New Zealand playwright Dave Armstrong’s latest play Central, currently playing at Circa Theatre, is somewhat of a departure from his previous comedies.  And although there are many comic lines and lots of witty repartee, the writing is erudite and often thought-provoking, covering many topics relevant to New Zealand today.

And while it has little physical action inherent within the script, there is plenty of underlying emotional tension, especially in the second-half, that plays out to great effect in this production. [More] 

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Named for Otago’s wine-making region and set in the clean-lined living area of a flash new dwelling on a vineyard overlooking a lake, Central is at first fresh and light with a touch of spice before revealing a bracing sharpness of insight, a compelling complexity and strong notes that leave a pleasing aftertaste.

Is the internal stone wall in Dan Williams’ excellent set a metaphor: an extension of strong foundations, perhaps? Or the inevitable barrier to fulfilment and long-lasting happiness? It depends which side you’re on. Meanwhile it’s a good place to hang wine awards and there’s plenty of room for more.

Through the opposite wall – the fabled fourth one – we, the viewers, are the view and the imagined view is gorgeous. So too is the lifestyle screenwriter/ director Michael Caughey and his actress partner Cherie Norton are carving out for themselves, as they sample the latest homegrown vintage to be bottled.

Having paid for this slice of paradise by slumming it in Hollywood and hit pay dirt with Michael’s Pimp Action movie (the sequel is now in development), their plan is to make a boutique art movie together. It will star Cherie and is based on her original, deeply dramatic and potentially poetic idea: a woman in her thirties confronts her mortality amid the stunning Southern Lakes landscape.

Cherie is not one to walk, cycle, kayak or garden, as so many well-heeled women do in Central Otago. She swans about in designer clothes, including very high heels, and monitors Michael’s unsolicited mail (note to props: screenplays are thick – 100 pages, often more from inexperienced writers), while awaiting the elusive green light on her film.

Given we find out more about the other three characters than we do about her, and the action winkles out more facets of their personalities, I feel Cherie is underwritten – but Claire Waldron makes her complete, as is, and ensures we care about her fate. And we must, for this play to work. 

The Michael we first meet seems gentle, amiable and principled, despite having left his wife and two sons back in the USA. But he does find the need to prove himself mountain-biking with his macho mates, when he’s not fielding phone calls from LA or making calls to his townie lawyer mate about what a couple of ‘cowboy’ housing developers are up to. Should he step up – back into the cesspit – to save the Pimp Action sequel when it hits trouble?

His Hollywood producer, Kurtsman (I’m guessing at the spelling), clearly represents everything a self-respecting human being, let alone artist, would want to escape from. Except he’s the enabler. He has the power, the influence and the connections. He also issues interfering ‘notes’, aka demands for rewrites, to long-suffering screenwriters hooked by high fees.

How far should Michael go to keep Kurtsman happy and advance his own interests, not least when dealing with potential investors in his and Cherie’s pet project? Tom Trevella navigates the nuances with alacrity. Anyone who has been to a film industry conference or symposium will recognise the truth in his character.

Meanwhile Brian Dunstan is building the deck Cherie has asked for. Brian’s a local with his finger on the proverbial pulse. He too has had his share of marital misfortune, sees his son in the school holidays and copes as best he can with what is effectively seasonal contract work. And he too has his eye on a long term goal. Gibbing all the buildings in a proposed new housing development is as holy a grail for Brian as stardom with creative control is for Claire.  

Alex Greig nails this role decisively. His Brian, honouring the quality of the writing, offers a masterclass in changes of status, both within the world of the play and in the perception of the audience. Despite Dave Armstrong’s own chosen profession, I sense a strong bond between him and Brian Dunstan.

The fourth character is the casual cleaner, Karen Martin, who is also a barmaid in some tourist resort pub. It turns out she is a formidable ‘southern girl’ – or is she? She is certainly multi-skilled but … to reveal more would be a spoiler.

Harriet Prebble is so convincing in every iteration of Karen, not least with her very authentic Southern drawl, that she – Karen – clearly has a future as an actress, let alone as a (spoiler averted).

So much for the well-wrought characters and plot. What Central is really about, beyond its immediate circumstances, is endangered species. The metaphor is presented in the form of a Cromwell Chafer Beetle, suspended in a glass dome as an ornament to be admired, as long as it’s not alive and scuttling. It becomes a powerful weapon, not physically but in debate, in a moment that wins a magical hush in the auditorium as we process its import.

Affordable accommodation is also endangered, as are home owners at lower socio-economic levels, workers in command of their own destiny, artists who retain creative control, mid-career actresses in leading roles … Thematic cohesion is a mark of excellent play writing and Central has it in spades.  

There are also a number of highly entertaining and dramatically powerful pay-offs from astutely seeded set-ups: the Brian v Michael, Karen v Brian and Michael v Cherie confrontations to name but three. Then there’s the scene where Michael explains his relationships with various projects through marriage v mistress metaphors. In the context of its happening, it is highly charged – and this, too, becomes the set-up for a payoff that leaves us playing out future scenes in our active imaginations.   

Director Conrad Newport has worked with his team to ensure all the qualities of the writing are honoured. We are drawn in and held – i.e. entertained – and after the plentiful laughter has subsided, we are left with immediately pertinent questions to chew on. The pristine, natural environment v affordable housing throws up the most obvious conundrum. We may also ask if sustainable happiness and lasting fulfilment should be on the endangered list, or was it ever thus for humankind?

Fortunately well-crafted contemporary plays that resonate beyond themselves are not endangered, as long as we have the likes of Dave Armstrong writing them, producers, directors, designers and actors like these and production houses like Circa Theatre to bring them to fruition.

Don’t put Central off to the side then forget about it. It’s well-matured, vintage Armstrong, and ‘drinking now’ as the vintners say.  
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For the record: Central arose from Dave Armstrong’s 2011 sojourn in the old Bannockburn Post Office as part of the Department of Conservation and Creative New Zealand’s Wild Creations project. It was workshopped by the Auckland Theatre Company in 2014 and premiered at the Wanaka Festival of Colour in 2015. 

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