KEY POINTS:
Home to institutions such as the Globe, the Tate Modern and the Royal Festival Hall, the South Bank is one of London's primary cultural hubs. A short distance away in the far less salubrious surrounds of Southwark, an outpost of antipodean theatre can be found.
The Pacific Playhouse has been established in an old industrial machine shop by New Zealanders Philip Thwaites and Michael Noonan as a venue for performing arts from the Pacific region. Tonight it hosts the closing night of Eugenia, the debut production from Shaky Isles, Britain's first New Zealand theatre company. Shaky Isles was founded by Toi Whakaari graduate Emma Deakin, who in addition to serving as artistic director, is also part of Eugenia's ensemble cast.
Like many New Zealanders, 28-year-old Deakin, formerly of Christchurch, moved to London with the intention of exploring her ancestral birthplace and travelling around Europe, only to form Shaky Isles after noticing a gap in the market.
"I was wondering where the Kiwis were because I couldn't be the only New Zealand theatre practitioner in London," she recalls. "I spent a lot of time reaching out to other organisations that have similar goals in terms of telling New Zealand stories in Britain and Europe. I discovered there wasn't a New Zealand theatre company here, which is where my passion lies, so I decided to start one."
Deakin does not lack ambition, choosing to mount not one but two plays for Shaky Isles' inaugural season with female-dominated Eugenia being quickly followed by the completely masculine Kikia te Poa.
"It's nice because the plays are so contrasting and the markets for both are so different," says Deakin. "They really complement each other."
Eugenia, directed by its writer, Lorae Parry, criss-crosses between 1916 Wellington and the present day as it contrasts the stories of Eugenia Martelli, an Italian immigrant who lives as a man and marries while keeping her secret, with Iris, a lesbian teacher who encounters homophobia when she attempts to stage a school play based on Eugenia's life.
Kikia te Poa (Kick the Boer), written by Matthew Saville and directed by Stella Duffy, is an intensely physical work based around a New Zealander, an Australian and a South African who take part in a rugby game at the end of the second Boer War in 1901.
Kikia te Poa opens tomorrow and a special early performance has been scheduled for Saturday, allowing the cast and audience to watch the All Blacks/France World Cup quarter final at a nearby pub.
"Hopefully if we win, there will be an even bigger market for the play," laughs Deakin, who denies deliberately scheduling the play during the World Cup. "It's an example of how the timing and momentum of so many things with the company since its inception has been quite amazing, the synchronicity has been incredible."
Deakin hopes to stage Eugenia and Kikia te Poa again and is also interested in other original Kiwi plays.
"I am really keen to support young and developing writers over here," she says. "We want to form a bit of a base for Kiwi artists. The theatre ecology of this city is vast so you can generally find a market for what you do and there is ... a strong interest in New Zealand and our history and culture."
