Over eighty can-I-laugh-any-more-or-will-my-face-fall-off minutes, Tom Sainsbury’s latest play – My London Sojourn – tells the story of (wait for it) his London sojourn. And as in the tradition of Kiwis’ tales of ‘The Big OE’, it IS full of existential angst, hope and despair, but perhaps not quite in the way you might expect.

Sainsbury wrote and directed this play, as per, but this time he also takes to the stage, as Tom Sainsbury: as a version of himself that is disarming, charming, and wildly idiotic. It’s parody, of course, that he does so well, and this play hones the Sainsbury aesthetic to an hilariously serrated knife-edge. He manages to pastiche the pastiche of the New Zealander abroad; by borrowing heavily from that zeitgeist of navel-gazing, self-deprecating comedy we do OH so well he achieves an almost post-post-modern performance that both nods to its predecessors and scorns them. “Come and see my latest play, in the style of Flight of the Conchords and Lord of the Rings…” he and his producer shout from a street corner in Soho.

Posted by Alexander in theatre

Tags: K-Road, Kiwi, London, Martyn Wood, Nic Sampson, Roberto Nascimento, Serena Cotton, Stephanie Lee, Te Karanga Gallery, theatre, Tom Sainsbury

All photos by Nikki Castle

STARRING    George Henare OBE, Annie Whittle, Andrew Ford, Bruce Phillips, Todd Emerson, Harry McNaughton, Milo Cawthorne, Elliot Christensen-Yule, Paora Durie, Nic Sampson, Sam Berkley and Chris Tempest.

Maidment Theatre: October 8 - 24 2009

Directed by Jesse Peach

Read our review here

Posted by claire in theatre

Tags: Annie Whittle, Bruce Phillips, Chris Tempest, George Henare OBE, Harry McNaughton, HIstory Boys, Jesse Peach, Milo Cawthorne, The Maidment, Todd Emerson

Anyone who's ever pondered the difficulties involved in erecting a large-scale theatre production should spend some time with Jesse Peach. Barely in the midst of his 20s, here's a guy who's founded his own theatre company and staged numerous high-profile plays (Billy Liar, The Glass Menagerie, to name just a couple) in theatres around Auckland. Now Jesse is making the move central - putting on a show that promises to be quite spectacular: New Zealand's premier production of Alan Bennett's The History Boys.

Peach has assembled a cast of exceptionally talented young guys (Harry McNaughton, Todd Emerson, Milo Cawthorne, Chris Tempest and more) with some of New Zealand's theatrical titans (George Henare OBE, Annie Whittle, Bruce Phillips), and rehearsed them until their one-liners crackle off of each other with all the zing-and-pow of a fresh bowl of Rice Krispies (that’s Brit for Rice Bubbles). Yes ma’am, it’s British, but this story of a group of precociously bright boys striving – and being “groomed” – for a place in the best schools has an undeniably universal appeal. Don’t dally - two weeks only at The Maidment.

Posted by Alexander in theatre

Tags: Annie Whittle, Bruce Phillips, Chris Tempest, George Henare OBE, Harry McNaughton, HIstory Boys, Jesse Peach, Milo Cawthorne, The Maidment, Todd Emerson