Bloody nightmare, with laughs

WHO YOU GONNA CALL: Sisters Ana Biddle (left) and Danielle Biddle strap on their tool belts to build the Graeme Nicoll-designed set for Musical Theatre Gisborne’s upcoming production of The Addams Family. The sisters both trained in carpentry at EIT and in 2018 took up apprenticeships with RJ and RA Building Ltd. They are now applying the skills to theatre set construction. Picture supplied

by Mark Peters

From the success of his stage design for Unity Theatre’s production of Calendar Girls to creating a set for Musical Theatre Gisborne’s upcoming The Addams Family, Graeme Nicoll has become the master of finding economic but innovative design solutions.

The main scene locations for The Addams Family are the Addams’ house interior, a big hall and the graveyard/park.

In the musical comedy, the Addams family plan an annual gathering of all family members — living, dead and undecided — to celebrate what it is to be an Addams.

But the kids are growing up, and parents Gomez and Morticia now face the nightmare of change. So, when daughter Wednesday invites her new, normal boyfriend, and his parents, to dinner, the Addams’ attempts to act normal end in chaos.

And that’s just Act 1.

There’s a lot to fit on stage in this off-beat take on 19th century Gothic. The show’s macabre and bizarre ambience is accentuated by the architecture style used for the set, the selected colours and creative lighting, says Nicoll.

“The Lawson Field Theatre has many physical design restrictions for putting on a play, so I had to rely on ‘suggestion’ and some creativity to accommodate the 14 locations (if taken literally) of The Addams Family’s 22 scenes,” says Nicoll.

“I split the set into halves and used movable flats, like big doors.”

Sisters Ana and Danielle Biddle are in charge of building the set while every Wednesday morning, retirees and MTG stalwarts Dave Newsham, Jim Campbell, Stephen Jones and Chris Hudson help with set construction and prop-making.

Restrictions around the Covid-19 crisis meant MTG had to postpone the planned April show. The company is now back on track and will stage the production at the Lawson Field Theatre from December 11-19.

Having returned from Melbourne earlier this year to work on the show, director Belinda Campbell remained in her hometown for lockdown and has since decided to relocate to New Zealand.

Lytton High School teacher Sean Scanlen has taken over the role of musical director from Anna Marie Fenn who was unable to continue in the role due to other commitments and the change of performance dates.

Scanlen moved to Gisborne from Whangarei in January. As it happens, the last production he was involved with was a Whangarei Theatre Company production of The Addams Family for which he was also musical director.

Scanlen will conduct the production’s five-piece band which will perform live onstage for the show.

Anita Zwart, a dance teacher with Nadine Antoinette School of Dance, is choreographer for the production.

Along with the crew, the show’s cast of 18 have remained committed to the production, says MTG president Heather Derby.

“To keep the music and dance alive in our minds and bodies before rehearsals formally start in early October, we meet once a month on a Sunday afternoon to revise the music and dance that we had spent six weeks learning before postponement.”

Tickets for The Addams Family will be available from September 1 and can be bought from Gisborne i-SITE or