Standing Room Only for Sunday 4 September 2022

12:16   New Arts Laureate, weaver and artist Dr Maureen Lander

Māori visual artist Dr Maureen Lander is a visionary, a leading exponent of weaving, both customary and experimental, an installation artist and a mentor to many.

Added to her extensive list of achievements is now being named as one of our latest Arts Foundation Laureates.

Back in 1984 Maureen learnt flax harvesting, processing and weaving techniques from the hugely respected weaver and artist, Diggeress Te Kanawa.

While honouring these traditional techniques, the Elam Art School graduate also integrates them with Western art materials like nylon fishing line and mesh.   

In 2020 Dr Maureen Lander became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori art. 

She talks with Lynn Freeman about her life, her work and her recent collaborations with the wāhine Māori Mata Aho Collective, also named as one of this year's Arts Laureates.

 

12:29  NZ Festival of Solo Performance celebrates the Power of One

It's astonishing what magic one actor can produce on stage when they have a great script and the ability to play many roles simply through movement and voice..

TAHI - New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance brings together soloists - from emerging first or second-timers through to well-established performers - from around Aotearoa for 10 days of performances and conversations about this specialist theatrical form.

This year marks the fourth TAHI and it'll be hosted in Wellington - 18 shows  across four venues and ten days.

Lynn Freeman talks with two of this year's participants - Sacha Copland and Helen Fletcher.  TAHI: New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance starts on September 8 at Bats Theatre in Te Whanganui A Tara/Wellington.  

 

 

12:43  Tatiana Hotere's new play gets a hostile - and unfair - reception

A new play exploring the intersection of grief, faith and sexuality has shocked the playwright when it become the target of a hate campaign.

Catholic-raised Tatiana Hotere was also involved for many years with Evangelic Christian churches.  But once word got out about her play Skin Hunger, she was deluged  with messages linking to sermons, hymns and 'Jesus saves' memes.  Among other things there were furious accusations that she was a terrible role model to her daughters.

Tatiana tells Lynn Freeman it was very hurtful, and particularly surprising because the play is by no means anti-Christian.

Skin Hunger opens at Auckland's Basement Theatre on September 13 as part of the Auckland Fringe.

 

1:10 At The Movies

Simon Morris reviews A stitch in time, Farewell Mr Haffman and Beast.

 

1:31   Ngaire Kearney's Burnt Offerings

Carterton artist Ngaire Kearney has the steadiest of hands and nerves of steel.  She needs them - she etches intricate images into glass and stone, or burns them into wood.

Most of her designs are created on objects she finds in second hand shops - glass vases, school desks, even family heirlooms that people bring to her for an artistic makeover.

Ngaire trades as "Burnt Offerings" and her work's included in the upcoming Big Wai Art Sale in the Wairarapa, alongside other local artists and some from further afield. 

Ngaire tells Lynn Freeman she's self taught and started burning wood about 20 years ago.

The Big Wai Art Sale starts at the Carterton Event Centre on September 9.

 

1:47  Kathryn Burnett's play The Campervan

Ditching the rat-race to go travelling around Aotearoa in a campervan - for some that sounds like a dream come true, for others - not so much.

In her new play The Campervan, Kathryn Burnett pits a husband and wife against each other when Hugh wants to give away his multi-million dollar fortune to charity and live the simple life on the road.

The play is Kathryn's 10th birthday present to Tadpole Productions at the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna.

Kathryn and director Simon Prast talk to Lynn Freeman about what happens when the wheels fall off your comfortable life!

The Campervan premieres at the PumpHouse in Tamaki Makaurau on September 8. 
 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Wade Jackson and Edith Fumarola

 

Once upon a time, comedy - or rather, TV comedy - meant sketch comedy.  Monty Python, The Two Ronnies, French and Saunders, dozens of others in the UK...  McPhail and Gadsby and Funny Business in New Zealand...  and the immortal Saturday Night Live in the States.   But now...   Well, SNL is still going, but everyone else seems to have turned to standup and panel shows.

However, Covert Theatre is determined to bring back the sketch comedy review show.  

It's called Silence of the Sheeple and it's about to debut for the Auckland Fringe.  Today's Laugh Track guests are Covert Theatre's Wade Jackson and Edith Fumarola.

Their picks include sketches from The Two Ronnies, Saturday Night Live, Key and Peele and  French and Saunders

Silence of the Sheeple opens at Covert Theatre on McKelvie Street in Auckland from September 9.
 

2:25  Simon Lendrum's poker-playing sleuth O'Malley

 

In poker, a slow roll is the ultimate example of bad etiquette.  It's when a player knows they've got the best hand but waits until their opponent thinks they've won the pot before showing the winning cards.

In his novel The slow roll, Auckland-based advertising executive Simon Lendrum has introduced a new kind of sleuth to the New Zealand crime scene - O'Malley, a hugely successful poker player who investigates the occasional crime.

First O'Malley's asked to find a man's missing teenage daughter, but then there's a murder of one of his poker circle:

The Slow Roll by Simon Lendrum is published by upstart press

 

2:37  Patricia Donovan - The Collections

If the only way to address the global population crisis and the degradation of the planet was to limit everyone's lifespan to just 70 years,  would you go along with it happily?  Or would you fight to live?

In Patricia Donovan's novel The Collections set in 2041, this is the task facing Claris, who works in a government Collections Depot.

They're responsible for ensuring 70 year olds are euthanased, then their bodies are processed so they can be returned to the earth as ecologically sound mulch.   

The Collections is the third novel by the Kapiti Coast based writer.  Lynn Freeman talks with her about the rival merits of life and ecological disaster.

Patricia Donovan's The Collections was published by Mary Egan Publishing.

 

2:49  Star Dust - a celebration  of cabaret and circus

The circus has always been a symbol of escape, from children being amazed, amused - and often bemused - by their first experience of a live show, to disgruntled rebels running away to join the circus.

Which is what 16-year-old Xanthe Naylor did - she ran off to join Dunedin's annual Circulation Festival.   Ten years later, she's the Festival Director, and she's bringing a new show to Ōtepoti.   It's a unique blend of circus and cabaret called Star Dust. 

Lynn Freeman first asked Xanthe about her first steps into the circus arena.

Dunedin's annual Circulation Festival runs in October.  Meanwhile, director Xanthe Naylor is part of Star Dust which plays in the city from this Thursday at Te Whare o Rukutia.
 

3:06 Drama at 3 -  Maestro Pt 1 by Phillip Mann

Over the next two Sundays we are celebrating the writing of Phillip Mann who died on Thursday at the age of 80, not long after the launch of his 11th novel.

Phillip also wrote extensively for both stage and radio, he was the founding teacher at New Zealand's first university drama department, at Victoria University of Wellington in 1970, and a theatre director whose premieres including works by Renée, Greg McGee and Vincent O'Sullivan.

So today and next Sunday we are playing his radio drama Maestro.

Before then, we play an interview with Phillip Mann recorded  in 2013.  Lynn Freeman asked him how writing his science fiction novels, scripts for radio, stage and even opera had informed each other.

After that, Phillip's Classic Drama, Maestro is a two-part play with the intriguing idea that all creativity comes from another dimension. 

It includes original music composed by Jonathan Besser who was faced with the challenge of coming up with music that might be produced by plants!

Maestro featured Duncan Smith as Sebastian, William Kircher as Ian, Janet Fisher as Molly and Kate Ward as Beryl. 

The violin was played by Helene Pohl, the recording was by Phil Benge and the producer was Carol Dee for RNZ National.   We'll have Part Two for you next Sunday afternoon. 
 

 

 

 

Music played in this show

Artist:  Lady Gaga
Song: Poker Face
Composer:  Lady Gaga-Red One
Album: The Fame Monster
Label: Interscope
Played at: 12.16

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Song: Lazy poker blues
Composer:  Green-Adams
Album: Like it this way
Label: Elite
Played at: 12.41

Artist:  Sally Stockwell
Song:  Royal Flush
Composer:  Stockwell
Album: Weightless
Label: Ellamy
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Split Enz
Song:  Two of a kind
Composer:  Finn
Album: True Colours
Label: Warner
Played at:  1.07

Artist: Phil Harris
Song:  Downtown Poker Club
Composer: Havez-Vodery-Williams
Album: His original and greatest hits
Label:  Jasmin
Played at: 1.43

Artist: Ray Charles
Song: Losing hand
Composer: Calhoun
Album: Pure genius
Label: Rhino
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Garth Brooks
Song: Two of a kind working on a full house
Composer: Boyd-Haynes-Robins
Album: No fences
Label: Capitol
Played at: 2.05

Artist: James Darren
Song: Goodbye cruel world
Composer: Shayne
Album: Most of the Sixties
Label: EMI
Played at: 2.48

Artist: Shawn Colvin
Song: Viva Las Vegas
Composer: Pomus-Schuman
Album: Tribute to Doc Pomus
Label: Rhino
Played at: 3.58