Driver makes most of unique double act to sell arts to PM

Oliver Driver at the Silo Theatre launch with John Key. Photo / Andrew Malmo

After his appearance on David Letterman's show, Prime Minister John Key may have acquired a taste for performing. But then politics itself can be theatre, sometimes descending into farce, as we have seen in the past fortnight.

At the launch of the Silo Theatre's new season, Key took to the stage again, this time in a double act with Oliver Driver, nicely reversing their weekly Sunrise roles. Key played interviewer, Driver the subject, in his role as Silo artistic associate and all-round theatre phenomenon - actor, director, producer and TV frontman.

Key, playing to what would hardly be his heartland audience, said he knew "absolutely nothing" about theatre and allowed himself to be delivered a gentle and humorous lecture by Driver on the importance of arts to the economy. Seizing the opportunity of an audience with the PM, Driver tailored his pitch to a language Key, the former money trader, understands well: finance.

He pointed out that the arts bolstered the Auckland economy by $479 million annually and had potential to do more. He said theatre was a business that needed money invested in it and a focus on research and development.

In return, jobs were created. Silo employed around 230 artists every year playing to an audience of more than 35,000.

He said Auckland was the creative capital, but feared it could be jeopardised if Local Government Minister Rodney Hide forced councils to invest in nothing but sewerage.

Driver told the PM Silo was on the brink of a transformation. In 2012 it will launch Ensemble, a company of resident actors, directors and designers who will make work to be performed locally and internationally.

Each year it would create four works claimed to be "epic in scale with no embargo on either ambition or artistic risk".

Driver said it would drive the future of the industry, growing new audiences both here and overseas - returning to the economic theme, so close to the Government's heart.

"It's about exports," Driver said, reasoning Silo was important to the economy by exporting New Zealand plays to international audiences, showcasing the country to the world. International profile also benefited domestic box office takings, he said.

"We want tourists to view going to a Silo Theatre production with the same excitement that we would have going to a West End show."

Punctuating the rhetoric with statistics, a Creative NZ/Colmar Brunton poll showed 79 per cent of New Zealanders agree the arts help define who we are, 71 per cent of Aucklanders feel their community would be poorer without arts and 80 per cent of Aucklanders support public funding for arts.