KEY POINTS:
Six months after the political play The Hollow Men debuted in Wellington, it comes north to Auckland - but will allegedly apolitical Aucklanders see it?
Director Jonathon Hendry suspects Aucklanders are not as apathetic as the rest of the country - especially Wellington - believes.
"I think Auckland's political apathy is a myth promulgated by Wellingtonians because we have the Beehive but ultimately Auckland is the powerhouse of the country," he says. "It is where much of the political behind-the-scenes action takes place and a lot of the major political battlegrounds are in Auckland electorates."
While some of the political players portrayed in The Hollow Men may have changed, Hendry says the game of winning hearts and minds in order to run the country remains the same. This maintains the play's relevancy, especially as this is an election year.
He also stresses that The Hollow Men is not an extended news broadcast, replete with dry facts and sound-bite platitudes. Instead it focuses on the nature of politics and our part in creating political reality.
"It is about the ideas behind the politics, about who we are as a nation and what we want to become. Questions arise through it about our responsibility as citizens and what it means to live in a democracy."
Adapted from Nicky Hager's controversial book, the play deals with the machinations of the National Party's failed 2005 election campaign led by Don Brash, or perhaps more aptly, his advisers.
Stephen Papps stars as Brash while Michael Keir Morrissey, Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, Adam Gardiner, Sam Snedden and Arthur Meek portray a range of political movers and shakers.
Hendry likens the story-telling techniques used in the play to Shakespearean drama. He says when he signed up to direct, he knew instinctively that the work had the potential to be provocative and dramatic yet entertaining and wryly amusing. His confidence developed from his first meeting with playwright Dean Parker.
"Dean described the story as having a Shakespearean arc. He said it was about a man who wanted to be king and that is a very Shakespearean theme.
"I went, 'Wow, that's an intriguing approach', and instantly I could see the potential for it to be a really exciting project."
Hendry says while there has always been abundant drama in politics, making politics into drama takes a deft touch. Introducing a Shakespearean sensibility gave The Hollow Men a strong framework.
In 2003, Hendry was an artistic resident at the Globe Theatre in London and has since run various Shakespeare workshops. As the recently appointed head of acting at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School he directs Macbeth later this year.
"You could say Shakespeare is the DNA of our modern theatre, films and television - short scenes, fast dialogue and humour mixed with drama. Obviously, we could not put the whole book on stage so we looked for relevancy and drama. "We highlighted the race for the election with the focus on the behind-the-scenes goings-on and this gave it an edge like a thriller."
Hendry says audience members have been known to comment aloud on the action being portrayed on stage. "I guess politics is the sort of topic people feel passionate about."
What: The Hollow Men
Where and when: Maidment Theatre, April 10-19
