Back to bach and barbie

From left, Maria Walker, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Paul Barrett and Michael Lawrence in The Bach. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

The Auckland Theatre Company's 2004 season of Stephen Sinclair's play The Bach nearly sold out before its opening night as the company's subscribers clamoured for tickets.

This year looks like the ATC could have a second sell-out season on its hands - tickets for the play are selling fast.

And confident of having a hit, the ATC is taking the play on the road. After its limited Auckland season, the cast and crew head south to Christchurch, then up to New Plymouth, for short seasons in the cities' respective arts festivals.

Reprising her role as career fiend and discontented wife Sally is Jennifer Ward-Lealand, and the play is once again under the direction of Sarah Peirse. But joining them are three new cast members - Paul Barrett, Michael Lawrence and Maria Walker.

The Bach is a savagely funny dissection of middle-class, middle-aged white New Zealand in the first years of the millennium.

Brothers Michael (Lawrence) and Simon (Barrett) meet for the first time in years at their family bach in the Coromandel, the scene of countless precious childhood memories. Michael, a disenchanted booze-hound journalist, is home from London making yet another attempt to revive his career as a serious writer. Simon, a less than high-flying lawyer, is in a troubled marriage.

When the brothers are joined by Simon's wife Sally (Ward-Lealand), and her young colleague Hana (Maria Walker), a comedy of modern manners ensues.

"The play is exquisitely New Zealand, and offers an intelligent exploration of both marital and fraternal relationships, with great insight and skill," says Ward-Lealand.

"Four big personalities are pushed together in the isolated location of the beach and a very, very small bach," says director Peirse. "And these characters all have considerable flaws. The comedy and the drama of the piece comes from the intensity of the setting, the physical proximity, and the conflict between the characters. Stephen Sinclair's voice distils fairly contemporary issues next to perennial problems. In one fast-paced comedy. A really quick, sharp, black comedy," says Peirse.

The pace will keep the actors on their toes - this play is a marvel of theatrical multi-tasking. Not only is there the usual mix of lines, cues, props and movement, but this cast is charged with preparing, cooking and eating a meal each night.

John Parker's set is highly realistic, evoking the traditional Kiwi bach, with the detritus of years of family holidays - and complete with the aroma of sizzling steak filtering through the theatre.

"Acting and cooking at the same time is a bit like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach," says Barrett. "But it's not as though we are making a souffle or anything. This is steak, veges and potatoes."

"It's all exquisitely timed," adds Ward-Lealand. "We learned that the hard way last year. We have to think of things like turning down an element so the sizzling doesn't drown out the dialogue. And it all has to be ready at the right time."

Peirse and Ward-Lealand say audiences loved the bustling, the cooking and the realism of the set in last year's production. Barratt believes the realism is a frequent characteristic of New Zealand plays.

"Audiences tend to love naturalistic, detailed stuff, and a lot of New Zealand plays are written that way. You find a lot of contemporary English theatre is quite different, quite spare. But ours tends to be busy, proppy and realistic. It would work very well on television."

All the cast and crew feel The Bach is a play that would travel well, be it in a small-centre national tour, or overseas. They believe its New Zealandness is its charm, but also its devastating insights into 21st-century relationships and issues.

"One of the things I love about this play is all the discussions it starts," says Ward-Lealand. "Sometimes you can walk out of a theatre and totally forget what you have just seen. But I walk out of doing this, and I see groups of people having great debates about what they have just seen. That's got to be good."* The Bach is at the Maidment Theatre, June 25-July 2