Horseplay

Horseplay is an Auckland Theatre Company offering during the Writers and Readers Festival. It chronicles a fictional meeting between two of New Zealand's best known writers; James K Baxter and Ronald Hugh Morrison. It is, in short, the literary academic's wet dream.

Anyone who knows anything about, or has read anything from, either writer will be well equipped to pick up the allusions, the in-jokes and the overall cleverness & wit of the play. Unfortunately I still consider myself a foreigner despite having lived here for the last 13 years, and know nothing about and have read nothing from either of these local literary giants. Thus, I will be forced to give me you my take on the play; that of a self-confessed layman.

In the play, a critically-brow-beaten Morrison recognises Baxter as the latter walks along the road on the outskirts of Morrison's home town of Hawera. He decides to seize his moment; picks Baxter up as if he doesn't recognize him and sets about "out writing" the man by spinning him a twisty-turny story about his home town and the supposedly savage inhabitants. As the play develops we learn more about both men and their diametrically opposed lives and styles of writing.

I'll be honest, by the time the intermission came I felt that I had overreached by attending and that everything in the play would be a little over my head. I laughed at the funnier lines (I'm not a complete moron!) but I wasn't getting some of the inside jokes I would normally expect to be privy to.

By the time the play finished however, I'd found myself several times on the verge of profoundness. Something in the lines that the two characters spoke would reach out and touch me. Leave my thoughts lingering. Nothing profound or ground breaking on my part of course, but enough to touch me for a moment.

I could be completely wrong of course, (it has happened once before) but as I left I remarked to my friend/chauffeur-for-the-evening that I thought the joy of the play was that it lent both characters something that they'd never had; Baxter's more poetic and romantic, almost abstract and decorative turn of phrase was lent and earthy, grounded feeling, while Morrison's straight-talking, crude and coarse turn of phrase achieved a sense of flight and afforded something almost nearing a beauty.

The ultimate melding of the two styles can be found near the conclusion of the play when Baxter forces Morrison to rattle off a poem for him to take down. 'Ode to Hawera' is both blunt and stirring.

Tim Balme and John Leigh both turn in excellent performances which are sure to entertain. Special mention should also go to the lighting and set designers whose work is as well crafted as it is subtle and therefore liable to go unmentioned.


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For myself I'd give Horseplay three winnie's. For the brighter and better-read among you, four. In either case I'd suggest you check it out for yourselves - it will be playing at the Maidment Theatre until May 29th. By all means, let me know what you think.

For another take on the same performance, why not check out this post from Vaughn Davis.