Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Tauranga Arts Festival: One woman play

By Sandra Simpson
Bay of Plenty Times·
23 Aug, 2019 08:42 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Robyn Paterson is performing at the Tauranga Arts Festival

Robyn Paterson is performing at the Tauranga Arts Festival

The chance to take both her one-woman shows to the world's largest arts festival was a great opportunity for Kiwi Robyn Paterson, despite a punishing performance schedule and a weekly 24-hour trip to London to run her acting training business.

"You can rest when you're dead," she laughs. "I want these shows to be successful and having them on 12 times each at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with people from the BBC and Disney seeing them, well ... "

Her original show, The South Afreakins, a comedy based on the migration experiences of her parents Gordon and Helene, started life as a 10-minute short play Robyn presented at a 2012 Sydney festival where she won the best newcomer award.

Her new play, The South Afreakins: The Afreakin Family, centres on Gordon's 70th birthday party and features four characters and four accents.

"I never wanted The South Afreakins to be a double-hander," she says of her decision to perform solo, "because these are my parents and I know I can do them perfectly. So it was obvious the new show would be the same."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The family emigrated in 1994, choosing New Zealand largely because of Gordon's experiences here in the 1970s as a Rotary Exchange Scholar. Robyn was 6 and her brother 7 when they settled in Hamilton, but she has visited family in South Africa, most recently in 2010.

"Those visits have shown me what my parents wanted to avoid. My relatives all seem to live one step ahead of themselves — where are the exits, who's standing behind me, why are the dogs barking, have the security lights come on. They stay very vigilant all the time."

Her parents, who now live in Tauranga, understand the play has been made with love, she says, as it examines the meaning of home, and the feelings of loss and displacement that come with migration.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"My parents were very good at hiding the strain. It's only recently I've realised how much stress emigration caused them.

"South Africans are very direct and I think as a group they really struggle to find communities who don't misinterpret them. Their sense of humour is different so their jokes don't land. Maybe that's why they tend to stick together."

Robyn, who appeared in Shortland Street and Go Girls before heading to Britain and who stars in the new Kiwi movie Same but Different, says her Afrikaans accent — which she drops into while we chat — has been a 32-year case study and is based on an aunt.

"It's a comic version of my parents' accent and comes very easily to me. Doing it is like a party trick, it's fun."

Discover more

Te Puke Lotto player takes away $12k

24 Aug 09:44 PM

Triple whammy deal for Tauranga Arts Festival tickets

29 Aug 07:00 PM

Comedy lovers, prepare: Extra show added to Tauranga Arts Festival

05 Sep 09:10 PM

''I've had a blast'': Tauranga Arts Festival director taking final bow

07 Sep 12:00 AM

To help the audience make sense of the play Robyn uses vocal technique to differentiate the characters, something she continues in her new play. "I'm lucky I can go as low as I can with my voice so Gordon sounds quite different. Changing between the voices is like a dance."

Twenty-four shows in three weeks with more than 350 voice switches in one play and more than 500 in the other, plus air travel, could take a heavy toll.

"If I'm feeling heavy or not strong I can't flick as quickly as I want so I run, go to the gym three times a week and do yoga.. For my voice, I do the whole array — surgical mask when flying, vocal steamer after a show, not speaking on my day off, throat coat herbal tea and a strict diet with no dairy. Some of these measures may seem bizarre but performing is my job and I take it seriously."

the details
Robyn Paterson performs The South Afreakins
At 7.30pm in Katikati on October 24 and Te Puke on October 25. Tickets from Baycourt box office or via taurangafestival.co.nz (early bird until September 13).

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Heavy rain warnings: BoP acts like 'scoop' for wild weather

02 Jul 09:19 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Scary stuff': Locals on crash corner fear it will take a death to get it fixed

02 Jul 09:11 PM
Bay of Plenty TimesUpdated

'Game-changer': Western BoP a step closer to Govt deal unlocking housing, jobs

02 Jul 09:05 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Heavy rain warnings: BoP acts like 'scoop' for wild weather

Heavy rain warnings: BoP acts like 'scoop' for wild weather

02 Jul 09:19 PM

A severe thunderstorm watch is in place for the region tonight.

'Scary stuff': Locals on crash corner fear it will take a death to get it fixed

'Scary stuff': Locals on crash corner fear it will take a death to get it fixed

02 Jul 09:11 PM
'Game-changer': Western BoP a step closer to Govt deal unlocking housing, jobs

'Game-changer': Western BoP a step closer to Govt deal unlocking housing, jobs

02 Jul 09:05 PM
Tauranga's Young Grower to compete on national stage

Tauranga's Young Grower to compete on national stage

02 Jul 09:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP