Sold-out signs up as Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes play back at Waipū

The cast and crew from Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes, the sold-out play being performed at Waipū Coronation Hall this week.

It’s a tale of local battlers, a bunch of no-hopers going through life’s changes, includes rugby, beer and ballet - and hit play Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes is enjoying a sold-out season at Waipū, where the play was originally performed 20 years ago.

The play is produced by actor and Waipū resident Blair Strang, who said while he knew the play was good, the sold-out response took him by surprise.

Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes was written by Waipū man Neil Troost 20 years ago, when he was part of the Waipū Rugby Club, who performed Swan Lake as a fundraiser for the Waipū Coronation Hall. Three years later, inspired by Swan Lake, he wrote Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes.

Since then the play has toured in various places around the country and has now come full circle, returning to Waipū to fundraise for the same Coronation Hall.

The whole cast is made up of locals, most of whom have never acted before, but with the sold-out sign up, Strang said the play has been well-received by those who saw the opening night and next two performances last weekend - and the word had spread.

The season will finish with shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week, which have all sold out, with a few tickets still available for Saturday from 2pm to 4pm.

The pitch for the play is this:

Rugby, beer and... BALLET??? Well two out of three ain’t bad, especially if you are one of the no-hopers from the Maungakaka Rugby Club. These guys reluctantly fumble their way into a PTA variety night, with the promise of a hot dance teacher called Kelly.

The only problem is Kelly is actually a gay man, he can only teach ballet and it is too late to back out.

Some of the cast performing in the play Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes at Waipū Coronation Hall

While stumbling through rehearsals and their personal lives, our reluctant heroes finally work out that maybe Kelly and ballet are the best thing that has happened to them and their recession-damaged town. But is it too late for them to pull things together without dropping the ball on opening night?

Strang - whose acting credits include Shortland St, Nothing Trivial and Go Girls - said the play is a lot of fun and provides plenty of entertainment for the audience, with some great performances from the largely inexperienced cast.

“I knew we had a really nice play that people would enjoy, as Neil wrote a really fantastic play about local people that would resonate with people, but it’s going really well and far better than I expected,” he said.

“It’s such a good show about people going through some changes in life and how they deal with them and it has a brilliant finale.”

Strang said with a lot of problems in the world recently, it seemed that people wanted some light relief that would provide them with some fun and escapism.

“People seem to want something that’s a it of fun and this is definitely a funny show, They want something that’s a feel good thing, This play is a Full Monty kind of show that really gets people entertained.”