Anthea Hill is Lucrece in Auckland Shakespeare Company's first production.
Auckland has a new theatre company dedicated to performing works by William Shakespeare, but its debut production is something never done before in New Zealand.
Rather than staging one of the Bard's 37 plays, the Auckland Shakespeare Company will launch with its own re-invention of the poem The Rape of
Lucrece, written in 1594 and regarded as one of Shakespeare's darkest works.
It relates the historical legend of how Lucretia, the wife of a prominent Roman, was raped by a member of Rome's royal family and subsequently took her own life. The real-life incident is thought to have contributed to Rome becoming a republic.
The Artistic director of the Auckland Shakespeare Company, Rita Stone, says turning the poem into a play started with detailed readings of the text before consulting with the University of Auckland's Shakespeare expert, Professor Tom Bishop.
Stone and actors Anthea Hill, Calum Gittins, Daniel Watterson and Sheena Irving then produced a script, turning the words into a three-act play. Two characters, who act as narrators, and a six-strong chorus were also introduced to comment on and explain certain parts of the story.
