Court once again on the boil

Press, 24 November 1982, Page 19

Court once again on the boil

“Hot Water," a new farce from the New Zealand playwright, Roger Hall, will open at the Court Theatre on December 4. With “Hot Water” Hail' returns to the examination of the middle aged of our middle classes and maintains the knack of making New Zealanders laugh at themselves. His previous works, “Glide Time,” “Fifty/Fifty,” “Middle Age Spread,” and “Prisoners of Mother England,” have been seen throughout New Zealand and around the world. “Middle Age Spread” was voted the best comedy of the year in London’s West End and has since been made into a film.

“Hot Water” is set in a typically New Zealand situation, New Year at the bach at Taupo. Harriet and Arthur enter exhausted from their postChristmas dash from Auckland to the annual week’s hard labour of leaking taps and overgrown lawns. They find their bridgeplaying partners have gone kiwi-fruiting and a venison farm is installed on their boundary. Their quiet week-end is further shattered by family money worries, Maori land rights, deer poachers, a rebellious granny and a myopic, libidinous American tourist. “Hot Water” sees the return of Rawiri Paratene to

the Court to play Rangi, “the son-in-law.”

Elizabeth Moody plays the cantankerous granny. Others in the cast are David Copeland, Mary Spencer, Fleur Tudor, Bruce Phillips, Wickham Pack, and Martin Duffy. The direction is by Stuart Devenie, who directed “Fifty/Fifty” last year. Roger Hall is currently in the United States teaching and observing at theatres and universities. He returns to New Zealand in May to write the stage version of “Footrot Flats,” to be presented by the Court for Christmas of 1983.

Because of daylight saving, performances of “Hot Water” will start at 8.30 p.m.