A floral tribute for Mavis

By LINDA HERRICK

There's a sad footnote to the return season of Alison Wall's solo show Blossom. The person who inspired 92-year-old Mavis, one of the play's most memorable characters, has just died.

The funeral for the real-life Mavis, the aunt of one of Wall's best friends, was held last week - but Wall couldn't go. The actor and comedian is a Melbourne-based student these days, training to be a theatre director at the Victoria College of the Arts.

"Mavis' funeral was last Tuesday but I couldn't get back to New Zealand until Saturday so Blossom will be a tribute to her," says Wall.

"Mavis in the play was very much modelled on her - she was a remarkable old lady, everything old ladies are not supposed to be, quite outrageous."

When Wall first toured Blossom around the country in 2000-01, it was acclaimed as a charming story of a 30-something woman called Abbie in midlife crisis who finds inspiration through travel - and in the bedridden but highly spirited Mavis.

The trouble, says Wall, was that in "big, unwieldy" Auckland, people blinked and missed it. "We found that by the time a lot of people heard about it, it was over. It's such a hard town to get the word around. So it seemed like a good decision to come back."

Blossom's return does coincide with Wall's "school" holidays. She is training at the VCA for one year under the tuition of veterans such as Lindy Davies and Richard Murphet, who were both members of the Pram Factory (aka the Australian Performing Group), which kickstarted contemporary Australian theatre in the 70s.

"It's hilarious being back at school at my age," she guffaws. "What do you mean I have to write an essay, do homework?

"But it's quite fun. I've learnt so many things about theatre this year. It's fabulous to be immersed in all that stuff for a year. You couldn't really do that at home [in Auckland] - people would tell me to get off the grass."

Although Wall has a long history as an actor and writer, including stints as both in the TV series That Comedy Show and More Issues, and award-winning work in Xena, "I'm happy to get away from that whole comedy thing. You get to a point where you have to educate yourself and keep growing if you can see the limitations of what you're doing.

"I think I'm old enough to go, well, I'm really enjoying learning how to direct, I may not be any good but if I am any good, that's the next level. Luck still has to come into it - it will either kick in or it won't. If it doesn't, I'll do something else.

"I don't feel that huge pressure where your whole life is bound up in the career and nothing else. In the arts, it's too easy to get drawn into that one, which is a trap."

Directing has given Wall a whole new perspective on the terrors of acting. "We had auditions yesterday for some shows we are putting together and there were 10 of us on the panel. It was very intimidating for the actors to come into the room and by the end of the day, I was wrung out with empathy. And, having seen that TV series on Nida [Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Arts] last year, ooh, that was terrifying. I wouldn't want even my family knowing what goes on at drama school - you air all your dirty linen. You go through being really bad to be good, and the idea of all the public watching you go through all this bad acting you've got to do ... Luckily I'm not at the VCA as an actor, which is great; I don't have to run around the room any more, pretending to be a tree."

Wall - in her actor hat - says Blossom "has changed a bit" since the last round. A collaborative effort with Theatre Stampede directors Vanessa Chapple and Ben Crowder, Blossom has been in rehearsal in recent weeks, with Chapple and Wall working together in Melbourne; preparation will continue with Crowder in Auckland until opening night.

And when directors' school is over, who knows? Ideally, Wall would like transtasman employment. "But I don't know where I'll work when I finish this course. I'll put my feelers out for work anywhere and see what happens. There is some snob value here in Australia to being one of the latest VCA directors so if there's anything in that to be milked, I'll milk it."

* Blossom, Herald Theatre, June 25-July 6; Hawkins Centre, Papakura, July 11.