About grandparenting ... You Can Always Hand Them Back

Director Jane Waddell:

I am not a grandmother myself but just after I started work on You Can Always Hand Them Back I received news that my friends and colleagues Carolyn and Ray Henwood had become grandparents. Carolyn and Ray were instrumental in the founding of Circa Theatre over 35 years ago.  Their son Dai is now well-known as a highly successful comedy performer. It has been Iovely to welcome Charlie Henwood into the Circa family and to be simultaneously working on this delightful entertainment all about grand parenting by Roger Hall and Peter Skellern.

Actress Lynda Milligan:

When Roger asked me to be in You Can Always Hand Them Back I was an experienced grandmother. When I read the script I realised how much my experience mirrored what he had written.  I have 2 grand children living in London and I live, in between my work commitments, with my 2 New Zealand grandchildren in Christchurch. There are other similarities too but perhaps I had better not mention them!

Actor George Henare:

I don’t have grandchildren but I do have lots of great-nieces and nephews, which is sort of the same, especially when it comes to baby sitting. The scenario runs something like this: “I’ll just be half an hour” says the mother.  Six hours later she returns and notices her gorgeous off-spring is sleeping and says it would be a pity to wake them and perhaps it would be good idea to leave them for an overnight stay. To which I immediately reply that it would NOT be a good idea!!!! Always happy to have them but always happy to hand them back.

QUOTES:

My grandkids believe I'm the oldest thing in the world. And after two or three hours with them, I believe it, too. ~Gene Perret

Grandmothers are just ‘antique’ little girls. ~Author Unknown

 A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of the television. ~ Author Unknown

Never have children, only grandchildren. ~Gore Vidal

Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you’re just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric. ~Pam Brown

Grandchildren don’t stay young forever, which is good because Grandfathers have only so many horsy rides in them. ~Gene Perret

When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window. ~ Ogden Nash

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just You all day and now the day was complete. ~ Marcy DeMaree

If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren,
I’d have had them first. ~Lois Wyse

If becoming a grandmother was only a matter of choice, I should
advise every one of you straight away to become one. There is
no fun for old people like it! ~Hannah Whithall Smith

Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing
Old. ~Mary H. Waldrip  

 An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again. Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly. ~Gene Perret 

I don't intentionally spoil my grandkids.  It's just that correcting them often takes more energy than I have left.  ~Gene Perret

The best baby-sitters, of course, are the baby's grandparents.  You feel completely comfortable entrusting your baby to them for long periods, which is why most grandparents flee to Florida.  ~Dave Barry

Few things are more delightful than grandchildren fighting over your lap.  ~Doug Larson

To a small child, the perfect granddad is unafraid of big dogs and fierce storms but absolutely terrified of the word "boo."  ~Robert Brault, 

Posterity is the patriotic name for grandchildren.  ~Art Linkletter

A mother becomes a true grandmother the day she stops noticing the terrible things her children do because she is so enchanted with the wonderful things her grandchildren do.  ~Lois Wyse

I wish I had the energy that my grandchildren have - if only for self-defence.  ~Gene Perret

You Can Always Hand Them Back is on now in Circa One until 30 March. To book, contact the Circa Box Office on 801-7992 or visit www.circa.co.nz.

Roger Hall and Peter Skellern always hand them back

You Can Always Hand Them Back playwright Roger Hall talks about his collaboration with Peter Skellern on their new musical about grandparents.

Roger Hall

Peter Skellern

Peter Skellern and his wife Diana come out each summer to see their son and grandchildren who live in Devonport. Mutual friends suggested we meet, and so one day in Takapuna, after a phone call, I was able to approach a man wearing a large hat and say “Peter Skellern, I presume?”

We became almost instant friends, so much so that I asked him if he would be willing  to sing at the concert I put on at The Pump House for my 70th birthday.  (But I still wanted him there even if he didn't want to sing.) When he got up to perform he said "I've known Roger all of four hours now,"  (which was about right). But he was used to performing for the elderly: quite recently he had performed at an old lady's 80th birthday part and "You know it's really nice at Windsor Castle".

That's not the only royal performance he has done, having appeared at several Royal Command performances. He's also filled the London Palladium with a solo show; and packed them in with shows with Richard Stilgoe. 

Peter sang three songs at my party, and then he and I played golf together (he well, me badly) and one day he said he'd be interested in writing songs for the panto I was currently writing. I pointed out that I already had a team (Paul Jenden and Michael Nicholas Williams). We started looking through a back list of my plays to see if there was anything there that could be adapted to a musical, but nothing leapt out at us. Then I remembered a piece I had been working on (and off) for some years intended to add to two plays about Dickie Hart, one-man shows performed by Grant Tilly, C’Mon Black and You Gotta Be Joking.  I never told Grant I had this is mind in case I never delivered, which indeed proved to be the case -- despite several starts I was never able to finish it and, alas, Grant is no longer with us. It was to be called Say Goodbye to Grandpa, taken from a neighbour telling me that those were the words her husband enjoyed hearing most, especially if the grandchildren had stayed for a few days.

Peter agreed that grandparenting was a good theme (he having five of his own), that  of course we'd have to have a grandmother as well, and so I started all over again on the script and Peter wrote the songs. Some of the songs came from ideas or topics in the script, many from his own ideas. But we did do a lot of talking about what the songs should be about. Inevitably there were some casualties along the way with some songs disappearing (and some scenes, for that matter). Read any history of musical shows and there are songs dropped at the last moment, and new songs written overnight.  It’s a very difficult and often tense business. (It’s why I love the TV series “SMASH”.)

But before a song is launched onto the public, who’s to say whether it is going to work or not. After all, the producers of The Wizard of Oz hated “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and wanted it removed…

 You Can Always Hand Them Back opens on Saturday, 23 February and runs until Saturday, 30 March. Performances are already selling out! To book, please call the Circa Box Office on 801-7992 or visit www.circa.co.nz.