April 5, 2013

THE SHOW MUST GO ON IN AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY’S BUSIEST WEEK OF THE YEAR  

Due to the fire at Maidment Theatre, Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Midnight In Moscow will now preview on Monday 15 April at the NZI Room in the Aotea Centre and run through until May 4. 

“These dates will enable most people to attend the show on the same date as they had already booked,” says Auckland Theatre Company General Manager, Lester McGrath.

“Actors all remember seeing the Apollo show in the NZI Room, it was sweet,” says actress Robyn Malcolm. “We’re all keen and excited about exploiting the improvised feeling and immediacy of this ’empty space’.

“The major concern for us was finding a venue which was an easy alternative for audiences. This whole situation really emphasises the need for Auckland Theatre Company to have its own home,” says Malcolm.

Midnight In Moscow opened at Christchurch’s Court Theatre and ran for two performances before the season was cut short by the February 2011 earthquake. The set for the show still stands in the old Court Theatre at the Christchurch Arts Centre. 

“This is a great New Zealand play and deserves to go on. There’s more twists, turns and espionage getting the play mounted than there is in a John Le Carre novel. We’re beginning to think there is a secretive organisation bent on sabotaging ‘The Russian Play’.  This is the most popular show in our subscription season and we hope the people of Auckland rally behind our cast of troupers in their temporary home,” says Auckland Theatre Company Artistic Director, Colin McColl. 

Meanwhile, Antonia Prebble arrives home from Los Angeles to begin rehearsals on Monday for The Glass Menagerie, with our guest American director and director of the Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, Jef Hall-Flavin. An announcement regarding the location for the season of The Glass Menagerie will be made shortly.

The Company will also honour its touring commitments with two shows heading out on tour.

Arthur Meek’s award-winning one woman show On The Upside Down of the World, starring Laurel Devenie, will go on at The Festival of Colour in Wanaka, where extra shows have had to be added after the first shows released sold out.

Dave Armstrong’s Kings of the Gym will also travel to Nelson, Westport, Ashburton and Queenstown before heading to Wanaka for its short season at The Festival of Colour.

“There is never an ideal time for disaster to strike,” says McGrath, “but during the Company’s busiest period of the year this has added a great deal of extra work for us. However, we are now on top of the situation and charging forward. 

“This is show business; the show must go on.”