The Second Test

Last week I had coffee with a friend of mine in Eden Terrace. She's a well known film reviewer and being two cynical wee peas in a pod, we both agreed that a film is good if it moves you. It can make you laugh, cry, fall in love, get lost in your own thoughts, anything really, but unless it pushes you emotionally to a place where you weren't, it didn't matter how technically brilliant it was.

A few rotations of the Earth later and I find myself at the Herald Theatre about to watch The Second Test; the moving story of New Zealand's cricket tour of South Africa in 1953 and their response in the face of the Tangiwai disaster.

I'd done some reading and was emotionally prepared. The story that made grown men cry. Ha! Not me. Clearly the people making these claims had never tangled with the likes of my rock solid emotional core. I'm an immigrant. A former employer. A prick. I'd not crack.

Turns out I hadn't read quite far enough as I laughed pretty solidly throughout most of the play. Most of it.

The play itself is raw and intimate, with both the humour and the emotional knock-out punch being delivered delicately by actor/writer Jonny Brugh. A portrait of Kiwi stoicism, strength and sensitivity, it's straightforward but effective and affecting.

Though a one-man show, actual footage from an 8mm camera carried on the 53' South African tour features throughout. That and some clever lighting helped make a relatively small scale production seem a lot larger.

This truly is a Kiwi production through and through. For those looking for a bit of patriotism in their theatre-going experience, this is a must see.

The Second Test is on at the Herald Theatre until February 27th.

So I didn't cry. But I could have.