman One’s cousin exclaims that she still felt like a bulumba! The story line revolves around Woman One’s journey from childhood to womanhood.
Three energetic and outrageously good actors leapt, danced, cat walked and somersaulted around a bare stage with just a makeshift clothesline (wardrobe) to one side, where quick costume changes and props were taken from.
Woman One has size 11 feet and she is about to make a stand. She is fascinated by the world around her and sees beauty in many things.
She has dreams for herself, but so does her Aunty. They played a number of characters that had an audience consumed with laughter and they gave just a hint of thoughtful provocation to finish with.
Anapela Polataivao, Stacey Leilua and Tavaii Faasavula certainly gave it their all in sharing this story.
Kate Louise Elliott, Centrepoint Theatre Artistic Director must be congratulated to have secured the group to come and take the stage at Palmerston North and give them the opportunity to perform to Manawatu audiences. It is neither a particularly long show nor a long season. It is frollickingly funny.
Beautiful bit of theatre
Reviewed by David Collins for The Tribune, Wednesday, March 2, 2011
There's some lovely world building here. Not much to speak of set-wise - it's sparse, not abstract, with costumes out on a washing line and in a basket beind a blue rectangle painted on the stage. A nice, near-domestic type of arrangement, around which Four Women does a really good bit of story-telling.
As two cousins who are both girls and Samoan, Stacey Leilua and Anapela Polataivao play characters navigating their way through adolescence. Coming more into conflict with the expectations of what they're supposed to be doing as females (an example given is that playing rugby with the boys is not one of them), Four Women also explores cultural expectations. One of girls - called Women One (played by Leilua) - is being groomed by her Aunty (played by Polataivao) - and it's more liked drilled - for the Miss Samoan New Zealand pageant. While winning is the only meaning the competition holds for Aunty, Women One finds a better realisation about it, herself, and her place in a new and larger community.
Leilua and Polataivao strike a great rhythm from start to end, building a rapport with the audience from the moment they enter. Strong (and acrobatic) support comes from the third member of the cast, Tavai Faasavalu, whose main role is that of the minister of the local Samoan church. His is a delightfully subversive character and he gives a hilarious performance throughout.
There's plenty of stylistic touches, but they don't force you out of the story; the audience is always kept well in hand. Admittedly a bit nebulous at first - the action shifting through characters, time, and space - it never gets confusing.
Four Women is a perfectly weighted slice of ... something . Ambiguous, sure, but its undefinable nature (or "flavour" as the play might call it) is only to its credit. It's clear but not obvious; lean, but not shallow. Four Women is a beautiful bit of theatre that revels in its paradoxical skin.
Penalties, Pints and pirouettes
by Neil Troost
directed by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford
Cracking tale of dance and rugby hits all the right buttons
Reviewed by Tina White for The Tribune, Monday November 8, 2010
Neil Troost, a rugby-playing dairy farmer and aspiring playwright, sat down one day and did exactly what the sages always advise: write about what you know.
The resulting comedy, Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes, has been performed by a couple of amature companies and is now enjoying its professional premiere at Palmerston North's Centrepoint Theatre.
And a darn good play it is, too, based on a real-life incident at the Waipu rugby club (of which Troost is a former president). The storyline is simple: the small-town Maungakaka rugby club, which has an uncanny knack for losing every match it's ever played, is facing possible amalgamation with a hated rival team. The men are also under pressure from their womenfolk to trade-off their upcoming rugby trip with a performance in the local PTA variety show fundraiser.
The production, directed by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, is one of the strongest end-of-season plays to grace the Centrepoint stage. It moves at a cracking pace; the dialogue is hilarious, touching and believable.
The cast get right into the skins of their stereotypical characters: stubborn, ageing Tony (Greg Johnson), blokey womaniser Dave (Glen Pickering), dimbulb Horse (Todd Justin Emerson), star player Sam (Greg Padoa) protective uncle Hemi (James Kupa) and villainous James/dance tutor Kelly (a riveting double turn by Keith Adams).
As the sole woman, Renee Sheridan's no-nonsense warmth and energy as Tony's wife Fiona is a great foil for the motly Maungakaka crew.
Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes hits all the right buttons for a festive-season show. Its only downside: a rather short season, and once the word gets out, tickets may be in short supply.
Rough-textured play deftly produced
Reviewed by John Ross for Theatreview, Sunday 7 November, 2010
Back in my student days, the male ballet was a regular highlight of annual capping shows, with prop-forward-type blokes in tutus doing the graceful Swan Lake thing (sort of) – and how they must have worked their butts off to get to do it as well as they did! It was wonderfully funny.
The playwright’s programme note indicates that six years ago he was part of a Waipu Rugby Club group that did the same sort of thing, as the finale of a local fundraiser show, and that this play grew out of that. The ballet-plus-add-ons at its climax is just as hilarious, if not more so.
Formula-wise, this is one of those plays in which an unlikely bunch of no-hopers get to work to meet the challenge of putting on some kind of performance, and eventually to a surprising degree succeed. Think Ladies’ Night, where the trainer of the male strippers was a lady. That’s what this set of players from an easy-beat, going-down-the-drain rugby team expect, but what they get is a gay. One who can, really, teach ballet, but only that. And they’re already trapped into having to perform something-or-other ...
Meanwhile there’s enough boozing, rough-house, bloody-minded refusals to play ball, personal conflicts, intrigues, power-games, and so forth, going on, to make us think this is highly unlikely to work. We see nothing of serious rehearsals. Hence, the performance when it comes is full of surprises. Here, it is adroitly choreographed by Sarah Foster.
This production is the play’s first-ever professional outing, following two at amateur level, and Lyndee-Jane Rutherford has once again proved her flair as its director. It’s a rough-textured play, by nature, yet it moves along very deftly. Already, by the first night, everything works.
The anchor for the cast is the veteran actor Greg Johnson, wryly expressive as Tony Robson, the aging team-captain morosely battling to keep what is left of his team and club and marriage together. How he manages the dancing is a marvel.
Renee Sheridan as his feisty wife Fiona carries off a string of complex interactions with assured skill. Glen Pickering as his brother, Dave, copes well with a shift from being a bolshie boozer and a brutally cynical stud to something less abrasive.
Greg Padoa as Sam, the one remaining class player, also sustains his stroppy character well, as does James Kupa as Hemi, in a well-judged performance. Todd Justin Emerson makes much of his role as Horse, not all that bright or quick, yet cheerily endearing.
Still, the most flair comes from Keith Adams, who doubles as the smoothly obnoxious, hetero James, Tony’s rival in every way, and as Kelly the gay, with every movement and facial expression humorously pitched.
Nicole Cosgrove’s set design, with a flexible single set, serves the production well, as do her costumes.
This is Centrepoint’s Christmas-season show, for office parties and the like, and it should fill this slot admirably. It is not for the very-easily-shocked, yet manages to be rude at times without being offensive to the rest of us, and to be feel-good enjoyable.
A combo fit for the cup
Reviewed by Christopher Abbey for The Tribune, Wednesday November 10, 2010
Encapsulating three of this reviewer's favourite activities - supporting the Turbos, enjoying the occasional ale and being a Friend of New Zealand Ballet, this new comedy scores like a trio of tries plus a tutu or two.
Somewhere north of Shannon, the village of Maungakaka is in recession and, after yet another loss, its rugby club faces despondency and an uncertian future. Tackling the planning oe their end-of-season social trip becomes the team's sole positive. Enter the PTA and an ultimatum - assist with fundraising for the school or there will be no trip.
Waipu sharemilker Neil Troost's first playwriting effort is homegrown theatre at its best.
In a series of hilarious set-plays, history is overcome by economics and the players come to terms with reality and the future of rugby, their town and their individual lives. Sure, there are the odd ghostly plot transitions, but everything that happens is realistic, topical and thoroughly believable.
Lyndee-Jane Rutherford's taut direction plus Centrepoint's proficient production team's technology and the multi-purpose clubroom setting present a vibrant frame for the cast's virtually flawless first-night performance.
Like rugby, the players all dig deep, giving their all.
Opening night's packed house was in stitches laughing non-stop as completely credible characters expounded dialogue from a storyline everyone can identify with. It was like watching oneself.
Teamwork secrets dazzling performances on and off the field. Talented Sam (Greg Padoa) striving to achieve his rugby goals; "Horse" (Todd Justin Emerson), hating his nickname but finding his pearl; Hemi (James Kupa), proudly supporting his whanau while looking over his shoulder for his wife; Dave (Glen Pickering), a real bloke discovering reality; and his brother Tony (Greg Johnson - returning from Four Flat Whites in Italy), an ageing player-coach discovering there is life after rugby.
Stirring support performances from Tony's wife Fiona (Renee Sheridan), manipulating the team, her brother in-law's love-life, the opposing team's manager and her ever-errant husband. And, dual-role portrayals of James and Kelly (Keith Adams), serving scene-stealing wayward passes and unanticipated surprises.
One third of this story concerns dancing, but you will have to see this play to understand the choreographer's contribution to a predictable finale that asimilates the entire audience into the play. Sarah Foster - take a bow.
Troost has encapulated small-town New Zealand in a winner of a play that imparts an ideal light-hearted wind-up to this season's professional theatre.
Just a thought - what about Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes being staged for next year's Rugby World Cup?
Reviewed by Mary Bryan for the Wanganui Chronical
Guys in tutus are nothing new. They used to be a regular feature of Savage Club concerts, but nothing you may have seen prepares you for this brilliant play.
The capacity audience, was convulsed with laughter throughout the solid almost two-hour production.
The play opens in the Maungakaka Rugby Clubrooms. The team has just lost dismally for the umpteenth time to rival rugby team Hillcrest.
Maungakaka is a small country settlement with little work available-nearly all its best rugby players have moved to work in Hillcrest and joined that town’s team.
But the Maungakaka team still has plenty of heart and humour and as the play develops so do each of the seven strong cast into people one easily relates to.
At the outset, the team appears homophobic, but the need to take part in a fund raising ballet for the local school, sees every member undergo a transformation when their ballet teacher Kelly (Keith Adams) is not what they expected.
The play is extremely fast paced and with spot on timing essential the seven strong cast delivers a performance of a top scoring All Black team.
Greg Johnson is the aging captain, Tony Robson. He is determined to keep the team together. He is also worried about his marriage-believing wife (Renne Sheridan) is still in love with ex-boyfriend James (Keith Adams) – coach of the rival team and owner of Hillcrest’s most successful business.
Glen Pickering is Tony’s brother Dave, who finds it hard to make a commitment to love. Greg Padoa, is Sam, who knows he has the potential to be a top rugby player. Todd Justin Emerson is Horse, a hopeless Rugby player whose brain at times seems as uncoordinated as his movements and James Kupa is Hemi, who is very protective of his (unseen) niece.
The calibre of the entire cast is extremely strong and Keith Adams performance in the dual roles of James/Kelly outstanding.
And the final scene- a ballet that incorporates break dancing and haka moves, choreographed by Sarah Foster, is unforgettable.
Wanganui nurtured director Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, noted for her comedic flair, the cast and entire production team have ensured this play will be a box office hit for Centrepoint.
The play is a first for Troost, a rugby playing dairy farmer . He was inspired by a performance of Swan Lake he and fellow members of the Waipu Rugby Club did as the finale for a fundraiser.
It is being performed professionally for the first time at Centrepoint.
THE CAPE
by Vivienne Plumb
directed by Jesse Peach
Entertaining and moving road-trip
Reviewed by Dave Mahoney for The Guardian, Thursday September 2, 2010
This is an eight-out-of-ten production.
Jesse Peach’s direction has produced a quality, seamless theatrical experience. The set, designed by Emily O’Hara, is an excellent element of this classy production. The mechanics of the scene changes are carried out with military precision by the cast and their shadow characters reveal their ever changing moods.
There are other subliminal touches that enhance the scenes, the pace of the dialogue and the locations of the action. Mr Peach’s introduction of natural background sounds to the dialogue is inspired.
The Cape is the tale of four Kiwi 18-somethings, who head out on a coming-of-age road trip. With little cash there are no hotels or motels for them. The quartet end up sleeping wherever they lay their heads, driving their car on gravel back roads and at one stage, into a ditch. In their sights is an appointment with the famed sunrise at New Zealand’s Cape Reinga. The journey throws up a variety of scenarios and challenges to their friendship.
It will make you laugh many times as you identify with the characters, their situation and the spot-on dialogue of author, Vivienne Plumb, and perhaps, for one brief moment, you’ll be moved to shed a tear. This is a real New Zealand tale, which you can’t fail to identify with, no matter what your age. It’s a delectable study of “how-it-might-be” when the four, in the pre cell-phone and texting age, fly their family coops before they journey out into the “real world”.
A production tweak could be made by the addition of background sound effects for the opening and closing scenes.
The youthful, talented cast of Ashley Hawkes, Nic Sampson, Jack Sergent-Shadbolt and Mauri-Oho Stokes, is so very, very good. They are names to note because we will doubtless see and hear more of them.
As the four teen travelers they are most believable and fun to watch and listen to.
The most complicated character is Nic Sampson’s Eb. A challenge for any actor. He is the main thread of the tale and skillfully reveals all of Eb’s confusions, anger and bigotries.
The Cape was written by former Massey and city artist-in-residence, Vivienne Plumb, and can easily take its place on the “quality shelf” of New Zealand plays.
By the time you read this and make your booking, this excellent production will have been buffed to achieve an elusive, from me anyway, “ten-out-of-ten”.
Well done Centrepoint. The Cape is another in a long line of top rank productions.
Kiwi rite of passage a privilege to watch
Reviewed by Joan Ford for the Feilding Herald, Tuesday September 7, 2010
Maori call the northern most point of the North Island Te Rerenga Wairua – The leaping-off place of spirits. This is a perfect description for the play. Four young boys about to leave adolescence and enter adulthood take a road trip to the Cape. At times they will clash with each other. They endlessly discuss the huge impact of decisions their parents have made. They keep up an endless supply of drug taking and effortless laughter as they prepare for their emotional leap to manhood. Their journey takes the audience into their lives to reveal their dreams, secrets, hurts and fears.
Despite his enless chatter, Eb (Nic Sampson) is hurt by his parent’s separation but he has dreams. Mo (Jack Sergent-Shadbolt) carries his own fearful secret, but has responsibility of keeping the others’ secrets. He binds the four together and uses a notebook to read aloud the comical and poignant observations of life. Arthur (Mauri-Oho Stokes) childhood friend of Eb and Mo is the only one with a car and a licence. Arthur has a philosophical attitude to life, perhaps heightened by his regular drug- taking. Jordyn (Ashley Hawkes) a university mate of Mo’s is the newcomer to the group. Jordyn too has a secret and a dream for his future. He is not afraid to question Eb’s hyper-active and at times insensitive behaviour, but is the first to realise that Mo carries a frightening secret. The four young actors worked the sparse and effective set with discipline and extraordinarily fine performances. Their journey was a rite of passage that an audience should feel privileged to watch.
History, blondes and teens on road trip
Reviewed by Tina White for the Manawatu Standard, Monday August 30, 2010
Life's a bit like a road trip - you need mates you can trust along on the journey. The good mates in Centrepoint Theatre's new production of The Cape are hyperactive Eb (Nic Sampson); literary-minded Mo (Jack Sergent-Shadbolt); drug dealer and would-be entrepreneur Arthur (Mauri-Oho Stokes) and fashion-conscious Jordyn (Ashley Hawkes.)
It’s 1994.
Nirvana’s Cobain is dead, grunge rules.
On what will be coming-of-age road trip, the four late-teen friends are driving from Wellington to Cape Reinga to see the sun rise on the legendary departure-place of spirits joining their ancestors.
It’s Arthur’s car and he’s the only licensed driver among them.
Along the way they talk, fight, argue, speculate and reminisce. They joke, do drugs and drink. History blondes and future careers are debated.
And they discuss their divorced parents’ new partners.
Slow to get going the play gradually delves deeper into the lives of these semi-lost boys and gathers momentum as their feelings of individual abandonment become clear.
There are some very funny moments, and some poignant ones.
One of them has a secret which will, eventually, change everything. But in the meantime, they’re young, they’re free, and they’re going somewhere.
Each actor brings to these very different guys an essence all his own.
Only Mo, with his constant notebook readings and pronouncements, stands apart like some kind of Greek chorus.
The sparse Centrepoint set, with its white screens and minimal props, allows our imaginations to conjure up tent, playground, café, Eb’s mum’s house and dark country nights on the road.
You don’t have to be a young person of the 1990s to relate to Vivienne Plumb’s simple but thoughtful story.
She has bought some of her own life and experience to this play, and has said she may write a sequel.
To see what happened next, a few years on, to Eb, Jordyn, Mo and Arthur, would be quite a trip.
Always-live
Reviewed by John Ross for Theatreview, Monday August 30, 2010
A kind of road play, this has four late-teens blokes driving north to witness the sunrise at Cape Te Reinga, with its episodes made up of their interactions and other experiences along the way, together with progressive disclosure of their individual natures and life-issues. These issues get serious enough to move it into drama rather than comedy.
According to the press-release, it is set back in 1994, which matters in terms of costume-design and background music.
Overall, this is a genuinely good play, well-produced and well-acted. If, on the first night, I found the first few episodes rather incoherent and scrambly, let’s hope they will work better as the production settles in.
Perhaps, for audience-members, in a realm mainly of show-not-tell, getting the characters into focus, and discovering how to interpret their verbal exchanges, are bound to take time. Still, having the rhythms functioning better will help.
How much should a reviewer tell?
Eb (Nic Sampson) is over-active, hence drivenly pro-active, even when this means making things turn to custard, and attacking his mates. Jardyn (Ashley Hawkes) has sexual identity issues. Mo (Jack Sergent-Shadbolt) has illness issues. Arthur, a young Maori (Mauri-Oho Stokes), more reticent than the others, needs only a few profitable drug-deals to be able to afford to go legit, but they’re not easy to pull off.
Things are not made easy for the others either, and worst for Mo. Plumb’s characters are well-differentiated, and their degrees of articulateness are plausible without becoming tediously restricted. Variations on the f-word abound. When Mo needs to be given a heightened level of articulateness, he pulls out a little book to quote from.
Determined to be under-impressed by anything, they are indeed impressed by their experiences of the Cape, and their troubled bondings are partly restored by these experiences, about which each speaks in his own way, perhaps to himself, and us.
Emily O’Hara’s set very cleverly serves the shifting along of locality, with cool-grey crossways panels slid in grooves instage or outstage, five easily movable boxes serving as seats in the car, or whatever else is needed, and a few stylised detail-features.
It’s an always-live play, recognisably exploring a certain stage in these young men’s lives, and well worth seeing.
Dead Tragic
by Michael Nicholas Williams
directed by Kate Louise Elliott
Gloomy songlist is dead clever
Reviewed by Tina White for The Manawatu Standard, Monday July 12, 2010
A musical based on songs about death? Yes, it's different.
And to tell the truth, I had a moment at the top of the show when I had that "what the . . . ?" thought.
But somehow the five performers pull off Dead Tragic in such a way that, by the end, you're not only hugely entertained, but you want more. I think the show could stand to be a bit longer.
When you hear 25 songs, one after the other, about men, women, children, and pets, who've met untimely ends, you suddenly realise how many exist, and widly popular songs at that. You also realise how many different kinds of stories they tell, and how sentimentally awful the lyrics can be.
Think of Delilah, Ruby, Tell Laura I Love Her and Honey, and you'd think the hamming-up would be irresistible.
But this production goes a whole other way, treading a fine line to avoid tackiness and too much tastefulness. The cast - Emma Kinane, Katherine Mitchell, Darren Young, Jeff Kingsford-Brown and creator Michael Nicholas Williams - play well off each other, harmonise angelically, and have voices made for the solos they sing. Ian Harman's seamless choreography and Kate Louise Elliott's direction also do wonders to take the mickey where it should be taken, while giving due credit to numbers such as a Bohemian Rhapsody as satisfying as you'll find anywhere, a perfect, moody Ode to Billy Joe and a fun twist on Leader of the Pack.
John Hodgkins' clever set design echoes the days of spinning vinyl, and it's good to see Michael Nicholas Williams step out from behind the keyboard to do some tuneful solo-ing of his own.
Give this show a whirl. Friday's preview audience - who couldn't resist singing along, clapping and hooting - seemed dead chuffed.
Feilding Herald Review
Reviewed by Joan Ford for the Feilding Herald, Tuesday July 20, 2010
Michael Nicholas Williams whilst rehearsing for a show at Centrepoint back in 1998 took along old songbooks to use for vocal warm-ups. One night he chose Bobby Goldsboro’s Honey. It was a sad song back in its day. It was obvious that the songwriter missed her when she died. And that folks was the beginning of an idea for Dead Tragic the rest is history. Most of the original cast are back and brilliant as ever. Michael Nicholas Williams took to the keyboards, the microphone and one or two smooth moves. Emma Kinane has oh so terrific comedic timing and Katherine Mitchell has, oh, what a voice’. Convincing and heartbroken husband Darren Young seeks revenge “and I did what I did for Maria”. Jeff Kingsford-Brown as noted on the programme “is currently sulking over his exclusion from the original cast recording of Dead Tragic”. So he took matters into his own hands and dealt to Delilah. He never realised that Ruby was just off to line-dancing. Ah so sad!
The laughter and clapping continued through the show. I scanned around the audience at half time and felt comfortably secure that they knew the lyrics and were having just as much fun. Those tragic songs about death, be it self inflicted, the justice system, revenge, hurricanes, war. Special mention must go to the rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. You wonder about the nations psyche, but only briefly because the next song starts! Katherine Mitchell offered up a convincing reason as to why Honey had such a sudden departure, whilst Darren Young soulfully sang how he missed her.
Five very talented people took the stage and delighted in giving the songs the justice they deserved and obviously enjoyed doing it. Plus they danced, put on a hurricane, raced cars and sent Shannon away.
Musical mayhem
Reviewed by David Collins for The Tribune, Wednesday July 14, 2010
Dreading musicals as I always do, I assumed Dead Tragic would be a series of musical numbers performed by the bloody spectres of musicians taken before their time, or a band of zombies singing in between their cerebral sustiments. I absolutely did not expect to be so well-entertained with these songs of loss of life, loss of dog, and on one occasion (Dolly Parton's Me & Little Andy) - both.
Revived (hur hur) after nearly 20 years, Dead Tragic brings together all but one of the original cast (Centrepoint vet Jeff Kingsford-Brown stepped into the breach as the new member of the ensemble) in a fantastic lot of musical numbers, where the songs are treated honourably yet the stories contained are played with as to render some utterly hilarious.
Played out on a giant turntable complete with working arm, the cast work their way through a raft of selections: the Latin machinations of Barry Manilow's Copacabana; the old west with Johnny Preson's Running Bear; the perils of war with Paperlace's Billy, Don't Be A Hero, and its aftermath with Kenny Roger's Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town; and the dangers of anything with a motor in it - whether cycle or racing car - with Creations Tell Laura I Love Her, or The Shangri-Las' Leader Of The Pack.
The storytelling was great here - Emma Kinane, Katherine Mitchell, Darren Young, Jeff Kingsford-Brown, and Michael Nicholas Williams all doing a magnificent job. Mitchell particularly stood out, less for the gusto she gave her Freddie Mercury impersonation in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, and more for the way she had me struggling to breathe from laughing - whether it was her multiple shoes during that Dolly Parton number or her haphazard staggering with Karen Young's Nobody's Child (a lovely touch was the karaoke complete with bobbing light to lead the audience).
I can forgive a lot of things: Forgive the good music; forgive the fact this is a brilliant show and a must-see; forgive the fact that the memory of Darren riding that scooter still cracks me up. But as a David Bowie fan, the exclusion of Ziggy Stardust is very difficult to forgive. Go see the show.
Revealing the morbity of Americans' fantasy-lives
Reviewed by John Ross for Theatreview, Monday July 12, 2010
Knifings, shootings, hangings, drownings (suicidal or accidental), being run over by a train, fatal stock car or motor bike crashes, other miscellaneous or less specified modes of untimely dying - they all seem to have had a macabre yet undeniable fascination in the realm of popular song writing and reception. Add to the mix dollops of cheesie sentimentality ...
Back in 1988, Michael Williams, who figures in this new production on keyboards, together with his colleagues at Centrepoint at the time, picked the general theme up, and compiled this musical revue of snuff songs. It’s all weirdly entertaining.
The songs are nearly all American, which makes one wonder about the morbidity of Americans’ fantasy-lives, such that the daft gun-nutters of the National Rifle Association have just succeeded in winning a Supreme Court verdict to strike down any sensible local g