Freak Winds at Herald Theatre

The experience of being an outsider is woven into the psychological thriller Freak Winds. From left: Paul Gittens and cast members Sophia Hawthorne, Gary Stalker and Michael Morris. Picture / Greg Bowker

No matter the degree of shared history and culture, when you are an expat New Zealander you will always be something of a stranger in a strange land - even if that place is our nearest neighbour, Australia, says actor Gary Stalker.

His fascination with what it means to be a New Zealander overseas has seen him return from Australia after 16 years to stage and star in Freak Winds.

Written by fellow actor and expat Marshall Napier - one of the stars in McLeod's Daughters - this psychological thriller adds an eerie twist to the experience of being an outsider.

Rather than play it straight with an obvious innocent-abroad story, Napier takes brash young insurance salesman Henry Crumb (Michael Morris) into the home of Earnest (Stalker) and Myra (Sophia Hawthorne).

In the tradition of all good horror stories, Crumb arrives on a dark and stormy night convinced that a sale is pretty much a done deal, and begins his irritatingly insincere pitch.

Shades of The Rocky Horror Picture Show - but there's no singing, dancing or convivial crossdressing host.

Instead, the temperamental Earnest is prone to bouts of vomiting. Myra, whose relationship to her housemate is not clear, is a wheelchair-bound seductress.

With the trap sprung, the mind games begin. But it doesn't sound like a happy-ever-after ending when director Paul Gittins says he's has to leave soon to pick up some fake body parts.

"Basically, this guy has walked into all my favourite Alfred Hitchcock films," Morris says.

Freak Winds, first performed to sellout crowds in Sydney five years ago, prompted Gary Stalker to think more about New Zealand expat writing.

"Having lived outside this country, there are many experiences of being marginalised, being alone, being caught out in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Every New Zealander who has travelled experiences that, so these are still very much New Zealand stories and there must be lots of them given that New Zealanders are a nation of travellers."

Despite their intimate involvement with the script, the director and cast of Freak Winds say they are in somewhat uncharted territory.

Not every question about the characters is neatly answered and there is little in the way of a back story.

Hawthorne, however, says that makes exploring all the tangents in the work open to individual interpretation.

She faces the challenge of playing a character confined to a wheelchair, which limits the physical dimension she can bring to the role.

But her Myra is no tragic heroine, a description Gittins uses to describe many of Hawthorne's characters. Rather, he says, she holds all the power.

Gittins, best known for his television roles as Shortland Street's affable Dr Michael McKenna and as the host of Epitaph, has directed 25 productions and enjoys the challenge of bringing the various elements of a play together.

"As a director, I'm trying to solve a lot of unanswered questions. I think it's no accident that the character is called Myra, given Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

"But who knows? It's an immensely intellectual script and it's amazingly well written."

What: Freak Winds
Where and when: Herald Theatre, Sep 14-Oct 1