Rep Talk: The play-reading group

Whanganui Repertory Theatre.

A monthly column by Nadine Rayner.

We’ve had many enjoyable evenings reading through all sorts of plays that explore different aspects of life at home and abroad. While a lot of our plays are set in Europe, I’m pleased to note that half of the plays we read this year are by New Zealand writers and set at home.

Joe Musaphia cast a rueful eye at surrogacy in his Mothers and Fathers, while Tim Hambleton, a South Island lawyer, poked fun at the operation of a country courthouse in his play Holding Court.

Roger Hall’s Taking Off reflected on the experiences of middle-aged people leaving our shores for a belated OE. We revisited Tzigane, which Repertory Theatre produced in 2003 - an exploration of the problems of an immigrant family written by John Vakidis - but I think one of my favourites was Neil Troost’s play Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes.

Penalties, Pints and Pirouettes tells the story of a country rugby club that wants to go to a tournament. In order to win brownie points with their womenfolk and thus gain permission to play away from home, they agree to perform a ballet for the school fundraiser.

They need a ballet teacher. Surprise - the ballet teacher is not what they expected, because he’s a young man!

Gradually, the country boys learn to respect ballet. More importantly, they learn to respect their ballet teacher when they come to understand heterosexuality isn’t essential to being a good person.

While there are many amusing moments in this play, I like it for its message, too.

We have had some more serious plays on our agenda: The Woman in Black, which Rep produced earlier this year, and The Lion in Winter. Alan Ayckbourn‘s Time of My Life, which is rather melancholy at times but also very funny, was our last reading for the year, and we did have fun with the “radio plays”.

These plays are about a group producing radio plays, and Cathy Gribble brought along all sorts of things to produce sound effects. So you see, we’ve covered all types of plays. Comedy is always enjoyable, but sometimes we like to delve into more sombre subjects. It’s always a pleasant evening out, so why not come and join us? We’d love to see you.