Beauty on the battlefield

1.00pm


Lithe bodies in their sensual prime - this is the first image and the inspiration for the play Skin Tight.

So fundamental is the idea that the promotional poster captures the play's essence with actors Danielle Cormack and Jed Brophy in a tender, naked embrace.

Skin Tight is 10 years old and its Auckland season wraps up a seven-centre national tour. This production is one of the few versions that Auckland-based playwright Gary Henderson has not directed, and it has given him the opportunity for reflection.

Local theatre lore has it that Skin Tight is based on Denis Glover's iconic poem, The Magpies. Henderson says the inspiration for the play is not so straightforward.

"To say that Skin Tight is based on the poem - well, there's been some marketing spin on that. The idea actually originated with the [original cast] actors. Jed Brophy and Larissa Matheson had been in my previous play, Sunset Cafe. One night I was in the theatre, watching them warm up on the stage as the lighting technician was doing his checks.

"I was faced with these two beautiful, quite scantily clad people, stretching and moving, with the light falling on them in different colours and angles, and it struck me that I could base a story on that imagery."

Henderson wanted to develop a work he could take to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and convinced Matheson and Brophy to be part of it. Skin Tight would go on to win the Fringe First award.

"When we first started working on it, I had a lot of different pieces of writing around me. The Magpies, a poem by Sam Hunt, writing by Ray Bradbury, and a French erotic short story, and I was drawing from a lot of them. I can't remember the point at which it clicked, but I had used the names from The Magpies, Tom and Elizabeth, and at some point, I think just before we started rehearsals, I realised the lines, 'Tom's hands were strong on the plough, Elizabeth's lips were red' perfectly summed up the strength and sensuality which I wanted."

Set largely in the mid-20th century, in South Island farming heartland, Skin Tight is the powerful and moving story of a relationship. And it is the emotional heart of the play which Henderson believes makes the work timeless.

"Skin Tight is never going to be out of date. The things that pin it to a specific era are in the past, already in history. The story and emotive punch are enough and they don't date. Even if physical theatre ceases to be fashionable, they are the things that will last."

Skin Tight has been well-received in its 10 years. As well as its Fringe award, it has had seasons in Australia, Britain and South Africa. This time, the play is directed by Miranda Harcourt, who is convinced the work has an ongoing appeal.

"It just hasn't aged, which proves to me that it's a good play," she says. "Foreskin's Lament doesn't date because rugby is at the heart of the New Zealand experience. Skin Tight is about the kind of relationship we would all love to have. These people love, fight, they have beautiful bodies, they are so sensual and alive. Audience members come away saying, 'That's the relationship I aspire to'.

"And at the heart of the play, it's just a bloody good idea. You could say that Skin Tight is to New Zealand theatre what Whale Rider is to New Zealand film. It's about the very heart of the New Zealand culture, the New Zealand identity."

Such accolades, as well as pronouncements from critics of the "best New Zealand play of all time," seem to embarrass Henderson.

"What works, works. There are things I know I do well - I can tell a good story. I directed different versions of Skin Tight, I've watched other versions. I really like seeing other people take what I have written and what they do with it.

"As the playwright, the script is my finishing point, but for other directors, it is their starting point, and it's always interesting to see what someone does who doesn't have your thought processes."

This season, the actors bring the old and the new to the play. Brophy, the original Tom, has performed in many New Zealand productions of Skin Tight and directed one version at Auckland's Herald Theatre. Cormack is new to the role of Elizabeth.

Harcourt says she seized the opportunity which the actors' backgrounds gave her to extend the physicality of the play.

"Both actors have a lot of experience in fighting for stage and screen, and they both have such great bodies. Skin Tight is about the battlefield of a relationship, and we really developed the fight choreography."

Henderson likes the combination: "Seeing Jed in the same role is similar but with different nuances. Danielle plays the woman a little more earthy and straightforward, which I think is quite nice. Claire Waldron, in an earlier production, played Elizabeth as a woman who has grown up and lived her whole life in the country, and Danielle has captured that."

Henderson's new play, Homeland, has just gone into rehearsal at Dunedin's Fortune Theatre. He's cautiously pleased with his new work, but quietly happy that Skin Tight still holds its appeal.

"After 10 years and many productions, I am always honoured that people want to stage and watch Skin Tight. It is encouraging that we can still be moved by a simple, human love story."

Performance

* What: Skin Tight

* Where and when: Bruce Mason Centre, Sep 17-19