It's Friday afternoon and in the St John's Church hall in Ponsonby, the sun pours through the windows and light shines on books piled on tables, chairs and the floor. They're not waiting to be sold in a church fundraising sale, but to be moved to the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna as props in an updated version of Roger Hall's 1999 play, The Book Club.
The hall transformed into a rehearsal space, actress Jodie Dorday stands among them. She's focused on a script and acknowledges there are a lot of books but even more lines to learn when you sign up to be the one-woman performer in a play about a book club.
At least that's what it says about; there's more to it than that.
Dorday plays self-confessed book-a-holic Deb, an empty-nester with a distracted husband and time on her hands. To relieve the boredom and loneliness, she joins a book club and all goes well until a local author arrives and turns Deb's life upside down.
"It's a great premise and setting for a play because all it allows for all these disparate female characters, who would not normally have anything to do with one another, to be brought together and, of course, they might have read the same book but they all have different takes on it," says Dorday.
The role is a world away from what she's used to playing.
