When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, the classic heritage sport of competitive woodchopping was still pretty prevalent in the popular culture of this antipodean neck of the woods. The New Zealand Axemen’s Association website tells us it dates right back to the 1870s. I gather it’s still going strong in the rural communities, though not as visibly celebrated by the wider media. Timberrr takes place in 1940, when co-writer and cast member Matt Chamberlain reckons it was almost as popular as rugby. 

Chamberlain’s principal character, the typically gruff kiwi farmer and world-champion axeman Ned Murphy, is the undisputed hero of the community in Tahora, Taranaki. It seems the only people who don’t worship him are his arch-rival Whata Grey (Tyler Kōkiri) and Whata’s younger half-brother and protégé Gilbert (Chamberlain). Housekeeper-with-benefits Ann (Serena Cotton) is clearly fond of Ned but not backward in being forward and frank, about their future together for a start. 

Into this fairly simple, complexity-averse existence enters spirited young townie Billy Newport (Kōkiri), a wide-eyed neophyte searching for the legendary Ned for reasons soon made clear, though deeper secrets will take longer to surface. An unironic lover of such supposedly effeminate pastimes as theatre, dance and emotional self-expression, Billy’s arrival marks a profound shift in many people’s life and direction, not least his own. 

This of course occurs within a transformative period at a national and global level, as conscription for fit young men to fulfil their duty in the escalating war in Europe is well underway. 

Between them the cast share 15 roles. Serena Cotton bears almost twice as many as the other two with an eclectic array of male and female personalities, including both her colleagues’ principal characters’ love interests. Her skill in balancing broad distinguishing traits with nuance and grounded sensitivity is consummate. Co-writer Chamberlain’s handful of personas are closer to caricature, especially party-girl Eunice and the macho proto-bogan antagonist Gilbert. 

Of the three, Kōkiri has the most genuine depth and warmth, testament to the actor’s naturally versatile empathy and perhaps also the playwrights’ formation of his particular set of roles. Under the adroit direction of the other co-writer, Damon Andrews, the trio’s diverse styles blend seamlessly into a credible population of curious individuals, infusing the script’s innate wit with mime and good old wholesome melodrama. 

Among his narrative functions, Billy is essentially our conduit into the microcosm of Tahora and it’s eclectic, often eccentric residents, as we learn much of the history and gossip as it is told to him. He also singularly utters a handful of seemingly anachronistic expressions (“Best. Day. Ever.” for instance), perhaps to underpin that direct relatability? Or to highlight the narrator’s unreliability? Or maybe just for a cheap laugh? 

While not denying the reality of any darker racial socio-politics of the day, it’s not the focus of this narrative. For all their differences and disputes they are a close-knit integrated village, wholly accepting of each other’s basic humanity. Idealistic? Perhaps. But also arguably not completely unheard of for much of grass-roots humanity throughout the ages. 

I fear I might be overthinking what is primarily a hilarious, heartwarming tale of family and community set against the backdrop of a beloved century-and-a-half old sporting institution. Not without drama obviously, indeed Billy’s pacifism versus Gilbert’s sense of patriotic duty is the definition of a political subplot. But Timberrr isn’t preaching any specific ideologies, besides perhaps the importance of family and community. 

The atmospheric contribution of Andrew Foster’s set design can’t be overstated. Worn wooden shearing-shed boards with two symbolic poles telegraphing (telegraph poles?) the inevitable climactic showdown, being just about the only non-mimed props. The only other couple of exceptions are used in a handful of ingenious shadow-play pieces projected through the screen across the stage’s rear. Henrique Beirao’s astute lighting design plays into Foster’s resourceful set beautifully. 

The uncredited generic one-per-player outfits and lack of any recorded sound design are perfectly appropriate limitations within the overall style of the work. Also practical, with the ability to travel far and wide and perform in the halls and woolsheds of any rural town where the revered traditions of competitive woodchopping are still observed. 

As it plays out the central story is a fairly typical follow-your-dream / coming-of-age formula; with no significantly subversive or unexpected twists. Our fascination hinges on the quietly insightful commentary, delightfully humorous exchanges and, fundamentally, rich and engaging characters, delivered in spades (or axes to be precise). 

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Joy! Yay! Centrepoint Theatre really is back in action, after the Covid suspension. We’ve had Misery, a fine production of a tough American drama, with two star actors and one supporting cast-member. Timberrr…! is just the sort of show our community theatres should also be presenting, as often as possible: a cleverly-scripted Kiwi play, skillfully directed, well-acted and very entertaining.

Still, it focuses on an aspect of life unfamiliar to most city-dwellers, the rural sport of competitive wood-chopping, and is set back in about 1940, when the axe-men still came out of a career of hacking down primeval forests. Who among city-folk would have heard of Ned Shewry, from the small and remote northern Taranaki town of Tahora, who had been the World Champion Axe-man before the First World War for several years?

The story of this play’s central character, Ned Murphy, amounts to a re-imagining of the real Ned’s later life, still a bachelor yet with an amorous housekeeper, and confronted with the unexpected arrival of a young man claiming to be his son, begotten in a long-forgotten one-night-stand. This Ned is a hard man, multi-skilled, and ferociously competitive. Billy, the son, is gentle, compassionate, and initially comically awkward and ignorant in relation to anything rural. Yet he is not lacking in courage or keenness to learn.

Timberrr…! was scheduled to appear at Centrepoint earlier this year, but had to be postponed. It had a production at Circa inWellington in April, with the star-actor Stephen Papps in the role of Ned Murphy, among others. It has a cast of three playing about fourteen characters, several of them cross-gendered. In this production the director is Damon Andrews, one of the two co-authors, and the other, Matt Chamberlain, takes on Ned, among others, including the man-hungry Eunice. Serena Cotton as his feisty housekeeper, plus, and Tyler Wilson-Kokiri, as Billy, plus others, are reprising their Circa roles, with equally manifest assurance.

With no costume-changes, everything is carried by the acting. The wood chopping is mimed with not a single axe in view. Andrew Foster’s set is ostensibly simple, with a stage floor of wooden slats, and just two upright logs, not ostensibly hacked at till near the end – the other logs are ostensibly horizontal and mimed. Equally mimed are riding a stallion named Wild Bastard, riding a bicycle, and taking off clothes for a swim. A semi-opaque screen upstage allows for back-lighting of actors passing behind it. Otherwise changes are wrought by Henrique Beirao’s lighting. It all adds up to a very successful production, that can be warmly recommended.

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I wondered if Timberrr… might be too blokey for me: a play about 1940s Taranaki and the world of competitive wood chopping isn’t something I would usually race off to see.

However, I’m pleased I was open-minded. Timberrr… is clever and funny, with brilliant acting and some serious themes. It takes us on a nostalgic ride to Taranaki at a time when military conscription had just been introduced to New Zealand, and gender roles and the rural-urban divide were acute. [More] 

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Two stylised timber posts, known as blocks in woodchopping circles, stand on a timber-slatted stage against a flat blank screen. We could call it austere except the blocks are vertically grooved and the top thirds are the dark red we associate with pou whakairo and wharenui. Intriguing.  

A blare of boogie-woogie big band music signals the start – at last – of Damon Andrews and Matt Chamberlain’s Timberrr…! And what a pleasure it is to see a play rich in character, plot and theme live on stage again!

Originally scheduled to premiere at Palmerston North’s Centrepoint Theatre then transfer to Wellington’s Circa Theatre, insidious Covid flipped it around, so now, after three isolation-related false starts, it has opened at Circa One with a Centrepoint season planned for July/August.

Serena Cotton’s Herb Mclutchy, the first of six roles she will distinguish over the next 90 minutes, welcomes us to the “1940 Putaruru Classic.” Axeman Whata Grey, the first of Tyler Kokiri’s four roles, is up against reigning champion Ned Murphy, the play’s core character and one of four played by Stephen Papps.

A vehemently disputed decision sets up a grudge match and leads to Whata proposing a challenge, for fifty-quid, between his younger brother Gilbert (Papps) and anyone Ned chooses to put up against him. Meanwhile it emerges Ned and his housekeeper Anne (Cotton) have consummated their mutual attraction the previous night but her expectation of what may follow is not shared by him and, unable to fathom the needs of women, he commits a deeply insulting faux pas.  

Into all this, to the 1940s hit ‘Whispering Grass’, prances Billy Newport (Kokiri), a yodelling dancer from Parnell, keen to meet the legendary Ned Murphy and (spoiler alert, except it’s revealed in the publicity blurb) claiming to be his son. Being a typically taciturn and emotionally repressed Kiwi bloke, Ned denies everything but salt-of-the-earth country woman Annie is kind and welcoming, so Ned sets Billy to work on the farm.

When Billy acquaints himself with a horse – sfx provided by actors off to the side – he finds himself off on an unexpected gallop which leads to his meeting Evelyn Hogg (Cotton). The chemistry is instant. But she has a boyfriend: Gilbert Grey. Her compulsively raunchy and randy girlfriend Eunice Mclutchy (Papps) is also attracted to Billy – and to anyone else in trousers.

Adding further tension to these already dramatic circumstances is WWII military conscription (introduced in 1940 when voluntary service proved insufficient) and the search for a shirker who has absconded from his training camp. This mission excites local Constable Keith (Kokiri), who is Anne’s brother, especially when Detective Inspector Starkers (Cotton) arrives from Auckland.

The dramatic undercurrents are entertainingly counterpointed by tree-felling (Ned attempting to teach Billy axemanship); camping in the bush (a brilliant campfire effect); skinny dipping in the river; a bike ride, where mimed bicycles become real in shadow-play; Sports Day events where the chop between Billy and Gilbert doesn’t end well for Billy … culminating in a dance where Billy and Evelyn tango with alacrity to ‘In The mood’ until Gilbert intervenes.

But the call of the Army is strong and the likes of Gilbert and his mate Smash (Cotton) are keen to respond. Their goading of pacifist Billy and the shadow-play consequences thoroughly disrupt the much-anticipated woodchopping contest between Billy and Gilbert. We know how the story must end – or do we? – but the apparent impossibility of a positive outcome keeps us riveted. 

All this plays out through the extraordinarily fluent comedic skills of the three actors on Andrew Foster’s less-is-more set, lit by Henrique Beirao with Amanda Joe operating lights and the astutely selected music tracks. As evidenced by the Sunday performance, director Damon Andrews ensures the clever performance conventions don’t eclipse the thematic import of the story, although a couple of the key turning points could be more effectively marked.

Stephen Papps is a solidly stolid Ned Murphy and suitably snarly Gilbert Grey. While his Eunice Mclutchy veers more into drag-queen effeminacy than credible femininity, his blokes strongly epitomise the masculine ‘values’ the other characters have to contend with.

Tyler Kokiri’s physical and vocal dexterity winningly, and often surprisingly, delineates his Billy Newport, Whata Grey, Constable Keith and a Vicar.

With relative subtlety Serena Cotton achieves impressive distinction between Evelyn Hogg, Miss Anne, Herb Mclutchy, Smash and Detective Inspector Starkers.

All three play random townspeople to boot. It is surprising to realise each has been wearing no more than a collarless shirt, trousers and braces throughout (costumes curated by Matt Chamberlain) adding only their acting prowess to manifest each character.

While in some ways Timberrr…! could be seen as firmly rooted in the past, it is written and produced with a sensibility that is much more contemporary. And the alchemy employed to bring the story to life in our hearts and minds has to be seen to be believed. 

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