JANE YONGE
Acclaimed director Jane Yonge is tasked with bringing to life a new work inspired by the pandemic, as the Auckland Theatre Company makes its return to the stage.
Bringing to life a new theatrical work inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jane Yonge confesses to feeling apprehensive as she prepares to sink her teeth into her latest directorial project. “I’m super-nervous; I have massive imposter syndrome,” she says. “I get this every time I do a show.” Like most high achievers who experience feelings of inadequacy, Yonge need not fear. As an award-winning theatre director who holds two master’s degrees and has worked in arts advisory and advocacy, she has plenty of runs on the board. 48 Nights on Hope Street is a new work that forms part of the ATC’s mini theatre festival, aptly named ‘Back on the Boards’. It joins plays Still Life with Chickens and Black Lover for the festival, which marks a highly anticipated return to the stage for the Auckland Theatre Company.
Created by a diverse company of young writers, actors and musicians, the play is inspired by the changes in our lives brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The work sees five flatmates holed up on Hope Street during New Zealand’s lockdown, who tell tall tales every night for 48 nights. Inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century work, The Decameron, which was written in response to the Black Death, these original stories have been created by five talented young writers:
Leki Jackson-Bourke, Ana Scotney, Freya Daly Sadgrove, Cian Elyse White and Nathan Joe. Performances will be intimate experiences for viewers and performers alike, with a capacity of 75 people per show, and plans for the audience to be seated on the stage, ‘living-room style’.
Yonge says she is interested in exploring how we connect in this time of uneasiness, while showing appreciation for the fact that New Zealanders have achieved the ability to be free of restrictions. “I watched a webinar during lockdown from a New York theatre company and a panellist was saying the way we experience live art and performance is going to have to change,” she says. “She was asking, ‘What are the experiences that we’re going to be craving and how do we hold each other metaphorically in this moment?’ She thought we would be seeking more intimate spaces, more direct storytelling and more coming together to celebrate in smaller ways.”
48 Nights on Hope Street is the latest in a series of innovative works from the ATC in response to the pandemic and lockdown. At the theatre company, COVID-19 meant four seasons of shows were cancelled, postponed or altered. During lockdown, the company released an online version of The Seagull, which saw Chekhov’s characters congregate over Zoom.
“The production was incredible and just shows us how virtual performance can work as well,” says Yonge. “Co-adaptors Eleanor Bishop and Eli Kent did a stunning job.” The ATC also adapted its season of Ibsen’s The Master Builder to an online format, turning the classic play into a filmed studio presentation that is a hybrid of stage and screen. “They’ve really shown how they can shift and be agile and flexible as a theatre company,” says Yonge.
Having advised Wellington City Council on arts strategy and policy, and now working as a creative catalyst for Te Taumata Toi-a-iwi (Auckland’s arts regional trust), innovation in the arts and ideas regarding the sector’s future are of great interest to Yonge. “There’s a real need for a national arts strategy,” she says. “It’s such a fragile sector, so many organisations have run on the smell of an oily rag. There are organisations that are vital and we need to be really careful they’re not lost. It’s important that people have a portfolio of opportunities to sustain careers and to build pathways.
“How can we build a more sustainable creative sector moving forward in this recovery process?” she asks. There’s plenty more to play out – including an election – before that question can be answered, and for now Yonge is simply eager to get back in the theatre.
“I’m really excited about doing the show. I’m really looking forward to being in rehearsal,” she says. “Reading the script the other day was just like getting into a nice hot bath. This makes sense to me.”
• 48 Nights on Hope Street, 16-20 September ASB Waterfront Theatre, atc.co.nz