Theatre Review: Biography of my Skin, Auckland Concert Chamber Town Hall

'Biography of My Skin', with Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie. Photo / Supplied

For those who haven't seen this play, it would be easy to think: actors, eh, gawd what a narcissistic bunch, touring a performance autobiography. As Miranda says: "Never trust an actor."

But exactly; she says it. Miranda Harcourt as "Miranda" - the character written for her by her husband, Stuart McKenzie - can laugh at herself. This is no self-indulgent vanity project; instead, the character is appealingly quirky and a recognisable everywoman, a "mirror" held up to the audience.

Like many, Miranda is burdened with working woman's guilt, saying she didn't produce grandchildren for her dying father because "I was too busy with my career".

Unlike many, she takes driving lessons between work and home because they are cheaper than taxis. After she finally does give birth as a "geriatric mother" of 35, she scatters her father's ashes with ash from her son's placenta.

She talks in an intimate, domestic, everyday manner about things we usually leave under wraps - youthful indiscretions, violent offenders, not being comfortable in her own skin. Birth and death are treated as both meaningful and commonplace. The result is moving, and very satisfying.

Skilfully, she holds smooth "conversations" with people who appear on the huge screen that dominates the clean, shallow set - a technically sophisticated business.

This is where "Stuart" - ie McKenzie - would appear onscreen to say: "But she's only saying my words".

We are constantly reminded this is a play within its own play, a biography within a life, a real-life act of marital trust onstage, as Harcourt as muse interprets the piece she has inspired. Whose story is this: Miranda's or Stuart's?

That self-consciousness is a running joke rather than a clunky device - the pair wear their cleverness lightly.

Refreshingly, their love and unorthodox courtship are presented not as "happily ever after" but as a strong work-in-progress, occasionally in need of counselling, which delights them both.

It's like having your most entertaining, self-disclosing friends around for dinner, affectionately one-upping each other all night. Enjoy the ride.

Biography of my Skin is playing at the Auckland Concert Chamber Town Hall until September 25.