Play ready to push boundaries
Nelson playwright Justin Eade says he took a bit of a risk with his new play about cricket.
‘‘Plays on cricket haven’t been that successful before,’’ he said.
‘‘Cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea, they either find it boring or they really love it.’’
But like a free-scoring batsman, Eade threw caution to the wind and decided the cricket field would make a good spot for some drama.
‘‘I just have always been really interested in cricket, I’ve really come to love the game.
‘‘There’s a lot of talk going on between the players, and the cricket tragics and all the drama.’’
Eade’s new play 67 off 52 features two longstanding feuding Black Caps batsmen who are thrown together in a World Cup Cricket final against Australia with New Zealand eight wickets down, still needing 67 off 52.
Add a sledging Aussie wicketkeeper, a long suffering South African umpire, match fixing allegations, deliberate runouts, mid-pitch arguments and a TV audience of 1 billion people, and you have a combustible mix threatening to explode.
Eade said his play was all about ‘‘mateship’’, illustrating the friendships cricket players from around the world have with each other, despite being competitive.
‘‘It’s absurd and there’s a lot of bickering, but really they’re all good mates.’’
In the play, actors Paul McGregor, Archie Smith, David van der Velden, Nick Gastrell, Tom Logan and Judene Edgar all suspect each other of match fixing.
‘‘Hopefully people will enjoy the human drama, conflict and comedy,’’ Eade said. ‘‘It allows us to see the relationships that we don’t see on television.’’
He said the play worked its way up to ‘‘a definite climax of tension’’, but he didn’t want to give away too much.
He had been writing the script for the past six months and after a lot of rehearsals it was finally ready to be shown to the public.
It had been difficult to choreograph all the runs on the Theatre Royal stage, which will be turned into a condensed cricket pitch.
But director Hugh Neill had done ‘‘a fantastic job’’ and a cricket expert had come in to teach the actors the proper shots.
‘‘In a way it’s almost ballet with all the moves,’’ Eade said.
‘‘The actors will be playing cricket shots without the ball so no one in the audience gets hit.’’
is on at Theatre Royal from tonight to December 16 at 7.30pm. Tickets $23 via Theatre Royal.