Comedy duo plan a Work Do
Rose Matafeo and Alice Snedden tell George Fenwick how they have put their energy into a Work Do
ROSE MATAFEO is in crisis. The comedian finished a gig a few hours ago on a Friday night in London and went to reward herself with KFC — only to discover they were out of chicken. “F*** me,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Chatting to Matafeo as she begrudgingly throws together spaghetti instead, it’s clear the lack of chicken is one loss stacked against a year of wins for her and friend, colleague and writing partner, Alice Snedden. Both completed critically acclaimed runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with Matafeo winning the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award, an accolade that has launched international careers such as Hannah Gadsby’s (of Nanette fame). That’s not to mention their successful podcast Boners of the Heart, Snedden’s hilarious show Bad News, and the third season of Funny Girls, which aired earlier this year.
The duo are wrapping up their colossal year with Work Do, this year’s edition of the Basement Theatre’s iconic annual Christmas show.
Written by Snedden and Matafeo and directed by Leon Wadham, the play takes us back to 1997, where Go Away Travel, a failing travel agency, is throwing its office Christmas party. The idea was actually the second that Matafeo and Snedden had for the show (they’d initially tried to write a humid, heady Southern drama in same vein as August: Osage County) but the comics realised they’d struck gold when they turned to late 90s Auckland.
“There’s so much that’s funny about that decade and that period of time,” Snedden explains over coffee in Auckland. “SPQR was cutting-edge, the hero parade was huge, so it’s kind of just paying tribute to that.”
“It’s very fun to play with the nostalgia of 97,” says Matafeo. “It’s a little bit of a love letter to Auckland as well, because both me and Alice grew up literally a field away from each other (in Ponsonby) and didn’t realise that we’d grown up so close to one another all our lives.”
The decade is different, but the environment is timeless; the particular awkwardness that comes with office Christmas parties provided the perfect kind of recognisable comedic fodder Matafeo and Snedden were after. With a master cast of Brynley Stent, Kura Forrester, Byron Coll and Jodie Rimmer (“The script could be s*** and they’d still make something good,” says Snedden) and a rotating selection of celebrity DJs, including Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Kanoa Lloyd and Jack Tame, the show promises to be a riot — and in the writing process, it took on an unexpected twist.
“It got way more hornier,” says Snedden. “That’s what I would say about the play — it’s very horny. All the characters are having these sexual awakenings of sorts, whether it be about their sexuality, or just wanting to have sex, or their sexual past or whatever it is.”
With Matafeo based in London and Snedden in Auckland, the pair had to be smart about working on the show together on opposite sides of the world. The writing process, Matafeo says, was “basically Alice doing most of the work and then me coming along for the ride”.
“Poor Alice has had to deal with my interesting-slash-lack-of work ethic sometimes,” she says. “It’s been a great experience, but thank God I have Alice because I could never have written my first play without her busting my ass.”
Snedden speaks highly of Matafeo. “I love writing with her,” she says. “I just think she’s so funny. I think she gets my sense of humour as well, and she’s also very good at being like, ‘No, that doesn’t work’.”
Matafeo agrees. “I genuinely think sometimes we have the same brain. I think I know how she would react, or what she’d say in certain situations or how she’d finish a joke. It’s synergy that is a very rare find with comedy writing partners, and we’re going to milk it for all it’s worth before we have a huge falling out and never speak to each other again.”
Matafeo is based indefinitely in London, where she’s continuing to perform and build her profile off the back of her historic Edinburgh win. The comedian is reflective and modest about the award in what she acknowledges is a “horrible stupid New Zealand modest way”.
“I don’t know what it all means,” she says. “It’s been a year where I’ve gone, ‘Oh yeah, I actually do comedy, I’m a comedian.’ It was the first year I actually felt like this is what I do for a job.”
Snedden, meanwhile, is preparing to join her mate in London. With the same UK agent as Matafeo, she’s ready to expand her horizons beyond the New Zealand comedy scene. “I’m just trying to broaden how many different people I can work for and how many different projects I can work on,” she says. “I love New Zealand — best case scenario I would just stay here and do work here, but I just don’t think that’s realistic.”
Both comics are thankful to be exercising new muscles as their careers flourish — such as with Work Do, their first play. It’s also special for their show to be sending off a year of events celebrating the Basement’s 10th birthday.
“The Basement really changed my life,” says Snedden. “I was working behind the bar while I was studying to be a lawyer. If it wasn’t for that job I never would have met the people in Snort, I never would have got into comedy.”
“I’ve been doing comedy for 10 years, and literally nine of those years, I have done a show at the Basement in the comedy festival,” says Matafeo. “That’s why doing the Christmas show has been such an honour, because for me it’s the best theatre in Auckland, and it feels very much like home.
“There’s no other place in town that would let me have a nap in their green room.”