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| Issac's Eye actors Neenah Dekkers-Reihana and Todd Rippon. Photo by Paul McLaughlin. |
The last time I performed in a show at Circa Theatre it was A Comedy of
Errors in 1992, back in the old brick building on the corner of Harris Street
and Jervois Quay. We have both come a long way since then and I am very exited
about finally returning to Wellington’s pre-eminent professional theatre venue.
In the past 22 years I have continued my professional career as an actor and
director on a part-time basis and like most other thespians in New Zealand I
have also taken on many other less artistic endeavours to support myself and my
family.
Isaac’s Eye is such a thrilling play to be a part of. It’s brilliantly
written, it ticks all the originality boxes, and I am playing the most
delicious villain: Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton’s real life rival. Hooke, like Newton, was also a brilliant
scientist in nearly every field imaginable and although his legacy has been
almost completely lost in the annuls of scientific endeavour, recent academic
studies have found that he was, in his time, a man of much fame, wealth, and
influence. In the play he is portrayed as an immoral elitist, a hopeless
philanderer, and a depraved drug addicted rake, everything that I am not. But through
out the course of the story he is stripped of all artifice and you get to see a
far more vulnerable side of Robert as well. It’s a dream role for any actor.
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| Todd Rippon as Robert Hooke in Isaac's Eye. Photo by Paul McLaughlin. |
It’s a really funny production with lots of surprises and some quite
twisted humour infused through the drama, which at times, can take your breath
away.
I am extremely lucky to be working with such a talented cast and the
director Paul McLaughlin has cleverly passed the script through a series of theatrical
prisms creating a kaleidoscope of colours, alternate realities, and parallel
universes. I’m quite sure the audience will have as much fun witnessing this
wicked little show as we do performing it.
Isaac's Eye is on until 15 November in Circa Two. To book, call the Circa box office on 801-7992 or visit www.circa.co.nz.
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