Theatre: Jesus Christ Part II

Antonia Prebble and Gareth Williams in Jesus Christ Part II. Photo / Josh Edmonds

In the shabby-chic surroundings of The Basement, there are often wondrous sights to behold but, given the amount of time they've spent there, you'd think theatre-makers Oliver Driver, Gareth Williams and Tom Sainsbury would have seen them all.

But sitting down to discuss plans for The Basement's annual Christmas production, they're left wide-eyed and open-mouthed - it becomes quite a silent night for a second or two - as the costumed cast of another show pad discreetly by.

A princess, a vizier, a sultan and his royal guard pass through. A spellbound Driver declares the costumes to be amazing and perhaps something they should consider for their show. Then he's waxing lyrical about how good it is to be back at The Basement, where anything can happen, especially when it comes to the yearly Christmas shindig.

This year, it's called Jesus Christ Part II and it's in the hands of Driver, who directs, Williams, who has one of the four leading roles, and Sainsbury, who is writing it. Last Christmas, Driver directed Auckland Theatre Company's much-lauded revision of Jesus Christ Superstar but popped into The Basement to appear in Hauraki Horror, a murder-mystery by Sainsbury and Chris Parker.

That was the closest he'd been to doing anything at the pocket-sized theatre company in a long time - until now. Asked if he was interested in crafting something for the silly season, he sat down with the theatre's admin team and discovered there were already a few ideas floating around. In true Basement collaborative style, he joined forces with Sainsbury, who wanted to create a comedy dance show; Williams, who he had directed in Jesus Christ Superstar, and Lara Fischel-Chisholm, who was the movement director for Superstar.

While the creative team behind that production may have been lured to The Basement, they say this is a very different kind of Christmas musical. They're describing it as "the second coming you never saw coming" and say Jesus is well and truly resurrected when, in a last-ditch bid to save humanity, God sends him back for another go. The twist is that the audience gets to decide if Jesus has succeeded or whether he has to be crucified all over again.

Auckland theatre director Oliver Driver. Photo / Supplied

"The whole thing, with a revolving cast, has been done for a few years now and is getting a bit tired," says Driver, "so we decided not to do that this year with the exception of the character of Jesus, who's played each night by a different celebrity guest."

As well as Williams, Hayley Sproull, Victoria Abbott and Julian Wilson make up the core cast while those signed up to play Jesus include Antonia Prebble, Amanda Billing, Rose Matafeo, Nic Sampson, Guy Montgomery, Michael Hurst, Joel Tobeck and Jaquie Brown.

Sainsbury is putting his comic writing talents to use on the lyrics while the music is by television and theatre composer Jason Smith of Platform Studios. Sainsbury says it would be a great deal more difficult without Smith's help.

"I've never written lyrics before and with the first song, I thought, 'oh, this is quite straightforward - come up with a chorus then write a few verses around this,' but I quickly realised you can't repeat the same sort of song and they need to be recognisable as the sort of songs you hear in musical theatre."

The trio say the aim isn't to parody religion; Driver says it's more about parodying musical theatre.

"It's like anything; if you look for something to take offence at, you'll find it and if you think this is something which may offend you then don't come but who wouldn't want to come to see something funny where Jesus is a little bit different? We've got a Jesus of every gender, a fair number of different races."