Palmerston North’s Basement Company to perform ‘The End of the Golden Weather’

George Brannigan (left), Nina Kereama-Stevenson and Olly Dale are members of the Basement Company.

This September, the Basement Company is performing the legendary New Zealand play The End of the Golden Weather by Bruce Mason. In the lead-up to this play about innocence, childhood and growing up in small-town New Zealand, we are profiling three Centrepoint Theatre youth company members each week.

George Brannigan

George, 18, has been involved with theatre since he was young. He enjoys the connections he makes, particularly in the Basement Company, and says this inspires him. The End of the Golden Weather represents how a child grows and starts to see the reality of the ‘real’ world, which can be a hard thing to accept. George hopes to one day play the role of Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast.

Olly Dale

Olly, 20, loves to see the reaction of the audience after the cast and crew have worked hard putting a show together. He also loves the life-long connections you make in theatre and being able to escape reality for a few hours when he’s on stage. He finds it fascinating the themes from this 1960s play are still so relevant now. Olly dreams of one day playing Beetle Juice from the musical of the same name.

Nina Kereama-Stevenson

Nina, 21, is in her second year at Basement. She gets joy out of making the audience feel something and challenging their views. Nina says even though the play was written in the 1960s about the 1930s, a lot of the characters and themes are so relatable to people today. “We still feel for the characters and relate to them on a personal level. Either through childhood memories, hardships faced or the relationship of the whānau that we see.” Nina hopes to one day play Eurydice in Hadestown. Nina loves the emotional journey and struggles that character gets to portray in song.

The Details

What: The End of the Golden Weather

When: September 7-9, 7.30pm

Where: Centrepoint Theatre

Tickets: Centrepoint.co.nz or ring 06 354 5740.