Ralph and Liz chat after the show

Last week Falling and One Fine Day, the last of the EXMSS/Massey summer plays, were performed in Old Main’s auditorium. The response from those who were there was overwhelmingly enthusiastic: “intense and inspiring” and “the level of energy was astounding, I was gripped throughout” were some of the comments I heard. A week earlier I had seen Lear’s Daughters, the first of the three plays EXMSS sponsored in partnership with Massey School of English and Media Studies.

Lear’s Daughters is a feat of reduction that looses no power or depth. It was like a good stock reduced to a sticky glaze, just a drop packed a punch. It helped to know the original – but that presented no barrier to our mostly student audience. The play was intense but for me the insights came when, after the performance, Ralph and Liz sat on the edge of the stage and chatted about how they had brought Lear’s Daughters together and toured with the show in 2008. This type of discussion is something you won’t often find in commercial theatre. Ralph and Liz were captivating, speaking about how they learn lines, manage tricky performance spaces and the process of deciding on set and costume. I gained an understanding of what a New Zealand performance artist must do to be successful and returned to the EXMSS office buzzing.

The plays were well attended and I am enthusiastic about sponsoring a similar even in 2010 but I would love to hear from some of those who made it to the plays to ensure that Massey knows that students like this sort of thing.

Ralph and Liz after the show