The most delicious villain

Isaac's Eye actor Todd Rippon tells drama on the waterfront about playing 'the most delicious villain', Isaac Newton's rival Robert Hooke.

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.

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. 

Isaac's Eye: It's intense, it's beautiful, it's weird and it is funny.

This week on drama on the waterfront, Isaac's Eye actor (he plays Isaac Newton!) and Circa newcomer Andrew Paterson tells us all about his experiences so far working at Circa in this exciting new Lucas Hnath play.

Isaac's Eye cast: (background, left to right) Alex Greig, Todd Rippon, Neenah Dekkers-Reihana, (foreground) Andrew Paterson. Photo by Paul McLaughlin.

Yay, my first job at Circa and my god is it exciting.

I first watched a Circa show when I came down to Wellington for the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Competition finals when I was 17. My teacher took us all out to Circa one night, the show that was on was Uncle Vanya. I knew nothing about Chekhov, it sounded a bit boring to my 17-year-old self.

But after watching it I was a Chekov convert. It was all that my theatre geek classmates and me would talk about for the rest of the trip. The beautiful story, the impressive staging (swing included) and the exciting acting.

Now seven years later I am so eager to be playing on the same stage. And I love that my first show at this long-standing theatre is such an exciting piece as Isaac’s Eye. And on top of that I get to play the great man himself, Isaac Newton.

Andrew Paterson. Photo by Paul McLaughlin.

Through doing research for the show I have found some fun facts about the great Isaac Newton:

1) The apple falling on his head didn’t actually happen. Apparently he was just looking out a window and happened to see an apple fall off a tree, which started him thinking about gravity.

2) He wasn’t expected to survive as a baby. He was born prematurely on Christmas day, and was so small his mother said that he could fit into a quart mug.

3) He tried his hand at alchemy, trying to turn lead into gold and maybe find the elixir of life.

4) He predicted the end of the world would be 2060. He predicted this through his own interpretation of the bible. "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail."

5) He was a member of parliament but only spoke once to tell someone to close a window.

6) Apparently his dog once set his laboratory on fire destroying 20 years of research.

This has been a wonderful experience working on this piece, and with such lovely and talented group of people. I can't wait for opening night, and the chance to share this awesome story with the Circa audience. It's intense, it's beautiful, it's weird and it is funny.

Come along!

Isaac's Eye opens in Circa Two on 18 October with a $25 Preview on Friday, 17 October and a $25 Matinee on Sunday, 19 October. To book, visit www.circa.co.nz or call the Circa Box Office on 801-7992.

Playwright Lucas Hnath discusses Walt Disney, the Man and the Myth

This week on drama on the waterfront, we share a video of A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney playwright Lucas Hnath discussing all things Walt Disney, the Man and the Myth.

Playwright Lucas Hnath

Interview recorded at a FEED event at Soho Rep. in New York during the world premiere season in 2013.

The Circa season of A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney runs until 27 September. To book, visit www.circa.co.nz or call the Circa box office on 801-7992.