After a sold out season at BATS Theatre and being shortlisted for Playmarket’s Adam New Zealand Play Award, Movers is on the road.
Written by former Hamiltonian James Cain and based on his experiences at small businesses, Movers follows Tai, a wannabe stand-up comedian who has just finished uni and has no real clue about what to do next.
He takes a job at a moving company to kill time and meets Oscar and Bruce, two Pākehā blokes as ‘middle New Zealand’ as can be.
When Tai does an off-the-cuff impersonation of Bruce at his stand up set and it turns out to be an audience favourite, he’s got to make a choice between his job and his career.
Cain was excited that the original production reached such a range of audience members and looks forward to it doing the same for their tour to Auckland and Hamilton.
“This show is intergenerational and not in a saccharin way," Cain said.
“A workspace was a perfect microcosm to explore all of these ideas because it’s like school all over again. You’re meeting completely different people with massively different backgrounds than you, and you start this dance of trying to figure out how to get along.”
Movers stars a mix of NZ legends and breakout stars, Sepe Mua’au (Blackout) plays Tai, John Landreth (My Dad’s Boy, Marine Snow) the curmudgeonly Bruce and Lloyd Scott (Toyota Hilux Ads, The Mystery of Edwin Drood) plays the owner, Oscar.
For Mua’au the original production was his first time onstage outside of a school/university context.
“Movers is a beautiful and subtle piece,” Mua’au said.
"The familiarity in characters and parallels with experiences in my own life are what drew me directly into the play.”
Having recently finished his MA in Theatre and developing his own play, Blackout, through a series of workshops, Mua’au is thrilled to see the play have more life.
“It’s great to get on the road and get stuck into the role of Tai again. This is a great piece of NZ theatre that I feel privileged to be able to share with audiences around Aotearoa!”
Rounding out the cast is Landreth and Scott as Bruce and Oscar, the double act at Oscar’s Movers. For Scott, playing in a double act is pretty familiar territory, performing opposite Barry Crump in the iconic Toyota Hilux Ads for 12 years. It seems like full circle for Scott whose history of riding in vehicles sees him posing in utes for fans after shows.
“It’s great to be involved in this new work by James, I love the writing and it’s not just a comedy, there’s a lot to chew over in it too.”
Movers will have previously toured to Auckland before Hamilton and Red Scare have hopes to reach the rest of New Zealand before too long.