At Palmerston North's Centrepoint, actors juggle multi roles and roller skates.
Laura Hill and Andrew Laing
Notwithstanding the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 1983 was a mixed year. Robert Muldoon was Prime Minister, Lorraine Downes became Miss Universe, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited with their son William, the Betamax video format was losing ground to VHS and roller skating was still cool.
Writers Lucy Schmidt and Stayci Taylor have picked out the best to create Hits of ’83, set at a roller-skating rink and during a reunion at the emblematic Gristle Wilson High School. The cast includes Taylor, Laura Hill, Rachel Henry, Kate Louise Elliott, Andrew Laing and Jon Pheloung, with Schmidt directing.
The actors are all convincing in multi roles, including their 14-year-old selves, as well as cameos as teachers, bullies and an electrifying pugilistic nun. Elliott’s fine vocals and Pheloung’s sustained on-stage switch between pretentious French spouse and diffident science teacher are standouts. Much of the action takes place on skates, while such anthems from ’83 as Total Eclipse of the Heart, Every Breath You Take and Sexual Healing are delivered. It is high entertainment. The play depends on the reunion of three women and the issues raised – rivalry, failures and shared big moments – are familiar and universal.
After 37 years, Centrepoint remains the only professional theatre in New Zealand outside the four main centres. The theatre has a track record of fostering new acting and writing, and a survival strategy that includes staging clever and popular plays like Hits of ’83 at least once a year. This one will be a magnet for girls’ nights out and office Christmas parties.
HITS OF ’83, by Lucy Schmidt and Stayci Taylor, directed by Lucy Schmidt, Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North, until December 17.