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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 17, July 19, 1976.

Theatre

page 14

Theatre

Photo of David Groves and Chris Dillon

David Groves as Lenz and Chris Dillon as Scheidecker in Lenz by Mike Stott, directed by Phil Mann. This brilliant production should not be missed. Runs at Unity Wednesday to Saturday.

Photo of Ken Blackburn

Ken Blackburn as Christie in "Christie in Love" by Howard Brenton (about the last man to be hanged in England). Directed by Stanley Harper. Late Night at Unity (11pm) July, 21-24th.

Little needs to be said about Wellington theatre at the moment except that it's never been more exciting and that fuck-all people seem to know what's happening. I'm not talking about amateur theatre, nor the University Drama/Soc (once madly active, now asleep), nor Downstage (see the hilarious article by R.T. in the latest Spleen about Sir Raymond de Boyce's expansive wank of a set for The Three Boring Sisters of Mervyn Thomson). No, I mean professional theatre - Unity and Circa.

Here's a little test for you - you should be good at tests. Do the following people mean anything to you? J. F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Marilyn Munroe (clue Candles in the Wind by Elton John, "Oh yeah Elton John"), Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Castro, Janis Joplin, The Beatles, Jim Morrison, Abbie Hoffman, Donovan, Lee Harvey Oswald, Fay Rey ("Oh yeah Fa...."). One of these is a trick question. If you answered Yes to more than two of these you must (i.e. have to) see Kennedy's Children at Circa. If you only got the last one, go back into your closet.

Kennedy's Children is quite simply the best piece of theatre I have ever seen. Its the only play that's ever made me scared to say hello to anyone afterwards in case I burst into tears. I think I was moved, It wasn't only the excellent production, the beautifly set and the superb acting... it's a shit-hot play. It's about the sixties - Jesus, a play set in our own time, about us, we were living then...... we were living then.

I'm not going to delve into the intricacies of Kennedy's Children - just urge you to see it. The play is (amongst other things) a plea for action, so I'll leave it at that... "sure, the people are hungry, and tired and weak and disillusioned but isn't that a sure sign that something's crumbling?.... this is the time for action of some kind, the time when leaders are needed...." After you've seen it, you'll want to make some kind of sense out of the sixties. So come around to my place and we'll discuss how to get rid of Piggy for a start.

After you've seen Kennedy's Children and the adrenalin is still pumping, go to Unity and see Lenz. For a start it's a virtuos performance by Varisty's own David Groves. At last the rift between the academic and the artistic has been closed. David acts with his head end his heart. The result is hilarious and heart-rending. Lenz describes himself as "a Gentleman Loony", and we are as entertained by the outpourings of his teeming mind as we are horrified by the shadows which close in upon it.

Both the director (Phil Mann) and the designer (Jim Spalding) have realised the need to create an arena for Lenz to stalk about in, and the result is an expansive, clear-headed, sweeping style, and an unfussy, beautiful, breathing-space of a set.

The effect of seeing both these productions within a short period of time, leaves theatre over the past five years for dead.

- Mike Wilson