Comic talent Parker was approached in March to write the show and joined forces with buddy and prolific playwright Sainsbury to devise something a little different to previous Christmas shows.
"We wanted to keep it relevant to Christmas and the holiday season, but get away from more obvious Christmas themes so we thought about what people do at this time of year and came up with the idea of a Christmas cruise, which immediately opened up the opportunity for bad nautical puns."
The script has gone through numerous drafts, read-throughs and a couple of workshops to ensure it will please murder mystery fans. Great care is being taken with the props, too. To make the cruise experience all the more genuine, the set is being made from real boat parts and marine equipment.
Sainsbury and Parker play a couple of hapless paparazzi snappers who decide the best way to get among Auckland's elite is to join Dick Rancid's annual Christmas cruise. Plans go awry when Rancid is harpooned to death. Wanting the "inside scoop", Tom and Chris decide to use their journalistic know-how to find the killer from a boatload of "celebs", which include Jason Gunn and Thingy, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kelly Tarlton and Keisha Castle-Hughes' stunt double.
Guest actors include Amanda Billing, Shavaughn Ruakere, Rose Matafeo, Oliver Driver, Kimberley Crossman, Mike Edwards, Siobhan Marshall, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Joseph Moore, Nic Sampson, Guy Montgomery, Cameron Rhodes, Jesse Griffin, Rhys Mathewson, Michelle Blundell, Kate Elliott, Michael Hurst and Eli Matthewson.
The guest cast get three rehearsals each but House is confident those involved have enough experience to know what's expected of them. "I do like to drill down into the nitty gritty but I know these types of shows are not a perfectionist's art-form."
But Sainsbury admits he is a bit of a perfectionist who likes things to go according to plan. He says pacing the plot to ensure there are clues, twists and turns has been trickier than he anticipated.
Like House, he has taken inspiration from British murder mystery TV series and has become entranced by Rosemary & Thyme, which starred Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris as two gardeners who repeatedly found themselves in the midst of a crime which they quite illegally set about solving.
"I just watch it in amazement," says Sainsbury. "What they're doing is highly illegal, they never seem to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder despite the dreadful situations they find themselves in and you'd never want to hire them to do your garden because no matter where they go, someone always ends up dead."
As well as rehearsing Hauraki Horror, Parker is working on another end-of-year extravaganza - the sixth annual Auckland Theatre Awards being held on Monday evening, with the public welcome.
Producers Kip Chapman and Rachel Forman have grown the awards from an irreverent appreciation of the year in Auckland theatre to an event which will include formal awards judged by industry professionals.
The ceremony also features a large-scale opening number, interactive quizzes and song and dance routines.
"As a kid, I always liked the big TV event shows like Top Town, Telethon and It's in the Bag so what we've tried to do is this big spectacular show which lets us explore some big-scale theatrical ideas and, after all, we are a theatre organisation that honours theatre, so it would be the worst awards show ever if they were boring," says Chapman, who also directs the night's proceedings.
Forman says they have retained the 14 more informal people's choice awards where categories are voted on via Facebook and include best death, best entrance, best technical stuff-up, best line in a Kiwi play, best nudity and best pash.
But, for the first time, formal awards will be handed out. Chapman and Forman say the Auckland industry needs to acknowledge in a more official manner the contributions of theatre professionals.
Rather than having specific categories, judges - who remain anonymous until Monday evening - were told they could nominate up to 10 theatre practitioners for excellence awards. They've chosen seven who will receive purpose designed manufactured medals.
In addition, service honours will be handed out to those who have clocked up 25, 50 or 100 professional shows and a lifetime achievement award will be made. The service honours are part of a nationwide programme involving regional theatres and the Wellington-based Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.
Performance
What: Hauraki Horror
Where and when: The Basement, December 4-20
What: Auckland Theatre Awards
Where and when: The Wintergarden, Civic Theatre, December 1 at 6.30pm; R18
