A book club meeting with a surprising twist
A clever surprise ending turns a charming story about a book club for people who don’t have time to read into something much more memorable in Hāwera Repertory’s latest show.
The Illiterate Book Club opens in Ada’s home, where she’s getting ready to host a meeting, watched silently by her son Hamish, who vanishes as the other members start arriving.
Each of the characters has reasons why they’re too busy to read, although they love books.
The club was created by retired teacher Flora (Cherol Filbee), and members bring reviews of books they haven’t read in novel ways (pun intended).
She switches between three pairs of spectacles to read out cute reviews written by her former pupils.
Stephanie (Deborah Clough) cooks everyone dinner from recipes in a cookbook.
Loud lawyer Joy (Samantha Turner) ponders if she’d like to know the day of her death, with real estate agent Zoe (Kristy Logan) who calls herself ‘the normal one’.
Irish nurse Maggie (Ainslee Alexander) carried off her lines in a strong brogue throughout the show.
Their own stories and issues slip out in the conversation, washed down with what appeared to be copious amounts of wine, but probably wasn’t as everyone’s lines stayed crystal clear.
The first half was entertaining enough, with witty dialogue between the characters commenting on politics, parenting and their various dreams and struggles. It felt like being at the meeting, rather than watching a show, and right up to the intermission, where supper was provided, I was wondering where the play was taking us.
That question was answered in the second half, as Ada’s story became clear.
She’d mentioned at some stage that she was no good at solving mysteries because she missed clues, and it turned out she was in the middle of one.
The ending has a very clever and unexpected twist which totally delivered the “heart-warming, funny and sometimes bittersweet story” we were promised.
Director Donald Campbell and his cast of seven should be proud of their production.
The play, written by Geoff Bartlett, is at Repertory House until April 20.