Amusing ourselves to death

The stars of <i>The Idea of America</i>. Photo / Supplied.

How we think things should be - rather than our realities - and the impact of the wider world on our psyche and souls are explored in three productions opening this week.

First is Little White Men, by Joel Herbert, performed by the Outfit Theatre Company of which Herbert is co-artistic director. It's a whodunit set in New Zealand's not-too-distant future, portrayed as a bleak one as environmental and economic issues continue to play out.

Others, notably American academic Neil Postman, have said it before but Herbert fears we are amusing ourselves to death by mistaking entertainment for news and trying to emulate the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

"I was watching a lot of late-night American news shows and seeing the vanishing line between news and entertainment. I started thinking about what gets lost in the mix and what the future holds when younger people in particular can't distinguish between news, information and entertainment and act accordingly because they are busy trying to be like Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears.

"If you continue to act that way, what does the future hold?"

He says Little White Men sticks with the Outfit's "experiential and visceral style as it follows the lives of 10 interwoven characters as the clock ticks down to a potentially lethal explosion.

Ten actors appear, with Paul MacDiarmid joining the ensemble and founding member Elliot Christensen-Yule returning after guest appearances in TV shows Go Girls and This Is Not My Life.

Where Herbert started Little White Men with an idea, Sam Shore created his critically acclaimed The Idea of America by devising a character and putting words into her mouth.

Shore says dreaming up the character of Jude, an ageing American actress who is less famous than she thinks she is, provided the opportunity to "unleash" words he couldn't use in everyday conversation.

"I would walk around my room being Jude - that was the actor part of me in action - and then I'd come up with a line or two and quickly sit down in 'writer mode' and get the words down on my computer."

Shore received some heavyweight help with his script. While studying writing and directing at Unitec, he was mentored by guest lecturer Milton Justice, an Academy and Emmy award-winning director and producer. He says Justice helped bring realism to the dialogue and was invaluable for sharing his experiences in the American entertainment industry.

"I've never been to America but that wasn't important because it is, as the title says, about the idea of America and the view American culture provides for us.

"I think we measure our lives against the so-called American dream, which is something which is just not obtainable. Even what is perceived as mediocre or average by American cultural standards is frequently stunning, beautiful and not readily achievable to many of us."

After creating Jude, Shore added her family, who live with their mother who is battling dementia while trying to keep up appearances.

The family goes nuclear when oldest child Holly (Isla Adamson) returns to California, bringing with her bigotry and emotional baggage in equal measure.

Conservative Holly tries to tell her secretive older brother Sean Andrew Ford) and wise-beyond-her-years teenage sister Maureen (Chelsie Preston-Crayford) how to live, leading to sibling rivalry and the exposure of old secrets.

Between trying to play mother and fighting her illness, Jude (Michele Hine) manages to burn the house down, flirt with a puzzled policeman and escape into her showbiz world of sequins, air-kisses and grand entrances.

Hine, a former Unitec lecturer, took part in workshop readings of Shore's play and says it grabbed her from the moment she read it.

"I couldn't believe something so funny, original and astute had been written by a young man in his 20s," she says. "He has got inside the head of a 50-year-old woman perfectly and created a complex character that audiences love and hate - much like her children."

Passage also puts the complexity of women's lives under the spotlight. A multimedia production using theatre, film, dance and sound, it begins with three women (played by Rachel Nash, Donogh Rees and Antonia Stehlin) clambering aboard a small wooden boat suspended in a limitless sea.

They're terrified of the past and future and not exactly happy with their present predicament but when they save a young girl (played by Lavinia Uhila) from drowning, they are forced to tell their stories.

Ex-pat English playwright Fiona Graham, resident in New Zealand for nearly eight years, was inspired by images of a sculpture called The Longest Journey, by Brazilian artist Ana Maraia Pacheco. It features a life-sized boat with wooden figures that have real teeth, staring out to sea.

"The images of the sculpture became my anchor," says Graham. "Passage is about identity, migration, mothers and daughters. As I was choosing to come to New Zealand, I became fascinated by the stories of people, especially women, who were forced to leave their homes. It is difficult enough to make a new life when you choose to go somewhere else, let alone when you are forced."

Performances:

What: Little White Men

Where and when: Basement Theatre, November 8-13

What: The Idea of America

Where and when: Tapac, Western Springs, November 10-14

What: Passage

Where and when: Herald Theatre, November 11-20