PRINCIPAL FUNDERS Welcome Let's face it, climate change and the CORE FUNDERS environment is a pretty serious topic. It takes a first rate talent to reap the comic potential of the subject; Richard Bean has managed that. Long before his huge internationally successful ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS, Richard Bean was astonishing audiences with PREMIER PARTNERS his contrary, audacious, hilarious plays, which one English critic has dubbed 'serio-comedies'. So it’s a great pleasure for us at Auckland Theatre Company to bring you the New MAJOR SUPPORTERS Zealand premiere of THE HERETIC, the fifth play in our FUTURITY subscription season. And it’s a great pleasure to be back at Maidment Theatre, up and running again after the recent fire. The direction of THE HERETIC is in the capable hands of Alison Quigan, one of our Proud to be NZ's Most Awarded Official caterers Winery and Sponsor of ATC of Auckland Theatre Cmpany leading comic actors. Huge thanks to her and the creative design team of John Verryt, Jane Hakaraia, Sara Taylor and Sean Lynch for getting to the heart of this MEDIA PARTNERS unremittingly intelligent, funny comedy. Our cast is headed by the fabulous Jennifer Ward-Lealand, in the comic role of the year. She’s ably supported by Andrew Grainger, Jordan Mooney and Lauren Gibson, and making their Auckland Theatre Company debut Jess Holly Bates and Stelios TERTIARY EDUCATION PARTNER MAJOR VENUE PARTNER Yiakmis. A terrific crop of talent – many thanks to them all. Next up from us at Auckland Theatre Company is The Lion Foundation season of William Golding’s extraordinary LORD OF THE FLIES, adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams. Enjoy. SUPPORTING PARTNERS Colin McColl Artistic Director, Auckland Theatre Company 2013 VENUE PARTNERS Q / BRUCE MASON CENTRE / MANGERE ARTS CENTRE - NGĀ TOHU O UENUKU 2 3 Cast Jennifer Ward-Lealand — Dr Diane Cassell Jess Holly Bates — Phoebe Cassell From the Jordan Mooney — Ben Shotter Andrew Grainger — Geoff Tordoff Director Stelios Yiakmis — Professor Kevin Maloney Lauren Gibson — Catherine Tickell Peter Elliott — TV Journalist “My job is to teach you to think like a Fasitua Amosa — Waheed scientist” says Dr Diane Cassell in The John Burrows, Elizabeth Turner Heretic and through this play we, the and Tyler Warwick — Sacred Earth Militia audience, do just that. We question, prod, explore, undo, and rediscover Creative the world of pure science. Science, Alison Quigan — Director she says, untarnished by politics, John Verryt — Set Designer sponsorship and quasi religious Sara Taylor — Costume Designer beliefs, is fun. Jane Hakaraia — Lighting Designer Sean Lynch — Sound Designer Stepping into the world of Earth Sciences has been like entering a minefield. All around us, ignorance is disguised as expertise and information is reduced to Production a sensational soundbite. But pure science is just that. Pure. Paul Nicoll — Technical & Production Manager The play is also about chemistry in relationships. When a chemical substance is Fern Christie — Company Manager Jade Turrall — Stage Manager transformed as a result of it’s interaction with another substance or with energy, Josh Bond — Technical Operator a chemical reaction is said to have occurred. Gayle Jackson — Wardrobe Supervisor Every new play is a journey of discovery and this is like no other. At first we Natasha Pearl — Props Master explored the daunting world of science, and then we found the explosive world of 2Construct — Set Construction relationships. Some relationships are slow burners and some instant ignition but THE HERETIC was commissioned by Sonia Friedman Productions, we all hope to achieve a dynamic equilibrium. London; first stage production, Royal Court Theatre, London. My thanks to the cast for delving into this complex play and transforming themselves AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS FOR THEIR into scientists. Also thanks to the design team, let by John Verryt, who has guided ASSISTANCE IN MOUNTING THIS PRODUCTION: Michael Hurst, us all with such an assured hand. We have been enthralled with subject of climate Gilly Tyler and Scott Creighton from AUT University, Shelley and change and the wit and skill of the writer. Steve Hughes for the loan of their family Christmas tree, AUT University for the use of their television recording facilities, John Welcome to The Heretic, please enjoy the show. Davies and Unitec School of Performing & Screen Arts. THE HERETIC is the fifth Auckland Theatre Company production for Alison Quigan 2013 and opened on July 18 at Maidment Theatre. THE HERETIC is Director, THE HERETIC, 2013 approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes including a 20 minute interval. Please remember to switch off all mobile phones, pagers and alarms. 4 5 Richard Bean: One Man, Two Strengths By John Nathan physical humour. The show has conquered the West End and Broadway. ‘I haven’t written much recently,” says Richard Bean. “Or, nothing much good, anyway,” Bean adds This is the answer to a question with grumpy sangfroid. He is sitting in a National – “How has life changed over Theatre office with his back to a view of the the past two years?” – that churning Thames. “Normally, I write about two Sit back and for most people in his position plays a year,” he says, leaving four unwritten would be an invitation to say works hanging in the air. enjoy the show how great things are. Life It’s not that Bean hasn’t anything to write. It’s changed two years ago when just that in the wake of ONE MAN’s success, We’re proud to support the presentation of Bean, already one of Britain’s the glamour of film has come calling. He’s under great contemporary works like The Heretic top dramatists, hit the big time commission to write two screenplays, including by Richard Bean. with his comedy ONE MAN, one for James Corden, original star of ONE MAN. TWO GUVNORS. Playwriting has taken a back seat. And for Bean, As a local business, we’re passionate about Based on A SERVANT OF nothing is more important than the next play. supporting our community and helping TWO MASTERS by 18th- He was 42 before his first was professionally Auckland Theatre Company tell great stories. century Italian playwright produced. Previous jobs included baker, Carlo Goldoni, Bean’s inventive occupational psychologist and stand-up version won major best-play Thank you for celebrating comedian. At 57, he might be thinking time awards. He updated the action Auckland theatre with us. is short. from 18th-century Venice to 1960s Brighton and turned “Most writers have a fecund decade in which to Goldoni’s servant Truffaldino, write their best stuff. There are exceptions, like who inveigles his way into two Alan Bennett, but there is no way of knowing jobs, into an English chancer how long your decade is going to last,” he says. called Francis. Bean plays are not easy to pigeonhole. Humour Under the National Theatre’s is key, but it’s not a Bean play if it’s not thought- Nicholas Hytner, farce and provoking. Early works were often populated slapstick are elevated to high by characters living lives of hard graft. But art. But this being a Bean play, underpinning much of the work is an instinct to the audience laugh as hard at give anyone with a lazily arrived at opinion a good © 2013 PricewaterhouseCoopers New Zealand. All rights reserved. ‘PwC’ and ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’ refer to the New Zealand member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. the dialogue as they do at the kicking. ENGLAND PEOPLE VERY NICE tackled continued over page 6 7 centuries of attitudes towards began, ‘I haven’t seen your play but …’ I wrote immigration. back and said, ‘When you see my play, I’ll read your letter.’” THE GOD BOTHERERS took on liberal attitudes towards Bean originally wrote THE HERETIC for actress Islam and the developing world. Kristin Scott Thomas. By the kind of coincidence Perhaps most controversial is playwrights avoid in their plays, he is seeing her THE HERETIC. The orthodoxy perform tonight in a revival of Harold Pinter’s challenged here is climate- OLD TIMES. “She asked me to write a part for change science. The play asks her. But she didn’t think she was right for the what happens to a scientist play’s comic bravura.” The role went to Juliet who questions the consensus. Stephenson. It won its author more best- play awards. “If it was proved that global warming was indeed driven But there is the sense that sometimes a serious by CO2 emissions [for Bean playwright pays a price for writing funny plays: in the jury is still out], I couldn’t the case of ONE MAN, getting distracted by the Plus become any greener. I spent trappings of huge success; in the case of THE get the Samsung GALAXY S4 for $0 £4000 on solar panels last HERETIC, not having his heroine played by the on a $104.34 year and another £2000 woman he wrote it for. Business Smart converting my old Jag to liquid Data plan, on a On our way to the theatre where Scott Thomas 24 month term petroleum gas. It’s a political is performing, Bean is talking knowledgeably agenda based on lousy science about drama. “Great plays reveal the human that I’m having a go at in the condition without being about anything,” he says. play. That and the culture of “David Mamet at his best does that. WHO’S misinterpreting scientific data AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? does that.” to promote disaster. Twenty years ago, it was predicted all Our route takes us through Trafalgar Square, the trees in Germany would where a street performer is pretending to be a Bring your business to Vodafone and get three months be killed by acid rain.