The Pain & The Passion at Westpoint Theatre

By FRANCES THOMAS

I know. You intended to go to that much-trumpeted show from overseas, but you're not sure any more. Instead, think about heading to this homegrown treat before you blink and miss it.

Almost everything is right about this play. Fittingly staged in a small hangar-style theatre in Motions Rd, it tells the story of Richard Pearse, our pioneer bloke-in-a-shed aviator, and his determination to realise a dream.

Book-ended by a 1953 scene in a Christchurch psychiatric hospital where Pearse ended his days, the tale is predominantly set in 1903, the year of his first flight.

Okay, a centenary piece. But don't dismiss it. This production is funny, sad, informative but not didactic, and moving without being mawkish.

John Palmer shines, not only as the lonely and thwarted elderly Pearse, but in bringing us the younger character, by turns single-mindedly engrossed in his work and puppy-doggish in his enthusiasm for the inventions of the era. His loving family surely provided the country's first "innovation nest".

The car was barely invented and the boy wanted to fly. Evocative music and old photos projected on the wall between scenes help hold that thought.

A risk with biography is that other characters may be sidelined or undeveloped, but playwright Sherry Ede makes no such mistake here.

The pain and passion of others, even Kate Shepherd's determination in attaining her goals a decade earlier, are all seamlessly threaded into the plot.

Without exception the acting is fine. Diane Lamont stands out as the ever-encouraging Sarah Pearse, comfortably and unselfconsciously the colonial mum. Ngaire Jones as Pearse's girlfriend Debbie, Elizabeth Swan as sister Annie, and Shirley Eliott as neighbour Mrs Evans, warmly portray women each with their own yearnings, while Martyn Scott and Justin Grannall are spot-on as brother and father respectively.

Nial Greenstock's wonderful comic turn as a hotel waiter was impressive, as was the replica plane for the world-famous-in-NZ first flight.

However, the T.S. Eliot quote at the end jarred a little. The propeller on the plane stopped in the wrong place. Budding inventors could handle more science, but I'm scraping to find fault.

The poignancy of Pearse's story, his accomplishment unapplauded in his lifetime, eerily intruded into the real world as the play ended. We all clapped, but there were too few in the audience to adequately reward the cast.

Local theatre doing it the Pearse way: on thin air and passion.

* The Pain & The Passion at Westpoint Theatre (Motat), Western Springs

When: Remaining shows Wed-Sat 8pm, Sat 2.30pm