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.

Peninsula: Idyllic Times

Actor Paul McLaughlin, who plays 10-year-old Michael Hope in the current Circa production Peninsula, shares with drama on the waterfront his favourite childhood memory.

(left to right) Paul McLaughlin, Phil Vaughan and Jason Whyte in Peninsula. Photo by Dominika Zielinska. 

"When I was Michael's age, my family used to camp with some friends of ours at a wee place called Omaio in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Like Michael and the kids of Duveauchelle, we'd be off after breakfast and not seen again till we were hungry. Building forts in the trees, swimming, walking down to the shop to buy k-bars, watching out for my Dad and Ted coming in from fishing, swimming in the Motu River with my diving mask and snorkel, hanging out in the Te Kaha Pub carpark with the other kids drinking creaming soda and eating chips. We collected bits of glass from the pebbly beach, (pictured) bits of blue and green glass being the most highly prized, then on down to clear and brown. They were idyllic times - the smell of a beach fire still brings them to mind and once my two girls are old enough we'll head back that way, forty years later, 'cept this time I won't be hanging out in the carpark at the pub."

Omaio Beach. Photo by Paul McLaughlin.

Peninsula is on at Circa until 31 March. It is part of the NZ International Arts Festival until 18 March - to book, call Ticketek at 0800 842 538 or go online at www.ticketek.co.nz. The season will continue at Circa after the Festival; to book, call the Circa Box Office at 801-7992 or go online at www.circa.co.nz.