Vikki Gorton-Tibbits and Pascal Tibbits from Summer Shakespeare Tauranga Trust.
Vikki Gorton-Tibbits and Pascal Tibbits from Summer Shakespeare Tauranga Trust.
My Kitchen Rules winners Pascal Tibbits and Vikki Gorton-Tibbits have hung up their aprons but are cooking up a Shakespearean delight in February.
Visitors to the Summer Shakespeare Tauranga Trust’s The Tempest might still catch a glimpse of the famous aprons anyhow — the Te Puna couple have also taken on the task of whipping up some tasty offerings which MKR fans may recognise from the show.
The couple were crowned the winners of the latest season of the New Zealand cooking show which screened in late November, after wowing some of New Zealand’s top chefs. Their other passion besides flavours is Shakespeare.
Pascal founded the Summer Shakespeare Tauranga Trust and the couple are bringing The Tempest to Te Puna Quarry Park Amphitheatre. Pascal directs the play and Vikki is the producer.
The outdoor performance also offers food so Vikki and Pascal felt they must perform well, considering their huge win, so they will be catering.
“We’re putting on quite the offering on the food front. We’ll be putting on our MKR aprons, it’s going to be fun.”
The Tempest was Shakespeare’s final play and is a fable of magic and creation.
The plot is about the banished Prospero, who plots a return to former glory. With daughter Miranda, magic is used and their adversaries are brought to justice while being tormented by strange beings.
For Pascal, the all-important Shakespearean message is “people hungry for power will be brought to justice”.
The Sprites are Lauren Marinho, Rylee van Dijk and Sabine Hislop.
“It’s fantastical, it’s musical, there is a lot of intelligent dialogue in there and it’s very witty. It pokes fun at authority... definitely a comedy.
“What I love about Shakespeare is the language, the triple meanings, the depth of social comment and the relevance it still has today.”
Pascal says the play contains elements of f other Shakespearean plays — such as As You Like It (banishment and reconciliation) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (spirits and magic).
The pair were inspired to do The Tempest as their next project while they were filming MKR in February last year.
Alonzo and Gonzalo played by Meredith Whitaker Ahearn and David Guy.
They were stranded in Auckland for five days due to the floods (Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm and torment others).
Pascal has a long history of performing Shakespeare since he was a teenager with various theatre groups.
As trustees of the group, Pascal and Vikki are looking to introduce young people to Shakespeare.
The Tempest has a cast of 12 including son Elijah, 18, who plays Caliban (Pascal also played Caliban as a teen).
Ferdinand and Miranda played by Dan Forsyth and Rain Denyer.
The Te Puna couple cooked up a four-course feast for top chefs Nick Honeyman and Sid Sahrawat and judges Colin Fassnidge and Manu Feildel, to take out the title of 2023 My Kitchen Rules New Zealand winner, which screened on TVNZ 2 late last year.
It was a close finish between them and rival team, Mangawhai mates Matt and Kurt.
Two outcomes were filmed, so they didn’t find out who had won until the episode aired - and Pascal admits it was “tough to watch”.
It was a wonderful experience, he says, one they would like to repeat.
“We loved the process and the overall storyline was accurate and true. We would love to it again and we’d love to do a transtasman challenge.”
The couple won $100,000 prizemoney. The win has opened doors for them and fingers in a few pies — on the cards is the release of a botanical product and they may be the face of a kitchen company. They’re also setting up their home to have a restaurant experience.
Vikki is an interior designer and Pascal is a landscape designer and urban planning consultant.
