Acclaim for Taki Rua’s 'Sydney Bridge Upside Down'

“What a tour de force! I was astonished and enthralled and shaken...I thought the set design, the sound design, realisation of the essence of the book, the acting, were all first class.” – Kate De Goldi

Acclaim for Taki Rua’s Sydney Bridge Upside Down

There was an old man who lived on the edge of the world and he had a horse called Sydney Bridge Upside Down. He was a scar-faced old man and his horse was a slow-moving bag of bones, and I start with this man and his horse because they were there for all the terrible happenings up the coast that summer, always somewhere around.

Taki Rua’s Wellington season of its new play Sydney Bridge Upside Down comes to an end at the weekend before heading to Auckland in August.

The play, which brings David Ballantyne’s coming-of-age novel to life, has stunned audiences and critics with its innovative staging and its integration of audio-visual aspects into the work.

Much to admire in this innovative, highly theatrical production – NZ Listener

Sophisticated, daring theatre – Theatreview

Adapted by Taki Rua’s artistic director James Ashcroft, Sydney Bridge Upside Down is part sinister love-story, part darkly comic coming-of-age fable, and takes place during one summer in a tiny New Zealand settlement, Calliope Bay – a place “on the edge of the world”.

Told through Harry’s eyes, the events of the story unfold at an abandoned meat-works – a forbidden and dangerous place; a place where Harry Baird finds himself drawn, a place where accidents happen. A place where people die...

James picked up the book in 2011 on the recommendation of a friend and has since read it “at least 20 times. It’s fair to say I’ve become a tad obsessed with it,” he says.

“David opened up a world that seemed to fit so well with the life questions I had – his story gave words to my questions about the world and now I’m challenged with the task and exploring every detail of these questions so I can open them up to others through the production.”

He says bringing the book to the stage has been a journey of exploration. “David’s words are the anchor – the reference point that we bounce off and come back to. We want to engage audiences in a conversation about how theatre affects them and this story provides a launch pad for that.”

James says that through Sydney Bridge Upside Down he has explored what it is to be “a man in today’s world, what it means to reconcile my past and to examine my place in the world.”

Collaborating with James on Sydney Bridge Upside Down is set designer Kasia Pol, composer and sound designer John Gibson, lighting designer Nathan McKendry, audio-visual and multi-media designer Robert Appierdo with a cast including Claire Van Beek, Maaka Pohatu, Holly Shanahan, Tim Carlsen, Rob Mokaraka, James Tito and Aaron Cortesi.

“We’re all developing a personal relationship to the themes and questions David had given us – in a way the work has become autobiographical for each of us and the novel has been translated through our collective personal experiences.”

Sydney Bridge Upside Down has its final performances at Downstage Theatre in Wellington until Saturday 6 July, with a season at Q Theatre in Auckland from 7-11 August. For more information visit www.sbud.co.nz

ENDS

TOUR INFORMATION – SYDNEY BRIDGE UPSIDE DOWN

WELLINGTON: Downstage Theatre | 21 June to 6 July | Book at Downstage www.downstage.co.nz (04) 801 6946

AUCKLAND: Q Theatre | 7-11 August 7.30pm | Book at Q Theatre www.qtheatre.co.nz (09) 309 9771

BACKGROUND INFORMATION – SYDNEY BRIDGE UPSIDE DOWN

Born in Auckland, David Ballantyne lived for a time in Hicks Bay on the east coast of the North Island, and the setting for Sydney Bridge Upside Down. Ballantyne left school at 15 after his father died and started work as a journalist in Auckland.

His debut novel, The Cunninghams was published in 1948 and received critical acclaim. It was his first foray into exploring provincial New Zealand and working class family life; Sydney Bridge Upside Down would follow 20 years later. Re-published only recently in 2010 after being unavailable for many years, New Zealanders are now rediscovering this kiwi classic. He wrote seven books in all and died in 1986.

“How did we fail to give this gripping, funny, desperately sad, great New Zealand novel, set “on the edge of the world”, its due when it was first published in 1968?…Not until last year when l was urged to read it again did l fully understand what a masterpiece Ballantyne had pulled off.” – NZ Herald

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