Cult movie "a result of living in N.Z.’

Press, 10 February 1982, Page 26

Cult movie "a result of living in N.Z.’

NZPA staff correspondent London

For those who have seen the now "cult" movie. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." it may come as a surprise to learn that the creator of this bizzare send-up of horror films considers it to be a “direct result of living in New Zealand in the 1950 s and 19605." Richard O’Brien, who went to New Zealand as a 10-year-old when his parents emigrated. and was educated in Tauranga and Hamilton, has just opened his second film in London, the sequel to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show. ” called "Shock Treatment." This film continues the story of the two main characters from "Rocky." Janet and Brad, into their marriage and life in suburban United States. As yet opinions on the movie have been divided, with newspaper film critics generally slating it. while the film magazines have responded quite favourably. This dpes not worry Mr O’Brien. "I think ‘Shock Treatment' is going to be a slow burner." he said. "It will not be an immediate hit, as the Rocky Horror Show 4 was. It will take time to find its audience. It is a little way out in some areas and it will take the public time to get into the swing of it."

Both of his works are musicals, a field he has had no formal training in at all. "I learnt to play the guitar from Maori friends." he said. ”We never Used to have a sixth string. We left it off because we didn't know what to do with it. Basically the Maori way of playing the guitar is rhythm: it is melodic rhvthm."

The wiry New Zealander - he regards New Zealand as being his home — attributes his being an entertainer to his smaller build and growing up in New Zealand.

"I have always been an entertainer." he said. “Being of small build has meant that I always had to work harder to be accepted. NewZealand in the 1950 s was a very heterosexual society and I needed a ticket, so I entertained in order to be involved."

When he left New Zealand in 1964 for England it was only with the intention of a short stay.

“I never really thought I would stay here for good," he said. "I managed to get a job as a stunt rider and then classes at night school.

"Classes will never teach you to act. You will learn a few techniques but the main value is that you meet people with the same dreams and ambitions as yourself."

He was quite content to remain as a performer until he was fired from the part of King Herod in the London stage production of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

“I decided then to write something that I would like to take part in, and that w r as the beginning of ‘The Rocky Horror Show," he said. It ran on stage in London for seven years as well as many other European countries. The adaptation on to celluloid. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." after a slow start in England, has now become the first audience participation film in America. It has been showing in some theatres for over five years.

“People dress up in the parts of their favourite characters and mime out the play in the aisles as it is appearing on the screen. In the audience people throw confetti in the air. put newspapers over their heads, and hurl slices of toast into the air. ” Mr O'Brien explained.

Whether “Shock Treatment" will inspire quite the same response remains to be seen, but Mr O'Brien is not sitting around waiting for that to happen. He is off to Sydney in a few months to w’ork "on the rehearsals for a Carter Brown detective story for which he is presently writing the stage script, called "The Stripper." Following that it is back to London to the recording studios to cut his first solo album of his own songs.

Any thoughts of returning to New Zealand to live will have to wait. "If I was just a writer 1 would love to go back but as I am a performer first I have to Slav where the market place is." he said.

Mr O'Brien docs ack

nowlwedge that the New’i Zealand he lived in 20 years • ago is now a thing of the past. "I returned for a visit' in 1976 and it was a .very different. more mellow, place. ” he said. "People were. .. much more tolerant. They-r were open to ideas and dif-'f ferent ways of dressing. The .' blinkers they wore when I lived there seemed to have been removed."

When asked of the possibility of writing something about New Zealand he was quite receptive to the idea. “It would have to be some-' thing I wanted to write and not just to sell New Zealand or for chauvinistic reasons," he said. "They tell us that there are only five basic stories and I am sure that New Zealand could fit into one of them."

One of his great ambitions is to act the part of Richard 111 — “he's such an evil bugger."

"I like to act as I like the make-believe." Mr O’Brien g said. “I deal on the fringes of fantasy and reality — a hang-over perhaps from my days as a bodgie boy on street corners in New" Zealand — and I like things that are slightly larger than life. There is no way I am a ’kitchen sink’ actor." “In New Zealand I am thought of as an eccentric and as a result I can say and do the most outrageous things and I get away with it. It’s almost expected of me. It is very tempting to be totally crazy."