Dannevirke: Words aplenty at this book club gathering

Josie Robertson rehearses for her one-woman show, The Book Club. Photo / Christine McKay

Josie Robertson wasn't daunted by the 35 pages of dialogue she had to learn for her one-woman play, The Book Club, which opens tonight at the Carnegie Centre.

This is the third Roger Hall play director Annette Kendall has produced with Robertson.

"We've been talking about doing this for three years and it's been a huge undertaking for Josie to learn all that dialogue," Kendall said.

The Book Club tells the story of Deborah, an empty-nester who finds herself not needed. An avid reader and a self-confessed book-buyer-aholic with time on her hands, Deborah joins a book club and in doing so changes her life.

"It doesn't get boring," Kendall's husband, Brendan, told the Dannevirke News. "It's an interesting theme and there are going to be quite a few discussions when people go home from this. After seeing this, I reckon a few men might be saying 'I don't want you to go to a book club'."

Kendall says anyone in a book club may, or may not, recognise the characters and, as a director, she puts the emphasis on the character rather than the actor just learning the lines.

"Things take a spicy turn in the second part and the audience will learn there's more to this character," she said. "There's a back story and you can't get that across just by learning the lines rote. This is a great play for a group of women to attend, but husbands will enjoy it too."

Robertson said The Book Club was exciting and challenging.

"I'm passionate about the character Deborah, but in a one-woman show there's no one to hide behind," she said. "Roger Hall's plays always have some underbelly parts, but then, in the next moment, you're laughing."

Her husband, John, usually helps her learn lines when she's working with others, but this time it's different.

"We'll wake up in the morning and she'll say, 'don't talk to me, I'm going over my lines'. She's doing it in her head," he said.

The play is being staged at the Tararua Community Youth Service centre in the Carnegie Centre in Allardice St, because Kendall wants to try and recreate the intimate lounge-like atmosphere of a book club. There are only 50 tickets on sale for each of the three performances.

Tickets for The Book Club are available from AMP Viking Financial Services, phone 06 374-7012. Tickets cost $25 and include desert.

The play opens tonight and continues tomorrow and Saturday, at 7.30pm.