Travelling is about the journey

Stuart Devenie and George Henare (above) tackle Four Flat Whites in Italy with Darien Takle and Annie Whittle. Photo / Supplied

She was the most famous person Stuart Devenie, then an aspiring actor in his 20s, had worked with so he wanted to do something special for Fawlty Towers star Prunella Scales. Finding inspiration in our baking traditions, Devenie cooked a pavlova for her.

Once he decided his creation was perfect, he packaged it carefully in a box and carried it to the railway station to take to the theatre.

Alone on the platform, Devenie placed his present on the seat next to him and waited for the train. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied an elderly gentleman approaching.

"I thought, 'He's not going to sit right next to me, is he? He's not actually going to sit on the pavlova, is he?' and then he sat. On the pavlova. It was as if he didn't even see the box and it had all happened too quickly for me to do anything.

"One side was perfect. The other was flattened. I had to cut it in half. I still can't believe that on a deserted railway platform - deserted apart from me - this elderly gentleman chose to sit right next to me ... It shows there are so many situations in life, especially when you are travelling, where you simply cannot plan and control everything. Much of the time you just have to improvise."

And that, say the cast of Roger Hall's Four Flat Whites in Italy, is why travel is such fertile ground for humour. It combines the possibility for confusion, conflict, disaster and romance with situations familiar to anyone who has been on holiday abroad - and that's a fair few of us.

In Four Flat Whites, culture vulture librarians Adrian (Devenie) and Alison (Darien Takle) dream of travelling to Italy for a "holiday of a lifetime" when their good friends and potential travelling companions pull out. It looks as if their holiday dream will remain just that until their new neighbours, Harry and Judy (George Henare and Annie Whittle), offer to step in.

But in accepting the offer have Adrian and Alison turned their dream vacation into the holiday from hell? The couples argue about everything from what time to get up, how to split the bills and whether to stick with Alison's rigid sightseeing schedule. The comedy proves the truth of the cliche that it's not the destination but the journey that counts.

"It's not just a travelogue," Henare says, "but an exploration of the ways in which the characters come to terms with other things in their lives. Like all of Roger's plays, the writing will turn on a dime. There will be a moment of absolute farce which suddenly becomes something very moving, very poignant and very real."

Hall, a seasoned traveller, picks his words carefully when explaining what inspired his latest play. "It is possibly linked to discussions around splitting restaurant bills - and you don't have to travel to find yourself in that situation - but I don't want to go any farther.

"I think travel can be stressful enough with your nearest and dearest but it can be even more so with people you don't know.

"Essentially the play is about human relationships."

The four leads are no strangers to Hall's work, having appeared in many of his other comedies - several of which use travel as the backdrop for bigger stories about relationships and Kiwi character.

Similarly, director Janice Finn is a Hall veteran who has directed Take A Chance on Me, Who Wants to Be 100?, Spreading Out and his pantomime Cinderella.

Comfortable with Hall's tendency to mix laugh-out-loud moments with acerbic observations about the bittersweet nature of life, they agree Four Flat Whites perhaps places a stronger emphasis on the design elements of a production.

The characters travel from New Zealand to Venice to Rome and back up to Tuscany. Backdrops, based on hand-painted postcards from Italy, will glide across the stage, leading Devenie to describe the production as true "recessionary travel".

Much is made of the characters having to lug copious amounts of luggage around as Adrian and Alison, especially, have come prepared for any eventuality.

In keeping with the cast's sentiment that everyone has a travel experience they'll recognise in Four Flat Whites, Devenie shares another of his tales complete with a re-enactment.

"When I first went to Italy, I was in my 20s and I had no idea that a backpack was best so I took two great big suitcases and a bag," he says, miming a struggle with luggage.

"I know every crack in the pavement of Italy because I spent my entire time looking down as I dragged my cases around while my wife, who sensibly had a backpack, admired the scenery, the amazing buildings. I desperately wanted someone to steal my bags but there was no chance. They were too heavy."

Performance

What:Four Flat Whites in Italy
Where and when: SkyCity Theatre, June 11-July 4; Bruce Mason Centre, July 9-11, then to Hamilton, New Plymouth, Tauranga