Growing old in a Kiwi community

Press, 27 July 1988, Page 15

Growing old in a Kiwi community

“Quirky” ... “airy” ... “funny” ... “lovely” .;. are some of the adjectives used by producer Steve La Hood to describe “Bert and Maisy,” the new TVNZ drama series starting tomorrow night at 7 on One. The seven-parter, which features a top-flight Kiwi cast, has been adapted for television from his play “Bert and Maisy” by the playwright, Robert Lord. Grant Tilly and Alice Fraser take the title roles, roles they first made their own when the stage play was performed at Wellington’s Circa Theatre two years ago. Starring alongside them are Glenis Levestam, Michael Haigh, Ken Blackburn, Katherine Beasley (the former Katy Platt), and Anthony Groser. Playing what La Hood describes as “lovely little characters” are seasoned performers Roy Wesney, Pat Evison, Davina Whitehouse, and Beryl Te Wiata.

“We’ve got them all in what must be the most experienced and most readily recognisable casts ever assembled for a local show.” says La Hood, who

believes these theatrical veterans have given “Bert and Maisy” a live feel. La Hood is reluctant to give away too much of the “Bert and Maisy” plot and will say only that it tells the story of Bert and Maisy Roach, a couple in their 60s, who live in a big house in a small country town called Windsor. Bert is a stalwart of the local bowling club and a keen gardener. Maisy works in a chemist shop and dabbles in oils. Life couldn’t be sweeter until they are persuaded they are too old to maintain their house. ‘Bert and Maisy’s’ essentially about the lives and expectations of older people in a small community where everyone knows everyone else and has done for years. And if age has a value then in this show old represents everything that’s good in the world and youth the not so good ... a reverse of the normally held beliefs,” La Hood says. “To me the most important thing about the series is what’s revealed in the dialogue, the way the characters talk to each other. The relation-

ships are so familiar although obviously heightened to become super realistic. Robert Lord is the only playwright in New Zealand who can make that thin line between laughter and vulnerability work without being maudlin or mushy. “His perception and mine was let’s make something light, airy and funny without laughing at anyone and, at the same time use that as a way of getting under the skin of characters and finding out what really makes them tick.” La Hood says he also wanted a certain 100 k... “a look of New Zealand as we’ve always read about and dreamt it would be. A look of blue sky, green unblemished bush, beautifully cared for homes and gardens, restful bowling greens and charming communities ... like a 30-second commercial type look at New Zealand. "Not that I’m under any delusion New Zealand’s like that, its just that it suits the nature of the programme to go back to that image of New Zealand.”