Wonderful

This NZ tour will premiere NZ playwright Richard Huber’s latest play 'Wonderful' which is the second in a planned trilogy of plays, the first being the nationally acclaimed 1930s screwball comedy 'Glorious'. Direction is by Richard Huber with actors Blaise and Sarah Barham and production by SBZ Productions.

'Wonderful' is the story of the divine Lady Hermione and her loyal butler Roberts, as they grapple with the important issues of modern life - biscuits, trousers, sausages, Art and what to do about Penelope.
Set in England, during the witty and just a little bit notorious roaring 20s, its characters cast aside the darkness, despair and bad poetry from the Great War and fall headlong into the brave new world of martinis, monocles, romance, and fountains; the starlight glittering on the water like diamonds.

One part drawing room farce, two measures of Love and a splash of the comedy of manners, it asks the age-old question of all great love stories: What is the price of following your heart and are you willing to pay it? Where Dunedin writer Richard Huber’s script (he also directs) very cleverly blurs distinctions
between reality and possibility, and shifts and retracts social class distinctions.
Intriguing and sometimes puzzling, rich in literary allusions, actress-and-bishop jokes and
pathos ...does Uncle Dickie keep the biscuits and what did the actress actually say to the bishop?

Richard is a professional playwright, director, actor, and teacher. His career began in Christchurch in the early 1980s with Theatre in Education, Splinta Stilt and Christchurch Playback Theatre Company. In 1993, he moved to Dunedin and taught theatre at the University of Otago for 16 years. His work as a writer includes a large body of works including the Fortune Theatre’s production of his highly acclaimed 'Glorious', with various subsequent professional productions. In 2013, Richard won the 'Narrative/Script of the Year' award at the Dunedin Theatre Awards for 'Songbird'. Richard's work as a director includes 'Waiting for Godot' at the Globe Theatre (winning Best Director at the Dunedin Theatre Awards in 2011), 'One Day' for the 2010 Otago Festival of the Arts, 'Blood of the Lamb' for 2018 Otago Festival of the Arts, and 'Toy Factory Fire', and 'Simple Acts of Malice' in 2020.

Theatre-makers Blaise and Sarah have been involved in theatre since moving from the UK to New Zealand in 2000. They opened their theatre production company Sahara BreeZe (SBZ) Productions in 2019 with a tour of 'Dear Lupin', followed by a tour of 'TWO' by Jim Cartwright in 2020 (nominated for most outstanding performers at Dunedin Fringe 2021), an original short Verbatim play called 'the New Real' in 2020, and a 2021 tour of 'Dracula - The Bloody Truth' created by Le Navet Bete.

Sarah was awarded 'Best Supporting Female' for her role as Gwen in 'Away' in 2018 and Blaise was awarded 'Best Leading Male' for his role of Francis in 'One Man, Two Guvnors' in 2019 at the Otago & Southland Theatre Awards.

Reviews:

"Dunedin writer Richard Huber’s script (he also directs) very cleverly blurs distinctions
between reality and possibility, and shifts and retracts social class distinctions....Intriguing and sometimes puzzling, rich in literary allusions, actress-and-bishop jokes and pathos ..." ODT - Review - Barbara Frame - 12/11/22

"In the Barhams, Huber has found the perfect accomplices. Their tongue-in-cheek enjoyment of the absurdities of the situation is one of the great pleasures of the play. They inhabit their roles with ease, in a cracking conversational duel." Theatreview - Terry McTavish - 11/11/22.