British actor to bring comedy to N.Z.

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 23

British actor to bring comedy to N.Z.

Ry

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

A British stage actor, Robin Askwith, has turned down a further West End

contract, choosing to make a two-month tour of New Zealand with the sophisticated comedy, “Run For Your Wife,” in which he will be joined by a New Zealand television personality, David Halls.

“I get too cold here running around West End theatres in my underpants in the winter,” said the actor, aged 35, who is best known for his earlier N.Z. tours with “Confessions of a Window Cleaner,” and “Confessions from a Health Farm.”

“The attractions of a summer tour of N.Z. are just too much and I have turned down a request to continue with the show in

the West End in favour of a third visit to N.Z.,” Mr Askwith said.

He will take three other members of the eight-mem-ber cast direct from the West End with him. One is Geoffrey Hughes, better known as Eddie Yeats from “Coronation Street.”

David Halls, of the Television show, “Hudson and Halls” will join them on the tour in what will be his first acting performance on stage. Halls, a friend of Askwith’s since the English actor’s first visit to New Zealand in 1980 when he appeared as a guest on the Hudson and Halls show, will play the part of a policeman in the two-act farce.

“He ends up in a few ridiculous situations, like wearing women’s clothes and getting everything all

mixed up when he comes to investigate reports that I am married to two women,” explained Mr Askwith, who is part-financing and codirecting the show as well as taking the lead role.

“The part is tailor-made for him, really. I’m sure he’ll be a big hit,” Mr Askwith said.

The farce, while similar in style to his earlier shows in New Zealand, is “about as naughty as a toothbrush.” It will require a further three New Zealand actors and actresses to complete the cast.

“What I especially need is a very tall blonde to perform with — but then, don’t we all? Seriously, though, we will want some Kiwi talent to join with us and I will be in Auckland from January 28 to conduct audi-

tions,” Mr Askwith said. “Run for your Wife” has been running in the West End’s Criterion Theatre for 2% years. Mr Askwith, an actor for 17 years, has played the lead role for the last 18 months but says he now suffers from bronchitis and wants to escape for a while.

“It’s all the leaping around on stage in my underpants, getting hot and sweaty, then going out into the cold London winter that does it. I need some sunshine,” he said. The show will open in Tauranga on February 24. Other venues are Hamilton, Auckland, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Wellington (where it will open the Wellington Drama Festival), Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.