Standing Room Only for Sunday 18 July 2021

12:16  Love & Loss - decades of personal memories 

A birthday card sent back and forth between a father and daughter over 20 years, and a poem left in a car's windscreen wiper ending an affair... These are among the deeply personal treasures featuring in Auckland Museum's Love & Loss exhibition.

They range from historic manuscripts and letters right through to Facebook messages and emails from 2020.

The curators of Love & Loss had more than a hundred personal submissions from members of the public to choose from, as well as the museum's own extensive collection of documents.

The Museum's Interpretive Planner Kavi Chetty and Curator Manuscripts Nina Finigan talk with Lynn Freeman about the big calls they had to make on what to include and what to leave out..

The end of that item was a piece read by Dr Jess Pasisi.   Love & Loss opens at Auckland Museum on the 28th of July in the Sainsbury Horrocks Gallery.

 

12:34  Gaysorn Thavat and The Justice of Bunny King dream team

New Zealand feature film The Justice of Bunny King made its debut last month at New York's prestigious Tribeca Film Festival.   It got a special Jury mention for "outstanding achievement" by lead actors Essie Davis and Thomasin McKenzie.

When director Gaysorn Thavat set out to make her first feature film, she put together a dream team of top talent - some of the best women in the industry.  There's writer Sophie Henderson of Baby Done fame, hugely experienced producer Emma Slade and DOP, the great Ginny Loane.  

And that's not to mention the three leads - Tanea Heke, so brilliant in Cousins, Thomasin McKenzie coming off the back of Jojo Rabbit and Leave no trace, and as Bunny, brilliant Australian actress Essie Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) . 

Simon Morris talks to Gaysorn about the story of plucky "squeegee bandit" Bunny King and her fight to get back her kids.  The Justice of Bunny King goes into general release on July 29.
 

12:45  The birth of the NZ Women's Institutes

New Zealand Women's Institutes and the Hawke's Bay woman who founded the movement, Jerome Spencer, are celebrated in a new exhibition.

In fact  it's a double celebration as the exhibition called For Home and Country also marks the reopening of the MTG Hawke's Bay, after the museum and gallery's closure at the end of last year for remedial work.

The exhibition's guest curator is Emeritus Professor Kay Morris Matthews, who's written a biography of Jerome Spencer - known as Bessie to her family and friends - to mark the NZWI's centenary.

The first Institute at Rissington in Hawke's Bay was the start of a large network of them around the country.  They helped rural women, who often felt isolated, to meet, talk, produce handcrafts and have fun.

Lynn Freeman talks with the Museum's Director Laura Vodanovich, and first asked why it had to close its doors.

For Home and Country opens at the MTG Hawke's Bay  on Saturday July 24.  Kay Morris Matthews' book is called Lifting Horizons, Anna Elizabeth Jerome Spencer, a biography.

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews Black Widow, Space Jam: A New Legacy and French Netflix drama How I Became a Superhero.

 

1:31  Marcus McShane comes out from behind the spotlight

Their usual home is behind the scenes, away from the spotlight.  But now new awards have been created for those theatre practitioners who don't get a round of applause at the end of a show.

Sir Roger Hall knows all about the contribution they've made to the hundreds of productions of his plays.  His Theatre Fund supports the $5,000 Out Of The Limelight awards, and among the inaugural winners is Wellington lighting designer,  Marcus McShane.

Marcus has created more than 500 theatre designs and installation artworks since 2005, aside from his work for architecture and museum design.  He also finds time to be a visual artist.

Marcus joins Lynn Freeman in the studio to talk about life behind - and in front of - the spotlight.

 

1:50 Shannon Novak offers opportunities for plurality in art

An ambitious exhibition that's taking over both Tauranga Gallery and other sites around the city offers marginalised artists a rare opportunity to show their work and share their stories.

Curator, artist and activist Shannon Novak advocates for the LGBTQI+ community,  and he's the driving force behind the Mānawatia Takatāpui/Defending Plurality exhibition.

Its focus is diversity and inclusivity, not just in subject matter but through multi-disciplinary art.  There's photography, sculpture and painting, as well as flags and vinyl work on windows, floors and walls.

Shannon's own contribution is a colourful, abstract installation.  It covers the art gallery's ground-level atrium and spills outside the building.

Even with his strong links to marginalised communities, Shannon Novak tells Lynn Freeman there was some reluctance from artists he wanted to include.  

WARNING:   This interview contains references to suicide.  For people affected by some of the issues raised, the phone number of Lifeline is 0800 543 354, while that of Samaritans is 0800 726 666.
 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Heta and Courtney Dawson

These days standup comedy is pretty much a solo activity, but there was a time when comedians came in pairs - The Two Ronnies, say, Fry and Laurie, Mitchell and Webb and of course the Flight of the Conchords.

Bucking the current trend are today's Laugh Track guests.  Heta and Courtney Dawson are not only a double act, but that even rarer thing, a father and daughter comedy team.

Heta and Courtney go out in a show called Half and Hāwhe and they're something special.  Lynn Freeman talks to them on the Laugh Track.

Their picks include Eddie Murphy, Jackie Kashian, Chloe Hillard and Naomi Ekpergin.

The Dawsons are appearing at Auckland's Monster Valley on July 24.
 

2:25 Two Landfall editors look back - and forward

Landfall was founded by Otago poet Charles Brash in 1947, and it's had a succession of editors who've all made their own impression on the literary and arts magazine.  Today we mark the latest changing of the guard.

After three years at the helm, Emma Neale is signing off and poet and essayist Lynley Edmeades is signing on.

Lynn Freeman talks to Emma about the highlights of her term, and to Lynley about how she plans to stamp her mark on the publication.

Emma's last Landfall publication is "Strong Words #2", which features the entries for the hotly-contested 2019 and 2020 Landfall essay competitions.  

Lynley, meanwhile, teaches poetry and creative writing at the University of Otago.

 

2:37 Serie Barford's poetry addresses strong freelings 

The self inflicted death of her long term partner sent Samoan-European poet Serie Barford into an emotional tailspin.   The relationship with Alain had been intense but also difficult in later years.

Serie has put all of her complex mix of feelings into a collection of impassioned poems called Sleeping with Stones.

Written over the last two years, Serie hopes that it will help others who are struggling after the death of someone they love deeply.  Lynn Freeman talks with Serie about the collection, and Serie reads one of the poems.

Serie Barford's Sleeping with Stones is published by Anahera.  

WARNING:   This interview contains references to suicide.  For people affected by some of the issues raised, the phone number of Lifeline is 0800 543 354, while that of Samaritans is 0800 726 666.
 

2:48  Choreographer Mary-Jane O'Reilly goes noir

Ballet favourite Giselle and 1940s film noir combine in a new ballet by Mary-Jane O'Reilly and her long term partner and co-creative Phil O'Reilly.

Ballet Noir, what becomes of the broken-hearted is a contemporary spin on the story of wronged women who take their revenge on men.

And it adds filmic imagery to the onstage dancing.  Here the women wear sharply tailored and close fitting suits that look like they should be impossible to dance in.

Mary-Jane, co-founder of the legendary Limbs dance company, presented a preview performance of the work in 2019. Now it's been developed into a full length work after catching the eye of the Elemental Festival, currently showing in Auckland.

Mary-Jane is also the co-creator of a show known here as In Flagrante which was doing well internationally until the pandemic struck.

Lynn Freeman talks with Mary-Jane O'Reilly about Ballet Noir, what becomes of the broken-hearted.  It opens on July 23 at the The Bruce Mason Centre as part of Auckland's Elemental Festival 2021.  

 

3:06 Drama at 3 -  No science to Goodbye by Annabel Wilson

Today's Classic Drama was recorded live by RNZ at BATS Theatre in Wellington.  

Elsie returns to Wanaka to look after her terminally ill brother. She runs into her former lover Frank who is now a glaciologist - a coolly logical and rational scientist.

The ensuing complications will push them to the torn edges of love, loss, risk.   The mountain landscape of the Southern Lakes looms large in this story where which music and poetry underscore a trio of unravelling lives.

 

Music played in this show

Artist: Spike Jones and his City Slickers
Song: Do you wanna buy a bunny?
Composer: Hoefle-Porter
Album: Greatest hits
Label: RCA
Played at: 12.12

Artist:  Simone White
Song: A bunny in a bunny suit
Composer:  Frank Bango
Album:  Music is your radar
Label:  Uncut
Played at: 12.32

Artist: Bunny Berigan
Song: I can't get started
Composer: Duke-Gershwin
Album: Portrait of Bunny Berigan
Label: ASV
Played at: 12.58

Artist: Magnetic Fields
Song: Let's pretend we're bunny rabbits
Composer: Merritt
Album: 69 love songs
Label: Merge
Played at: 1.07

Artist:  Mitchell Froom
Song: The bunny
Composer: Doughty-Froom
Album: Dopamine
Label:  Atlantic
Played at: 1.42

Artist:  Bunny Wailer
Song: Sound clash
Composer: Wailer
Album: The Greatest Reggae Hits
Label: Dressedtokill
Played at:  1.58

Artist: Bunny Paul
Song: Lovey Dovey
Composer: Curtis-Nuggy
Album: Cameo-Parkway
Label: ABKCO
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Bunny Walters
Song: Brandy
Composer: English-Kerr
Album: Sings for lovers and rockers
Label: Impact
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Bunnies on Ponies
Song: Straight up jerk
Composer: Scott-Bunnies on Ponies
Album: Heat Death of the Universe
Label: Bunnies on Ponies
Played at: 3.05

Artist: Jive Bunny and the Mixmasters
Song: Swing the mood
Composer: Haley-De Knight-Freedman
Album: Hit Blitz
Label: Posum
Played at: 3.58