Workmates' jibes all part of the fun for Full Monty cast

Jimmy Bovaird says he knows what it's like to be out of a job and down on your luck. Photo / RNZ

By Robin Martin of RNZ

In a case of art imitating real life - or perhaps vice versa - an engineer, an electrician and a pipeline designer are part of a troupe about to tread the boards in an amateur performance of The Full Monty stage play in New Zealand.

The New Plymouth Little Theatre has secured rights to the play based on the 1997 movie starring Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy.

Set in Sheffield in the 1990s, The Full Monty tells the story of six unemployed steel workers who decide to form a male striptease act to make ends meet.

Hāwera engineer Jimmy Bovaird plays the lead role of Gaz, who needs extra money to pay child support so he can spend more time with his son.

Bovaird - whose girlfriend told him to audition - reckons he can relate to Gaz.

"Yeah I can. I have been in quite similar situations. I have been around heavy machinery and done a lot of moving of heavy girders and steel beams and stuff like that so I definitely get that.

"And I have been ... as with most jobs ... I have been made redundant in the past, so I do know what it's like to be out of a job and down on your luck."

The Full Monty's director John Lawson said the play is culmination of five years of work. Photo / RNZ

Bovaird was not too worried about getting his kit off, but it had raised a few eyebrows at the workshop.

"When I first told my boss and I told him I got the lead he was absolutely rapt and very supportive and wanting to bring all the boys along for a work do until I told him it was The Full Monty then he quickly changed his mind.

"I don't think he wants to see me with my kit off. That's something he just doesn't want to see."

An electrician by day, Howard Rozon is playing Barrington "Horse" Mitchell.

Shoulder tapped because of his dancing talent he said learning to strip added to his resume.

"I'm actually okay with that. When I went to the first reading and they sort of said 'we're gonna get you to get your kit off' I said 'yeah, that's fine'. I mean it's just another challenge to the show and it's only right at the little end ... and I mean the 'little end'."

Colleagues have also been talking about his extracurricular activity.

"The funny thing is I've just started a new job and there's a whole lot of ladies down in what we call the beehive, who look after the office side of things, and on the very first day one of them came up and they were like 'oh Howard I hear you're famous and doing a show about getting your clothes off and all that'. And I was like I've only been here five minutes and already famous, so that was quite funny."

Alex Sheehan has a bit part in the play, but she has brought real-life experience to the fore.

"So I think I'm the only actual professional stripper here. And yeah, it's been good fun to watch the guys do it and I had to try and teach them to do it, you know, to do it nicely. Like take clothes off nicely rather than rip them off like. To do it a bit seductively. It's been quite fun teaching them."

She was pretty sure the men would set hearts racing on opening night.

Director John Lawson said putting on Simon Beaufoy's stage play had been the culmination of five years' work.

"I remember just mentioning it to a couple of people here that it would be a fantastic play not realising at the time that the play was actually written and out there and being performed.

"But it was only professional rights so me, Sharren Read and [Little Theatre vice president] Christine King have been chewing at the bit just waiting for it to come out for an amateur theatre and as soon as it did Sharren was in contact. We got the rights and we're the first people in New Zealand to do it."

A Little Theatre stalwart, Sharren had a difficult assignment of her own - costume design.

She said one item was particularly tricky.

"Well maybe the g-strings, because they have to be tearaway, and the trousers. Everything has to be stripped off, so never being a frequent strip show attendee I had no idea how any of that worked."

Sharren Read says designing the g-strings was particularly tricky. Photo / RNZ

YouTube provided the answers, but the g-strings still took five hours to sew - each.

Unfortunately, if you want to see Sharren's handiwork and you haven't already got a ticket - you're out of luck.

The Full Monty, which opens early next month, has sold out an extended run of 22 shows.

In 2018, the Nelson Repertory Theatre performed David Yazbek's Broadway musical version of The Full Monty which is set in America.

- RNZ