KEY POINTS:
New Zealand has a shocking record when it comes to the unsolved murders and abductions of young women.
Playwright Patrick Graham is clearly troubled by cases like the disappearance of Mona Blades and the unsolved murder of teenager Kirsty Bentley.
Graham's latest work Lost Girls is a cautionary
tale inspired by the true-life abductions of several of these girls and women. It follows three characters - T, M and K - through the last two days of their lives before they disappear.
He says the stories capture the ordinariness of everyday life but try to create a feeling of foreboding to remind us that fate can intervene in ways more terrifying than we imagine.
Graham is adamant, in a quiet way, that the drama is not exploitative.
Rather, he and the all-female cast say it is a carefully crafted attempt to make sense of crimes which profoundly disturbed them and to question what conditions allow these to continue.
"I suppose what really started me thinking about writing something was when Kirsty Bentley disappeared nearly exactly to the day one year after Olivia Hope and Ben Smart. I thought, 'My God, it's happening again'.
"When Coral Burrows went missing and her photo appeared in the newspaper, I remembered Teresa Cormack's picture and it affected me incredibly.
"I kept asking, how could anyone kill a little girl who was so beautiful, with her whole life ahead? I can't understand it."
As rehearsals began for the Auckland season of Lost Girls, news of British pre-schooler Madeleine McCann's abduction broke. Just weeks before, an investigation was launched into the attempted abduction of a Whangaparaoa schoolgirl.
"This is what makes me believe there is a place for theatre like this. These types of crimes keep happening; we don't seem to learn anything from them."
Graham candidly acknowledges the first production of Lost Girls, performed at Wellington's Bats Theatre during Fringe 07, was over-written. Reviews reflected this and while he thinks some of the criticism unfair, he has responded by re-working sections of the play.
"One critic said the play seemed to be saying that all men are bastards. I don't entirely agree with that but the reality is that those who have committed this violence have been male. I can't help that but I have taken a step back and added some more positive male characters to address that feeling."
Rather than tell each story separately, Lost Girls moves in and out of scenarios. Actors Kirsty Hamilton, Sarah Thomson and Eve Gordon play the three victims as well as support characters. Natalie-Jane Morris joins the cast as an angel, helping the women to move around the stage.
A review of Graham's existential musical comedy iS described it as "theatre for young people". Graham sees nothing wrong with this, saying new audiences must be developed and encouraged for theatre to thrive.
He clearly hopes young people will see Lost Girls and heed its messages about looking out for one another.
Performance
* What: Lost Girls
* Where and when: Herald Theatre, June 5-10