Playwright Albert Belz won the 2023 Adam NZ Play Award for Hyperspace, a comedy set in the 1990s when every self-respecting fitness fanatic leapt into aerobics.
Hyperspace’s big hair, “tits and teeth in rhythm” dance routines, and fluro leotards are a long way from the serious drama of Belz’s first plays in the early 2000s, but he says he’s found his niche writing comedy drama: “That’s my jam.”
Perhaps it’s because the 51-year-old, who’s now koroua to two grandkids, needs to find things that make him, and us, laugh. Diagnosed with arthritis as a teenager, Belz recently moved to Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, because the climate is better for his health.
It’s all change for Belz (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pokai). As well as a new address, the move marks something of a turning point in his career. Although Belz qualified as a teacher in 2015, he’s never taught high school students – apart from during his training – but now he’s the new drama teacher at Darwin High School.
Albert Belz, why did you make Hyperspace?
I wrote Hyperspace just after the 2021 Covid lockdown because I wanted to write something big, happy and bouncy to welcome people back into the theatre.
What’s it about?
It’s a sequel to my 2019 play Astroman so, let’s call it Astronman II. I never intended to write a sequel, because Astroman wraps itself up nicely, but we were coming out of Covid and I really wanted to celebrate theatre again. This story started to take over.
I write a lot more comedy drama these days than I do serious drama. There are strong elements of serious drama within the comedy, which probably makes it more powerful. You can make people cry in a “New York second”, but to make them laugh... well, that’s harder, so I enjoy the challenge of writing comedy dramas and I get much more satisfaction from laughter than I do from tears.
Astroman is about a kid called Jimmy Te Rehua who’s really into videogames, and his sister, Natalie, was a side character but we knew she was a dancer. Hyperspace is about Natalie who’s trying to make it big in the aerobics world.
Why set it in the 1990s?
It could be any decade that’s 20 or 30 years ago. Any writer worth their salt knows it’s good to have a laugh but also to reflect. Audiences love laughing – well, audiences with money who are my age – and reflecting on the way things were 20 or 30 years ago, and having a sing-along with the tunes they grew up with. Look at Grease, released in the 1970s but set in the 1950s. It’s looking back through rose-tinted glasses at a rose-tinted memory.
I knew I wanted to write something big and I wrote the overview several times, which is always part of my process. I don’t touch a script until I have in my head what direction it’s going in. Originally it was about a young woman who was going to be a stand-up comedian because I love comedy, but that wasn’t working because stand-up comedy is very intimate, even if you’re on the biggest stage in the world.
It wasn’t right for what I was aiming for and then I thought, “dance” so, I started researching 1990s style dance and some classic US aerobics stuff popped up. I thought, “that’s beautiful,” and that same afternoon, with this idea running around my head, [choreographer] Jack Gray, who’s a Facebook friend, started posting these old school performances, from the 1990s, of him doing aerobics. I was like, “sold”, and aerobics it was.
Once I’d written it, Jack was one of the first people I got hold off and asked if he would mind choreographing it and, much to my delight, he was as excited about it as I was.
Were you aware of aerobics in the 90s? Did you ever do it?
I was aware of it but as far as my young self was concerned, I was way too straight and cool for it in the 90s! Weird, though, heaps of my mates were into it but never told me. It’s all come out since I wrote the play and I was reminded while researching it just how big aerobics was. It was even on TV; the World Aerobics Champs and NZ was big on the world stage.
Why are you living in Darwin now?
I moved because of my health. I’ve had arthritis since I was a young teenager and it’s progressively getting worse. In 2021, I was in hospital in unbelievable pain. It was the first time I’d ever passed out because of pain so I needed to go back in and get it back under control.
My body reacts really well to heat and I just love the heat. When I was living in Melbourne, I was the only guy who would be wearing jeans and a hoodie in 40-degree weather, and I’d get a lot of stick for it, but it just makes me feel better.
Being in the water makes a huge difference but last year, in Auckland, I couldn’t use the local pools because the damn floods knocked them out of action and even when they re-opened, it was with limited opening hours. I love swimming.
Doesn’t it worry you, though, that there are crocodiles on the beaches in Darwin?
No, not at all. I’m more of a pool than a beach person.
Can you can write from Darwin?
I’m actually intending to concentrate on teaching for the first year. I qualified as a teacher in 2015 but ended up teaching mainly tertiary students.
Last year, I renewed my teaching certificate because the economy wasn’t so hot and I thought it was time to go back to my back-up plan. My brother, Maurice, is a teacher in Darwin and he said, “come on over”. Since I’d already decided to get back into teaching, hearing this was like manna from heaven so, I decided to give it a crack and work out the details later. Sure enough, though, I got the gig [at Darwin High School].
I’m thinking of making Astronman a trilogy. I have started writing a third one several times but haven’t been pleased with it. I’ll figure it out sooner or later. I just have to wait for that moment.
