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DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20050623T080000
DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Auckland:20050702T170000
DTSTAMP:20260416T044942
CREATED:20250424T024125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250705T025809Z
UID:2799-1119513600-1120323600@bctt.org.nz
SUMMARY:Blood of the Lamb
DESCRIPTION:Mid-year 2005 the Troupe presented a short season of two small cast New Zealand plays. Both plays were presented with actors and an audience of about 50 on the Muritai stage. John Marwick produced Bruce Mason’s Blood of the Lamb using a traverse setting with audience on two sides of the action. \nThe play won awards in the Wellington District Theatre Federation Full Length Play competition 2005 for: \n\nBest equal direction in drama (John Marwick)\nOutstanding female actor (Rowan Macrae)\nOutstanding best young female actor (Elspeth Harris)\n\nCast & Production Team \n\n\n\nHenry\nRowan Macrae\n\n\nEliza\nJoanna Hulme\n\n\nVictoria\nElspeth Harris\n\n\nOboe\nRachel Cashmore\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDirector\nJohn Marwick\n\n\nProduction\nSandra Gillespie\n\n\nSet\nBruce Caddy\n\n\nStage Manager\nFran Baldock\n\n\nCostumes\nCarol Thompson\n\n\nProps\nJulia Stuart\n\n\nLighting\nPeter Baldock\n\n\nSound\nPeter Baldock\n\n\nFront of House\nYvonne Grey\n\n\n\nThe play was presented in February for a two-day run in Wellington’s Gryphon Theatre as part of the Wellington Fringe Festival. Here is the press release: \nPrize-winning Revival of Bruce Mason’s Last Play\nMedia Release for Fringe production  at Gryphon Theatre\, Wellington – February 2006 \nAudiences at February’s Fringe Festival will have a rare chance to see Blood of the Lamb – the last play by foremost New Zealand playwright Bruce Mason. \nThe play\, first performed 25 years ago\, was described by Mason biographer David Dowling as his ‘most complex\, daring and satisfying’ play. \nThis production had its first run in Eastbourne last year. It won best drama\, best actress and best young actress prizes in the 2005 Wellington Theatre Federation full-length play competition. \nThe play is set in 1979\, but much of the action takes place in the 1950s: ‘New Zealand at its bursting zenith.’ \nIt looks at strong\, adult and contemporary themes and deals with attitudes to sexuality that are as relevant today as when Mason wrote about them – even if New Zealand has changed dramatically in the half-century since the events that are recounted take place. \nIt is a powerful\, complex and humorous production that weaves sexuality\, family relationships\, truth and the appearance of truth into a challenging and thought provoking drama. \nEwen Coleman in the Dominion Post said the production ‘brings Mason’s play alive\, working up the dramatic moments with power and emotional intensity.’ Nerissa Moore\, competition adjudicator said it was a ‘most satisfying evening of theatre.’ \n\n2005 Blood of the Lamb – Bruce Mason44 photos\n	\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n		\n			\n				\n			\n		\n\n	 \n	\n\n\nWhat the Critics Said\nWomen’s work for a new generation\nREVIEWED BY: EWEN COLEMAN DOMINION POST 25 JUNE 2005 \nReview of Eastbourne production \nThough he is considered by many as the doyen of New Zealand theatre\, little is heard of Bruce Mason these days\, and even less of his plays. Therefore it is pleasing to see Butterfly Creek Theatre Troupe give his last major work\, Blood of the Lamb\, an airing. \nSubtitled Cosi Fan Poche – thus do a few women – it was originally commissioned by the Court Theatre in 1980 with two specific women in mind for the leading roles of “Henry” and Eliza and so it is a big ask of any theatre group to emulate these two unique and demanding roles. \nAnd though this production is not without its fau1ts mainly in the traverse staging which denies much of the audience many moments of watching facial expressions when continually looking at the actors in profile\, it certainly brings Mason’s play alive\, working up the dramatic moments with power and emotional intensity. \nAnd while almost drowned at times by Mason’s eloquence and erudite writing\, especially once the main point of the play has been reached\, the story of how Victoria returns home from Australia for her wedding only to find that ft’s not Eliza but her stepfather “Henry” who is in fact her mother\, it is still an intriguing play. And though socially we have moved on a lot in the 25 years since it was written and the themes of two women living together and making their way in a male-dominated world stretches credibility at times\, the play still has many relevant and redeeming features. \nDirector John Marwick has assembled a strong cast of three women for this production\, each handling Mason’s quick-witted repartee with reasonable confidence\, bringing out much of the emotional turmoil each is going through as their story unfolds through the continual barrage of metaphor and allegory. \nRowan Macrea’s rough butch and bawdy “Henry” contrasts and compliments well Joanna Hulme’s homely and pedantic Eliza\, while Elspeth Harris portrays well daughter Victoria’s hard edge which slowly softens as the play progresses. \nDOING BRUCE MASON PROUD\nREVIEW JOHN SMYTHE WWW.THEATREVIEW.CO.NZ \nReview of Gryphon production \nA rare opportunity to see\, rather than read\, a Bruce Mason play comes with the Butterfly Creek Theatre Troupe’s production of his last play for stage\, Blood of the Lamb – a Wellington revival of last year’s Eastbourne season. Commissioned by the Court Theatre\, it premiered in 1980 then toured the country and went to the Sydney Festival the following year\, where I first saw it in a cavernous old theatre with appalling acoustics that required the cast to overplay what is essentially a very intimate\, and highly verbal\, piece. Foolishly\, I blamed the play. \nAchieving credibility is the play’s big challenge. We are asked to believe that a girl grew up believing she had a mother and father when both of them – clearly to us in the audience – are women\, even if one does dress as a man. Sure\, Victoria spent most of her childhood in boarding school\, from the age of six. Sure\, Shakespeare’s plays and many operas\, both comic and tragic\, involve women masquerading as men. And sure\, our own history embodies real-life cases (see Lorae Parry’s 1996 play Eugenia\, about a woman who passed herself off as a man in the early 20th century). \nMaybe Mason subtitled his play ‘Cosi Fan Poche’ (thus do a few women)\, called his lesbian couple Eliza Higginson and Henry Higginson\, and described it as ‘a three-part invention in homage to W A Mozart and G B Shaw’ in order to emphasise its reach went well beyond itself. And it does. Set in real time on the patio of Higginson Lodge in Rangiora\, its sweep through a couple of decades of fast-changing New Zealand society both Pakeha and Maori\, compared and contrasted with the great classics – and Australia (well\, Sydney) – is epic. \nBut to take that as a cue to over-theatricalise the ebullience of the playful text\, richly articulated and replete with classical references\, would be a mistake. Its two and a half hour stretch (plus interval)\, consisting mostly of story-telling to explain how the present came to pass\, would soon pall and reek of pretension if we didn’t believe in\, and feel empathy for\, the three women involved. If we don’t tune into the very high stakes that compel the story-telling\, the play is lost. \nHappily director John Marwick and his astutely-cast actors do Mason proud. As conversant and comfortable with the verbal style as seasoned actors of Shakespeare are\, they keep firmly focused on the emotional truth of each moment. Thus we willingly suspend our disbelief of a Henry (Rowan Macrae) got up as Charlie Chaplin and Eliza (Joanna Hulme) sewing pearls on a bridal veil as they prepare for the return of their prodigal daughter\, who ran away five years ago to Australia and is now returning with her Aussie-Italian-Catholic swain to get married. What hooks our interest is not so much Henry’s manic behaviour and Eliza’s studied calmness\, as the source of the agitation that underpins it. \nIntrigue also surrounds what Victoria (Elspeth Harris) is up to. When she arrives from Christchurch\, stroppy\, smart-tongued\, yet yearning for something she cannot articulate\, and calls Henry “Dad” and Eliza “Mum”\, the questions this raises demand our continued attention. It is her question\, “Who is Gladys Mary Talbot?” – a name discovered on her birth certificate – that provokes the unfolding of the all-too-credible truth. Gothic the stories may be\, as ‘Vix’ exclaims\, but they stand as a vivid exposé of the phallocentric cultures\, both Pakeha and Maori\, that were so actively challenged throughout the 1960s\, 70s and well into the 80s. \nThe journey from the Dio boarding school where the women first bonded as friends\, through the landed gentry’s high country sheep station where innocence was lost in the blood of a needlessly slaughtered lamb\, to the subsistence settlement in Tolaga Bay where the plan was hatched for the refugees’ future survival\, and on to the haven of North Canterbury market gardens and a growing career in flowers and food\, is vividly painted by Mason in richly-toned text. How it has been for Victoria and why she ran away\, and the rationale behind the couple’s idiosyncratic lifestyle\, also emerge to answer our pent-up questions. \nIf there is one part Mason might be challenged on\, it is his preoccupation with “who has the clarinet?” in the lesbian relationship\, and what he wants to imply by having Henry play one so badly (off stage). On the other hand\, this may be seen as a comment on the pressure the women felt to play out the hetero gender roles in public. And they do agree to drop the pretence and both come out as women at the wedding\, albeit with Henry in a trouser suit. But Henry’s final appearance is in mourning suit drag. Maybe the point is that it’s been such fun\, she won’t easily relinquish the make-believe. \nProof that all three actors have got it right comes with the credibility of Victoria’s final acceptance of her true mother. It’s a hard-won resolution and all the more touching for that. Blood of the Lamb has taken us on one helluva ride through humanised history and culture\, and Rowan Macrae\, Joanna Hulme and Elspeth Harris have excelled in keeping us with them all the way.
URL:https://bctt.org.nz/show/blood-of-the-lamb/
CATEGORIES:Bruce Mason,Elpeth Cotsilinis,Joanna Hulme,John Marwick,Rowan McRae
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