The play's the thing...

Damn where have I been? Well I've been busy helping putting on a show. A show I co-wrote.

Yes all these years of writing feature films so I could finally break into theatre. It's been a wild ride. And in the process I'm sorry to say I've neglected my little blog and - horror of horrors - lost a follower in the process.

So what's the play about? A romantic comedy... about romantic comedy. Mike and Virginia. Both single. Both competitive. Both lecturers in film studies. Her specialty is romantic comedy, his is monster movies. She thinks he's an arrogant knuckle-dragger, he thinks she's a bitter cow. The very worst thing they could do is fall in love.

The idea for the play started when Kathryn Burnett (who I wrote the play with) and I were taking a car journey and we started having a conversation about whose students liked them better. We were both teaching screenwriting at the time. It turned into a hilarious argument and by the end of the journey we both looked at each other and said - there’s a story in this.

So were born Mike and Virginia two film studies lecturers who hate each other and then fall hopelessly in love. As I said it’s a romantic comedy about romantic comedies so it gave us the chance to explore and deconstruct the way romantic comedies work and have a fun time doing it. Honestly we were laughing until we cried some days working on this show. I know that will make its way onto the stage thanks to the team bringing it to life.

For the record my students like me better.

The plan was to write a play on get in onto stage quickly - movies tend to take years to come to fruition and when they do invariably they've been interfered with more than an attractive altar boy. Doing a play seemed like a fun idea. Write it quick, do some read throughs and get it on stage.

Four years later the play has finally made it to stage. Big houses and some great reviews.

You can read some of them here:

http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=3924 

http://cheeseontoast.co.nz/wp/?p=6239

http://kissmyarts.posterous.com/wrap-mike-and-virginia

http://www.thecommoncritic.co.nz/?p=640

I had some fun helping building sets, sourcing props and music but in the end I was very much on the outside looking in. The play was brought to life by Te Radar our director, the crew, the awesome cast and of course the lovely Kathryn who produced the play. Hats off guys it was a pleasure and a joy to see this story finally brought to the stage and brought so effortlessly to life.


UPDATE:


For an unbiased report of the show (yeah right) check out my friend Sez's blog here.