[Revised 17 March 2021]

Eps 1 & 2 (Revised from what I wrote 2-3pm, 13 March):

Brilliantly building the unpredictable and heightened saga of the Hataitai Times

Which came first: all-day soap opera improv or binge-watching Netflix series? Either way we are more acclimatised now to such shows as Hataitai Times – playing out right now in 10 x 50 minute episodes, on the hour from noon till 9pm (ending at 9.50pm).

It’s 1976, Muldoon is PM and the Hataitai Times is NZ’s last major suburban newspaper – remarkably, as revealed in episode one, putting out 1^st, 2^nd and Final editions each day! The plot thickens, the characters deepen and relationships twist and turn fast in the first two hours. I’ve stepped out of Ep 3 to file this breaking story – and hopefully will follow up with an update.

Viv Trendy (Christine Brooks) is the overworked Editor who, just two weeks ago, lost her boyfriend to an actual pack of Wolves that roam the Hataitai hills. Insensitive Gossip Columnist Joseph Crows (Sam Irwin) scoffs at her obsessive repeating of this: “We’re a Newspaper, not a Samepaper.” Such it the quick wit that peppers this unfolding epic.

Also not one to let her colleagues forget it, is Reporter Bobbi Hannah (Clare Kerrison) who was a war correspondent in Vietnam. It was so humid in the Mekong she couldn’t write notes so she memorised her stories until she got back to Saigon – but never got a Pulitzer Prize because she’s a woman. It turns out there is unfinished business between her and Lincoln Ipsum (Lyndon Hood), the perfectionist printer. They bonded at Wainuomata High where he mimeographed her early forays into journalism.

The janitor, Faye (Pippa Drakeford) would be ignored if she didn’t keep putting her good ideas forward, Her flaw is that when she discovers there is a Mole at the Hataitai Times leaking stories and headlines to the Miramar Mirror, she blabs to everyone. But Photographer Hemi Olsen (Wiremu Tuhiwai) is in love with her – which she may or may not have been exploiting before she falls prey to the Wolves i.e. [updated] is bitten and somewhat possessed.

It turns out the Weather Man, Barry O’Meter (Jonny Paul) – who used to be the Editor and wants to be again, so contrives to be Lincoln’s assistant in order to sabotage the printing press – is the Mole. And he’s so contrite at Faye’s fate that he swaps places with her in the wolf pack.

Meanwhile the hotshot-in-his-own-lunchtime Ad Man, Keith Grant (Steven Youngblood) has served as the Red Herring, although he is clearly up to no good. (I have to add that Youngblood has a habit of going soft, vocally, especially at the end of sentences which is frustrating.) And often these crucial utterances are drowned out by an emphatic swell in the live music – which otherwise is a strong contribution to the show.

Little Timmy Tattersall (Jim Fishwick) is a The Paper Boy like no other in suburban Wellington (I know – I was one), in that he wanders the streets calling out to sell papers, rather than throwing them into front gardens or stuffing them in letter boxes. And he spruikes the 1^st Edition at 4am, what’s more. His value as the boy who is up with ‘the word on the street’ is recognised by Viv, however.

Also up with most of the play is Bartholomew ‘Batters’ Tatters (Liam Kelly – who is also the ever-attentive musician for the show). And Crossword Compiler Reuben Sandwich (Matt Powell – who also directs the 1^st ep) seems to be up to something more too.

The lead story, agreed at the first of many Editorial Meetings, is an investigation of The Hataitai Deer Hunters – picked up by Bobbi and Hemi, who head off on a Vespa. The team has clearly researched the era (I too had a Vespa) – and I wonder if they have consciously referenced the Vietnam-set film The Deer Hunter (although that came out in 1978) but it seems not.

There are no audience ask-fors in this format but we can trust that beyond the predetermined workplace and characters, everything comes as an instant offer to be accepted, developed and woven into the multiplicity of plot threads. The whole team is on the ball, ever-responsive moment-by-moment as – guided by one of their number who directs on mic from off stage – they brilliantly build the unpredictable and heightened saga of the Hataitai Times.

[2:55pm] I’m experiencing the stress of a soap addict who has missed an episode already so will leave it at that – for now. Who knows what has happened while I’ve been away …

UPDATE (in response to Eps 4 – 10).

Holy …what? Usually when a bomb goes off in the main set with everyone present, it’s the end of year cliff hanger.  But here it happens at the end of Ep 7, with two episodes to go!

When I return for Ep 4, Viv has been deposed as Editor by Faye King who, it will emerge, has bought the paper with the proceeds of her insurance pay-out for being bitten by the Wolves. It also transpires that Hemi’s love for her is brotherly and it is suave Irish man-of-letters Reuben Sandwich who goes on to win her hand in marriage … And Hemi’s affinity with the Wolf pack is deep and abiding.

Also by Ep 4, Timmy the Paper Boy has become the Arts Editor (and I have missed some good satire about critics). Maybe that’s why Timmy’s ‘reality’ becomes more and more surreal. He’s a streetwise Cockney wide-boy who deals in tuppences and farthings even though decimal currently came into NZ in 1967. He claims to know all the streets of Wellington yet thinks you’d get from Hataitai to Mirimar via Ghuznee Street. Is Jim’s Timmy taking too much poetic licence and playing out a different genre than everyone else – or is there method in his departures from reality?

It turns out, yes! ‘Timmy’ is a role that method actor Johnny Topshop has adopted prior to helicoptering off (in Ep 5) to jet away to a film shoot in the UK, set in the 19^th century and directed by Martin Scorsese, no less. (Actually Jim Fishwick has another gig and will be back for the last ep.)

This creates a space for Jennifer O’Sullivan to drop in as an extremely convincing wide-eyed young Vic student, Rhonda, becoming an intern (were they a thing in NZ in 1976?) prior to becoming the editor of Salient next year. Her naivety is exemplified in her writing an exposé of corruption at the Hataitai Times, for Salient, yet expecting this will win her respect and friendship from her HT colleagues. No-one knows – because hey, this is improv – that Rhonda is destined to become a demi-god.

This is bestowed on her by Barry, whose clandestine meetings at the Mount Victoria lookout with formidable Russian spy Tatyana (Christine Brooks) become a major plotline. They met years ago at the Bolshoi and still have feelings … but finally Tatyana’s love for Mother Russia wins out. I don’t think it’s Keith’s treachery vis-à-vis leaking to the Miramar Mirror that makes him a target for Soviet assassination – but when Barry’s attempt, abetted by increasingly shifty Joe, goes awry and others are put in harm’s way, it is Keith who takes the hit. Only as Ep 6 opens to we realise Keith is not dead but in a coma – and this is the start of his slow journey to redemption, after a couple more heroic acts render him comatose again.

When a disillusioned and confused Barry seeks solitude in a Lighthouse to rediscover himself, he comes to believe he is a god – but takes a while to decide whether to be a beneficent or vengeful one. It is he who convinces Rhonda she too is a god, and they both discover they have the power to bring Keith back to life from one or other of his comas.

Throughout all this, Bartholomew ‘Batters’ Tatters at Scoops Bar & Grill can be relied on to serve his customers and listen to their tales, while no-one concerns himself with his loneliness. Despite celebrity columnist Joe elevating Batters to Hataitai’s ‘Most Eligible Bachelor’, it all comes to a head with a conflagration that (if I decipher my scribbled notes correctly) brings the Hataitai Times v Miramar Mirror-cum-Hataitai Deer Hunters (yes, dear reader, they are “one and the same!”) to a head. This event is brilliantly summed up with the flipped phrase, “Today’s fish ’n’ chip paper becomes tomorrow’s news.”

But not all is high, dark drama. The Faye-Reuben love story is a heart-warming counterpoint. Their wedding – every soap opera needs a wedding – officiated by Keith, no less, with Bobbi as bridesmaid and photographed by Hemi who is also best man, allows for reconciliation between Reuben and Barry. Only Joe – forever making clandestine phone calls to the Miramar Mirror – remains on the outer.

There is a moral too, about the futility of revenge, imparted to Joe by Hemi, who has become a font of wisdom based on his understanding of wolf-pack behaviour – notably, the oldest and slowest takes the lead so no-one gets left behind.

A bitter-sweet denouement, at Keith Grant’s funeral, reveals that Faye and Reuben have become parents of twin boys, to be called Keith and Grant. Stories don’t get more redemptive than that!

Along with Liam Kelly’s tireless musical accompaniment, lighting operators Campbell Wright then Tristram Domican maintain a heightened sensitivity to when a scene needs to end, cross-fading to the next.

So why have I written 1,500+ words about a long form episodic improv show that was here the other day then instantly vanished, never to surface again? Because – even though my account only skims the surface of the complex characters, plot-lines and relationships that evolve, aligned to miraculously meaningful themes – I want to give you, dear reader, a tantalising whiff of why such ingeniously created shows are astonishing to behold and well worth your taking the time to witness, next time Soap Factory brings one to a stage near you.
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Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Which came first: all-day soap opera improv or binge-watching Netflix series? Either way we are more acclimatised now to such shows as Hataitai Times – playing out right now in 10 x 50 minute episodes, on the hour from noon till 9pm (ending at 9.50pm).  

It’s 1976, Muldoon is PM and the Hataitai Times is NZ’s last major suburban newspaper – remarkably, as revealed in episode one, putting out 1^st, 2^nd and final editions each day! The plot thickens, the characters deepen and relationship twist and turn fast in the first two hour. I’ve stepped out of Ep 3 to file this breaking story – and hopefully follow up with an update.

Viv Trendy (Christine Brooks) is the overworked Editor who, just two weeks ago, lost her boyfriend to the actual pack of Wolves that roam the Hataitai hills. Insensitive Gossip Columnist Joseph Crows (Sam Irwin) scoffs at her obsessive repeating of this: “We’re a Newspaper, not a Samepaper.” Such it the quick wit that peppers this unfolding epic.

Also not one to let her colleagues forget it is Reporter Bobbi Hannah (Clare Kerrison) who was a war correspondent in Vietnam. It was so humid in the Mekong she couldn’t write notes so she memorised her stories until she got back to Saigon – but never got a Pulitzer Prize because she’s a woman. It turns out there is unfinished business between her and Lincoln Ipsum (Lyndon Hood), the perfectionist Linotype Operator, who wouldn’t go to ’Nam because her wired stories needed to be printed back home.

The janitor, Faye (Pippa Drakeford) would be ignored if she didn’t keep putting her god ideas forward, Hew flaw is that when she discover ther is a Mole at the Hataitai Times leaking stories and headlines to the Miramar Mirror, she blabs to everyone. But Photographer Hemi Olsen (Wiremu Tuhiwai) is in love with her – which she may or may not have been exploiting before she falls prey to the Wolves i.e. is possessed.

It turns out the Weather Man, Barry O’Meter (Jonny Paul), who used to be the Editor and wants to be again, so contrives to be Lincoln’s assistant in order to sabotage the printing press, is the Mole. And he’s so contrite at Faye’s fate that he swaps places with her.

Meanwhile the hotshot-in-his-own-lunchtime Ad Man, Keith Grant (Steven Youngblood) has served as the Red Herring, although her is clearly up to no good. (I have to add that Youngblood has a habit of going soft, vocally, especially at the end of sentences which is frustrating.)

Little Timmy Tattersall (Jim Fishwick) is a The Paper Boy like no other in suburban Wellington (I know – I was one) in that he wanders the streets calling out to sell papers, rather than throwing them into front gardens or stuffing then in letter boxes. And he spruikes the 1^st Edition at 4am, what’s more, His value as the boy ‘on the street’ is recognised by Viv, however.

Also up with most of the play is Bartholomew ‘Batters’ Tatters (Liam Kelly – who is also the ever-attentive musician for the show). And Crossword Compiler Reuben Sandwich (Matt Powell – who also directs the 1^st ep) seems to be up to something more too.

The whole team is on the ball, ever-responsive moment-by-moment as they brilliantly build the unpredictable and heightened saga of the Hataitai Times.

I’m experiencing the stress of a soap addict who has missed and episode already so will leave it at that – for now. Who know what has happened while I’ve been away. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer