KEY POINTS:
How does an actor feel when he learns a part has been written for him but instead of playing a lover or a fighter, he'll shuffle around the stage in a dressing gown and slippers portraying a rest home resident no longer in control of his bodily functions?
When the playwright is Roger Hall and his work has stayed faithful to the concerns of a generation - your generation - you feel flattered and accept without hesitation.
That's what Mark Hadlow, Raymond Hawthorne, George Henare and Ray Henwood did when asked to appear in the premiere production of Hall's latest work, Who Wants to be 100? Anyone who's 99.
Director Alison Quigan says Hall has shown us "where we work, where we live and now where we might be going". They acknowledge discussions about old age can - before you say mobility scooter - quickly descend into a lament for what may be to come. But Who Wants to be 100? addresses the serious concerns of ageing baby boomers with Hall's characteristic humorous one-liners and satirical insights.
While the rest home may be a destination few of us are keen on, tickets to the premiere production are selling like the proverbial hotcakes possibly because Hall can be relied on for a humorous night out.
But its potential appeal may have as much to do with the fact that Hall writes for a generation and questions about ageing and retirement - as opposed to marriage or work - are now foremost in their mind.
"The playwrights who gave us our parts in our early years, who wrote material suitable for us then, are getting older but are continuing to write and continuing to cast us because the material remains relevant to where many in our age group are at," says Henwood, who appeared in Hall's Glide Time 31 years ago.
Hall, perhaps with a touch of irony, says it was only a matter of time before he wrote a play set in a rest home.
Hadlow, Hawthorne, Henare and Henwood play four "inmates" at the Regina Rest Home who decide they will live out what's left of their lives the way they see fit.
Thus they declare war on illness, old age, guilty wives, greedy off-spring and the quality of catering at Regina.
But Hall says it was equally important that the story be about caregivers and the men's relatives who battle with the guilt that often comes when a loved one is placed in a home.
Kate-Louise Elliot and Catherine Wilkin play multiple characters; Elliot the rest home staff and Wilkin the relatives.
Elliot brings first-hand experience to her role. As a twentysomething looking for ways to pay the rent between acting jobs, she worked as an occupational therapy assistant and home-helped for the elderly.
"Can I tell you stories about what it was like to be working in the aged care sector? Oh, my God, yes but I think the one that really sums it up is why I left.
"I went to work at BP pumping gas because it paid better than looking after people."
