Marking the centennial of the birth of Bruce Mason - arguably the most significant playwright in our country’s history - two contemporary legends of Aotearoa theatre have created a brilliant homage to his enduring legacy in Every Kind of Weather, coming to Auckland Live’s Herald Theatre (October 6–24).
Director Shane Bosher and actor Stephen Lovatt offer audiences the chance to see two of Mason’s most beloved solo works - The End of the Golden Weather and Not Christmas, but Guy Fawkes - performed in repertory.
A prolific writer, Bruce Mason had a unique ability to create spell-binding stories from the regular lives of Kiwis, earning a CBE in 1980 for his contributions. Consistently a champion of the underdog, his works explored identity, difference, and cultural cringe; they took Mason from community halls in Aotearoa’s smallest towns to the Edinburgh Festival. The two works that Shane Bosher has selected for this celebration are both timeless recounts of a boy in his adolescence, and his attempts to find a place in the world.
The quintessential Kiwi classic, The End of the Golden Weather chronicles the friendship between a 12-year-old boy and the wild-limbed Firpo. Through the boy’s eyes we see the wonder of life on a perfect beach, in a perfect 1930s New Zealand, during a perfect summer. It’s a world of magic and transformation, where anything can happen, and miracles seem possible.
An adolescent boy tries to find his place in an adult-dominated world in Not Christmas, but Guy Fawkes. A richly autobiographical search for self-expression, profound and true, it is a set of variations about over-reaching, cheekily confronting our very own Tall Poppy Syndrome.
$2 per hour to a max of $12 on weekends and a $12 flat rate for weekday evenings at The Civic car park. Find out more.