Wholehearted challenge for performers

Massive Company is taking its show The Wholehearted around NZ.

Sitting on a chair, eating a freshly made sandwich, Bree Peters leans back and declares that anyone who thinks the play she's in is simply about love - its pursuit and how it changes us - is wrong.

"That's too wishy washy," says Peters, best-known to New Zealanders as Shortland Street villain Dr Pania Stevens, "it's a show that puts a rocket up your bum."

Why?

She says it's because The Wholehearted is more about how life isn't a straight line - "it's a swirly, strippy string" - and it's best to embrace and celebrate all its various facets.

"I feel when you shut those off, that's when you get stuck in those moments rather than feeling them and moving through them onto the next thing," she says. "When you are vulnerable like that, you can make connections."

The Wholehearted has brought Peters, daughter of NZ First leader Winston Peters, back home from Los Angeles. She re-joins Massive Company, one of the country's most innovative theatre outfits, to tour the play all the way down to Dunedin.

The story was created the Massive way, with the cast starting with the kernel of an idea; in this case, talks by US academic and author Brene Brown about the power of vulnerability and what makes a person wholehearted.

"It's the whole idea of being seen, being deeply seen, understanding that struggle is an important part of life and, yes, we all fall down but it's the getting up that's important," says director Sam Scott.

The six-strong cast then shared their own experiences, as well as stories from the community, to explore what living a "wholehearted" life is all about. Scott says the show received a great response during a short season in Mangere and Auckland City last April.

"We like to tour our shows where possible, we don't like to make them and then put them away," she says. "A lot of people said there were really great ideas within it and, as time has gone on, they've said, 'gosh, we need this show more than ever because of its subject matter'."

Among other stories in The Wholehearted, actor and co-director Scotty Cotter shares his thoughts about wanting to connect with people he doesn't know; Pat Tafa, who recently finished appearing in TV3's Westside, talks about how to get unstuck from a rut and young performer Villa Lemanu Junior bares his soul in a moving vignette about being dumped via text message and ignored on Facebook.

They've already performed in Whangarei, now it's onto Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Christchurch before finishing at the Fortune Theatre in October. No, they're not bussing around the country and that's a good thing, says Peters. Days off at home between performances let them miss one another, rest and refresh.

She says the chance to reprise a production, alter it if necessary to reflect changing times, is an opportunity she welcomes. While the cast has changed - Milo Cawthorne is in; Theo David, now performing in Melbourne with Pop-up Globe, is out - the themes haven't.

"A friend of mine, who had been going through something quite tricky, came to see it and he was in tears afterwards, saying, 'I so needed to see that!' It has made me go, 'I have to start making some choices'," Scott says.

"It doesn't do that in a horrible challenging way, but I don't think you can leave without thinking 'am I living the life I want to be living?' If you have any doubt about that, it will give you a little tickle."

Lowdown:
What: The Wholehearted
Where & when: Herald Theatre, Saturday - Tuesday, September 12