The little play that could
Dionne Christian talks to the New Zealand writing team enjoying global success
It was meant to be a short story — a handful of performances in the stockroom of Wellington’s Arty Bees Books, no room for more than an audience of about 12. At a squash. “We’d just finished a show called Broken River,
which had a cast of 10 and a kinetic light show in it; we thought we’d do something really tiny,” says Hannah Smith, one half of Trick of the Light Theatre, “but it just really connected with everyone.”
And, before Smith and theatre collaborator Ralph McCubbin Howell knew it, their oneperson show, The Bookbinder, was bigger than anything they’d made before.
Audiences stayed around after discussing what they liked — and didn’t — about the tale of an apprentice bookbinder whose sloppy work sees him trapped in a story he must undo to escape. They remembered children’s books and fairy tales and the dark and the haunting.
For those who enjoy stories like Coraline and Monster House and their fairy tales with more Grimm than Disney, it isn’t hard to see the appeal of the original tale, eerily told with shadowplay, paper craft, puppets and music composed by Tane Upjohn Beatson.
The NZ Fringe Festival gave The Bookbinder
a Tiki Tour Ready Best Theatre Best in Fringe Award. That prize, a trip to Australia to appear in other festivals, wrote the next chapter in the show’s story with an International Excellence Award at the Sydney Fringe.
It was easy to tour, with only some lights, a gramophone and puppets to pack, so it travelled to some of our smallest towns and busiest regional art festivals; on to Scotland for the Edinburgh Fringe; to South Africa and the length and breadth of Australia; dates in the United States and elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
McCubbin Howell has fond memories of the Salisbury International Arts Festival, where they played in the Longleat House Library shortly before Sir Elton John performed on the lawn.
There have been more festivals around New Zealand, performances in schools and even in book binderies. Yes, there are still a few around and, says Smith, bookbinders have come to the show, offered their advice and laughed at some of the “niche terminology” — used sparingly — that the rest of the audience doesn’t get.
So many places and tours and, thanks to its success, Smith and McCubbin Howell can now work full-time on making theatre. The latest show, Troll, was performed at Wellington’s Capital E National Arts Festival; The Road That Wasn’t There tours the country in April and May.
But The Bookbinder has never been to Auckland. Until this year’s Auckland Arts Festival, where it’s one of the headline acts for young people — it’s recommended for those 8+ — and adventurous adults.
“We’ve been waiting for the right opportunity,” says Smith. “We were often touring ourselves to other places.”
“And it had to be something really special to justify the delay in doing it right rather than the stripped-back version,” says McCubbin Howell, adding that at Q a suitably bookish atmosphere will be created.
The benefit is that the show has constantly evolved; as Trick of the Light have learned new tricks, these have been incorporated into a show which is different every time it plays depending on audience reaction.
So, why has such a small show become a big success? Smith and McCubbin Howell credit that to drawing on myths around books and stories themselves, our collective love of mysterious and magical tales but, they add, “the real truth is that we don’t know.”