Roger Hall's Winding Up on stage at Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North

Darien Takle as Gen and Mark Hadlow as Barry in Roger Hall's latest play, Winding Up. Photo / Danielle Colvin

Sir Roger Hall is one of New Zealand's most successful playwrights and his comedy Winding Up, about retirement, opens at Centrepoint Theatre on Saturday.

It stars Mark Hadlow and Darien Takle as retirees Baz and Gen. With grandkids to wrangle, a cruise to plan and Barry's preoccupation with plotting his own funeral, the reality of the so-called golden years is explored.

Co-produced with the Court Theatre in Christchurch, this is the ninth Roger Hall
play that Centrepoint Theatre's artistic director Kate Louise Elliott has either
acted in, directed or produced.

Winding Up is a sequel to Hall's middle-age romance Conjugal Rights about dentist Barry and solicitor Genevieve.

"Having directed Conjugal Rites with Alison Quigan and Tim Bartlett in 2011, I
feel very comfortable with the characters Barry and Gen," Elliott says. "I've worked with them through their toughest time – and I'm very pleased they stuck it out to come back
for Winding Up."

Hadlow (MAMIL, The Hobbit Trilogy) says the play provides a hilarious yet insightful look into the joys of the golden years.

"It's about us. We love laughing at ourselves and our wonderfully Kiwi
peccadilloes. With an ageing population, so many of the issues in the play that are
confronted by Barry and Gen are topical and provide a window into the
complexities of getting older. It's funny, poignant and above all honest."

Takle is celebrating 50 years in the business as an actress, singer, writer and director and like Hadlow, she has just appeared in Winding Up in Christchurch.

A New Zealand Herald review of Auckland Theatre Company's production of Winding Up last year summarised: "Roger Hall delivers an amusing and occasionally elegiac swansong for the bickering couple who delighted audiences in the 1990s in Conjugal Rights."

The Details
What: Winding Up by Roger Hall
When: March 27 to April 24
Where: Centrepoint Theatre
Tickets: Available through Centrepoint's website and box office.