The Pickle King

The Pickle King playing at Baycourt Theatre in June. Photo/supplied

The Pickle King is touring New Zealand and has been updated to reflect modern times.

The highly acclaimed play is showing at Baycourt next month and one of the themes relevant to Bay of Plenty's audience is of big corporations damaging the environment, then taking minimal responsibility for it, according to publicist Nicole Steven.

Sasha is a key character in the play who was blinded as a child due to a chemical accident in India.

The play spotlights the plight of natural environments and people at the hands of big business as well as the injustices of immigration.

Fifteen years after the script was written these issues are still as relevant as ever.

However, a significant change in this vintage Indian Ink script is the love story, which now centres around a same-sex couple.

While this would have been a real statement 15 years ago, - today it just reflects the diverse culture of New Zealand.

The play is set inside The Empire, a hotel as faded as the dreams of the piano player who haunts the lobby.

Delving into love, death and what is worth preserving, it stars Vanessa Kumar (Boys Will Be Boys, Peter Pan), stepping into the role of Jojo.

Bright new talent Kalyani Nagarajan (The Brokenwood Mysteries 3, Polo) plays the part of Sasha.

Both women will play multiple characters alongside Andrew Ford (Le Sud, The Lady Killers) as George. Multi-talented pianist Ayrton Foote supports the action on stage.

First performed in 2002, The Pickle King enchanted audiences and reviewers alike with this sublime and ridiculous, simple yet profound tale.

The show received a record seven nominations in New Zealand's theatre awards, and won the highly contested supreme award, Production of the Year.

In 2003, Indian Ink took The Pickle King to the Edinburgh Fringe, winning the Fringe First Award, and in 2007, it played another successful two-week season at DBS Arts Centre, Singapore.

Published alongside Krishnan's Dairy and The Candlestickmaker, this trilogy is now taught as part of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Drama curriculum and at Universities.