Summertime, and touring ain't easy

Many New Zealanders have had a special affection for Porgy and Bess since that inspirational production starring Inia Te Wiata toured the country for more than three months in 1965.

The Living Arts presentation of the Ira and George Gershwin opera, which opens in Auckland tonight, has been on the road for more than a decade and its director, New Zealander Susan Williams-Finch, has been with it since 1997.

"It is a special piece of American history and I feel privileged to be involved with it," she says.

"It's a cultural piece, a political piece and has all the things that are important to me."

The Gershwins' tale of Catfish Row and its citizens, built around the ill-fated pairing of the crippled Porgy and the emotionally damaged Bess, is a paradox.

It is an opera - being basically all sung - but filled with tunes any Broadway show would envy, from Summertime to It Ain't Necessarily So.

Although Williams-Finch says most of the answers lie in the score, she has also gone back to DuBose Heyward's original novel and play to ground her characters, especially the female ones.

"Serena, for example, is a church woman living with the fear of God, whose bottom line is to keep her community as strong as she can, while Bess is quite disconnected on an emotional level.

"There is that moment with Clara when we learn that life might have been different for Bess if she had had a child.

"But, unlike the fashionable productions in the 80s and 90s, which have her kick off into the night, I see Bess as being left co-dependent in a drug situation, with her ultimate fate decided by how the audience wants to see it."

It's not only the women who are enriched by consulting Heyward's novel and play.

"When we first meet Porgy he's a pretty grumpy, lonely old man," says Williams-Finch. "He's not that happy about his life and his only enjoyment comes from his little bit of communication while getting his cashflow through begging and playing crap. Most of his friends are the older women.

"But when Bess comes into his life you see how a little bit of love can help you to find the youth within yourself."

Touring an opera with a 30-piece orchestra is a major exercise in logistics and the title roles are triple-cast.

"We don't have the luxury of a day off between each show but all my principals are magnificent," says Williams-Finch - not that I was going to be so boorish as to ask for favourites. "In fact that is what has kept me addicted to the show.

"In a normal week in the United States I might go to five different cities dealing with three different Besses and three different Porgys. The actors also start to feed off one another."

Then there are the touring tales. "When we played in Tiananmen Square we couldn't get the full set into China.

"The Chinese created a set twice the size, all in steel, but because of the language barrier forgot to put any openings in it.

"So everyone was running for miles to come on to stage."

Williams-Finch has much to say about "cultural exchange".

"It's quite interesting to be a New Zealander devoted to something like this because we have a very open and honest visualisation of cultural exchanges.

"My cast say to me in a joking fashion, 'We love you, you always keep it real'. From them, that is an appreciation and understanding of what we are trying to do.

"For African-Americans, the United States is an unusual country. In Europe, Australia and New Zealand these people are loved and respected for what they are. You still battle with that in America."


Performance

* What: Porgy and Bess
* Where and when: Aotea Centre, tonight 7.30pm; tomorrow 1.30pm & 7.30pm