ZEN DOG: SATORI
Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
01/11/2016 - 05/11/2016
Production Details
KARMIC TALES OF RECOVERY, REDEMPTION AND SUDDEN ENLIGHTENMENT
Actor Mick Innes (Housebound, Home and Away) returns to THE BASEMENT with the follow up to his beloved solo show Zen Dog… 3 years later, after surviving a heart attack and two major strokes. He will perform on the very stage where he had his heart attack – an opportunity for the audiences to hear firsthand, with his usual charisma and sense of humor, how it all went down. And how his near death gave him a new life. After a long recovery process, Mick is back on the stage doing what he loves.
With a career spanning 3 decades, both in Australia and NZ. His credits include classic Australian films like Bootmen, Praise and Two Hands (alongside Heath Ledger) and most recently Son of a Gun, starring Ewan McGregor. On TV he appeared in Home and Away, All Saints and Echo Point – where he played Martin Henderson’s father. Back in NZ Mick has appeared in a range of roles in TV and film: Housebound, Netherwood, Amazing Extraordinary Friends, Super City, Sunny Skies as well as the lead in TV3’s Hounds.
ZEN DOG: SATORI is a completely new show, focused on family and some ghosts from his past – many confessions and cathartic moments can be expected. It is an important story due to its simplicity: we take the audience on a journey, using humor and raw honesty. Mick is a fearless performer with a very interesting life, so this show will appeal to anyone who likes great stories.
This is a fundraising season for a documentary (currently in production) about his life – an unique opportunity – like a Kickstart campaign – and all proceeds going into the making of the film. Mick and Roberto already started work on the documentary – an exciting visual film about Mick’s life, combining animation, interviews with Mick himself, some of his family members and a very honest story telling approach. The end result will be cinematic and touching.
ZEN DOG: SATORI is a show for everyone.
“There’s no bullshit with Innes and the show (directed and sensitively crafted by Roberto Nascimento) reflects this: water, asthma inhaler on the table, a few lights and the stories of Mick Innes. There are no tricks here. Everybody has a story in them, but Innes really is a survivor whose tale is intriguing, moving, and a gem. A stellar effort from a born storyteller, a generous offering. I want to know more. Mick’s Epic Odyssey is one to see.” – Vanessa Byrnes, Theatreview
Zen Dog: Satori plays
Basement Theatre, Auckland
01-05 Nov/ 6:30pm
Tickets: $18 – $20
Bookings: www.basementtheatre.co.nz or phone iTicket 09 361 1000
Theatre , Solo ,
Unpretentiously compelling
Review by Nik Smythe 02nd Nov 2016
Mick Innes’s redux/sequel to Zen Dog, his autobiographical theatre piece of three years ago (which I did not see), takes place on a plain bare wooden stage with black walls, a small table for a water bottle and – what’s the other thing? Some sort of liqueur? No, it’s a tube for his asthma ventilator, which he uses first thing on entering to his slow blues-rock intro sting.
It bears the hallmarks of a stand-up show without claiming to be so, thus not burdened by any mandate or expectation of humour as such. Nevertheless there is plenty of comical banter and a helping of ironic wit permeating a somewhat abridged account of a clearly eventful life: “I wasn’t born with this face; I earned it.” Furthermore it carries soul-bearing confessions, insightful anecdotes and a subtle, pervading sense of mystical wonder.
Mick begins with a sobering story that began at the last performance of his original Zen Dog, on his sixtieth birthday in the same venue, where he unwittingly suffered a stroke soon followed by a heart attack and the resultant near-death experience. This calls to mind flashbacks of his childhood in Christchurch, leading into tales of his work and love lives in Australia during the 80s and 90s, and so on, each episode naturally flowing into the next.
Besides Innes’s compelling command on our attention, there is little to critique theatrically; the input of director Roberto Nascimento virtually undetectable. It’s impossible to ignore the cathartic element: Mick isn’t just telling us his stories, he’s reliving them, at times plainly affected by their undeniable poignancy.
The narrative inevitably contains a roll call of numerous important people in his life, including fellow practitioners you may recognise, as well as family, friends and lovers who in various ways have helped shape Innes into who he is today. The details really are best heard in his own voice, his own words, delivered with a kind of immediacy as though simply reminiscing over a cup of tea.
Lighting states continually alter in colour and intensity, augmenting just about every shift in narrative and tone throughout, and we cannot help but be drawn into it. Ultimately, I can’t recall ever seeing a less pretentious piece of theatre.
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