KEY POINTS:
From the Melbourne set of one of the world's highest-profile soap operas to New Zealand's provincial theatres, actor Stephen Lovatt is reacquainting himself with home.
And Lovatt's return, after four years on Australian soap Neighbours, is allowing the country to re-acquaint itself with Bruce Mason's iconic play The End of the Golden Weather.
By the time Lovatt arrives in Auckland this weekend, he will have performed the re-worked 70-minute piece in 13 North Island centres in less than a month. But speaking from Gisborne on a rare night off, Lovatt was invigorated rather than daunted or weary.
"We drove for 6 1/2 hours today and I was amazed, spellbound, at how beautiful the countryside is.
"It's been years since I visited some of the towns on this tour and I've got to tell you, I am impressed at the way many of them have brushed up.
"I had a great time working on Neighbours but I made the choice to leave because I felt it was time to move on. I am now making my living as a freelance actor as opposed to an indentured actor and I realise how right that decision was every time I stand up to do The End of the Golden Weather.
"When you work on a long-running, fast turnaround TV show for a long time, there's a danger of becoming bureaucratised, but I think actors, by the nature of the job, are meant to be a bit roguish, enjoy an element of the vagabond. I'm not saying it's a case of 'lock up your daughters, the actors are in town' but there should be an element of not knowing what's going to happen next."
Lovatt admits there is a certain security that comes from being continually employed for 15 years as an actor and now having a bankable international television profile.
When he went alone to the Edinburgh Festival last year to perform The End of the Golden Weather, he simply handed out flyers advertising the show and the fact it starred "Max from Neighbours".
Written by Bruce Mason in 1951 and originally performed by him as a one-man show, the play follows 12-year-old Geoff Crome as he prepares to spend another summer by the sea. Themes of childhood, nostalgic remembrance and loss of innocence are prevalent as Geoff leaves the golden weather of childhood behind.
Mason performed the piece extensively throughout the 1950s and 1960s and it was adapted into an award-winning film by Ian Mune in 1991. Aside from secondary school students studying the play, it became a neglected classic until the new production, starring Lovatt, was staged in Auckland last year.
Producer Graeme Bennett says the original three-hour play was edited into a 70-minute script but the original's evocative language has been maintained. "Modern culture - in its advances - has lost some of the joys of literature. This is a tale told with a love of language - language to inspire and illuminate a history that should never be forgotten," says Bennett.
"We need to encourage the new generation into the theatre to experience great New Zealand writing through strong physical performance as an alternative to digital media."
Lovatt returned home for six weeks last year for the Auckland season of the play. He admitted to almost jumping the Tasman when offered the chance to perform, for the first-time, a one-person show. That he toured alone to Edinburgh and was so enthusiastic about this North Island tour demonstrates his love for the piece.
"I wanted to come from fast turnaround soap television and do a big honking piece of New Zealand theatre.
"I wanted to celebrate this country and its writing and there cannot be a better play. I don't want it to be consigned to the annals, to be read and studied but never performed."
PERFORMANCE
* What: The End of the Golden Weather
* Where and when: Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, Sunday June 3, 2pm
