Three years ago today was the first day of New Zealand’s first Covid lockdown. But Annie Ruth used the opportunity to indulge her greatest love: reading. Books have always been her saviour, her escape, her roadmap. She also used the time to reflect back on her life.

Written and performed by Annie, The Book Addict is about the life she’s lived between books – family, lovers, tragedies, travel, adventures, misadventures. From Dunedin to Greece, Wellington, Japan and Palmerston North, she’s lived life to the full. Like reading a book, we await each new chapter with anticipation of an adventure more exciting and more dramatic than the last. Love and lovers, marriage and motherhood, death and drama, family and friends, her tales shine a light on the good, the bad and the hedonistic.

The Book Addict is conversational, like chatting with a group of friends. As she regales us with stories, she also shares with us the books that bookend the chapters in her life while sipping on a cocktail. The set design is simple, but effective. A bar stool and a tiered table covered with books, some new, some dog-eared and well-read, others that have been passed down in her family through the generations. 

Annie bares her soul as she takes us through her life story, each chapter woven around key relationships in her life. She has so many fascinating stories, that there are times that it feels like too much of a skim across the top – we want to know more! While it makes for an enjoyable theatre piece, ironically, I think it would make an even better book. Trying to fit 74 years into 74 minutes doesn’t do it justice and trust me, these are stories that will have you wondering what you’ve been doing with your life! 

That being said, perhaps we wouldn’t believe her if it was in a book – some of it is more fantastical than some of her favourite books. But her open and engaging manner lets us know that this truly is her life; it may not be stranger than fiction, but it’s certainly better!

She sums our thoughts up so well by quoting American author Caroline Myss: “Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to require the most from you. Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it?”

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Written and performed by Annie Ruth, The Book Addict is partly a memoir, partly a love letter to Greece and a deep dive into the human experience. Our host takes us on a journey from Dunedin, to Greece, then back again to Wellington and Palmerston North. She takes the audience through the highs and lows of her life, using the books that she loves as a foil for her experiences. From love, marriage and children, to heart break, death and danger this show has it all.

Annie Ruth is an excellent storyteller, able to hold an audience with only her words. She comes across as genuine, and as interested in her audience as we are of her. Creating an intimate feel to the piece, The Book Addict is more like a conversation with a friend than a show. It is difficult to hold an audience with only one person and she does this magnificently.

The set, designed by Helen Todd, is simple. Our leading lady is perched on a bar stool, sipping on a cocktail, surrounded by the books that inspired her. A simple white net curtain behind her. Throughout the performance Annie will pick up one book or another to read a line or tell us about it; spinning the table top to find the one she wants. Occasionally she will take a walk across the stage, making sure to connect to all corners of the audience. No matter the number of people, Annie is able to connect with everyone in the room, making everyone feel seen.

The direction by Robin Payne is subtle, barely noticeable. This is a production that has strived for honesty in all aspects. And it has achieved this, in spade loads, with many real, raw moments. Not just life’s good bits, but the deep dark moments as well. All are laid out for the audience to hear. And many of the audience will find their own memories and feelings reflected back at them. 

The production and technical side of the show has been done by Georgia Kellett. No area of this production has been neglected, even the program is printed with a book list for audience members to continue their adventure at home. The Book Addict is on for two shows only at the Darkroom in Palmerston North (Friday the 10^th and Saturday the 11^th of March). The shows runs for about 75 minutes. Tickets available from the Centrepoint box office or online.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

You might have thought a book addict who wanted to relate their life story to their love of books would write a book about it. Or that if it was to be a largely sedentary talk, she’d record it as a podcast. But Annie Ruth’s professional vocation is live theatre, and there is a special chemistry that happens in a space where the performer and audience are all life sized, breathe the same air (albeit through masks) and share the experience kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face).

Annie’s face is full of life and well worth witnessing – we can read it like a book. And to ensure she is truly engaging with her audience, she and director Robin Payne have chosen to leave the houselights up which, despite its obvious benefit, is rare. Annie and Robin (as dramaturg) have also chosen to relate the experiences in the present tense which makes them more immediate for all of us and helps to move the performance from telling to showing and sharing.

Designer Helen Todd’s setting of a classy high bar stoor and table, bedecked with stacks of books, in front of a semi-reflective backdrop, speaks volumes. And Annie’s life to date has certainly been voluminous; one could say she has lived many lives. One’s seventies is a classic age in which to ‘take stock’ and, as Annie observes, “Covid has made us all more reflective.”

Despite describing her taste in book genres as omnivorous, Annie says it’s relationship stories that attract her and it’s the stories of her relationships that hold our attention for 75 minutes, inevitably inspiring us to compare and contrast her lived experiences with ours. As with books, her stories can resonate with our own lives, give them context or offer escape into places we may never go.

Chapter headings, and sips from her Blood & Sand cocktail, denote the stages of Annie’s lives and the roles she plays within them. “Every word is true,” she promises, and it has to be said of the most extraordinary, painful and confessional stories she shares, why would she make them up?

A vaudevillian grandfather, glamourous mother and father who reads to her every night, including Greek legends when she’s a preschooler, plus being a Catholic, sow the seeds for the lives she grows into. Formative moments are vividly recalled.

At 18 Annie is a ‘Blue Stocking’ student in Wellington, entranced by T E Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the Greek poet Kavafis and All Quiet on the Western Front – a German account of WWI that influences her participation in anti-war marches. She also embraces the ‘make love’ zeitgeist of the 60s and basks in Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet, further feeding her passion for Greece.

‘The Mourner’ finds her immersed in grief, guilt and misery. The power of words is brutally confirmed. In the 70s she is ‘The Bride’, ‘The Drama Student’ then ‘The Hostess’ in Japan where the life lessons continue. ‘The Greek’ finds her making a reality of her fantasy with unforeseen developments. Becoming ‘The Mother’ is a major turning point, of course. And the next is ‘Falling in love with a Woman’, enhanced by such texts as Our Bodies, Ourselves (by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective).

The recounting is not strictly linear, which keeps us on our toes. Back in Wellington at Teacher’s College, Annie name-checks an impressive list of creative arts mentors whose legacies live on into this 21^st century. Her acting work with Town and Country Players, Downstage and Centrepoint Theatre is briefly traversed. 1989 sees Annie and her partner Jo dubbed Palmerston North’s ‘Romance of the Year’ and a series of three Celtic rituals culminates in their Civil Union.

At 49 Annie is appointed Director of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School and becomes aware of toxic hostility as she faces the challenges of keeping it housed and solvent. Her commitment to making Toi Whakaari truly bi-cultural in practice also gets push-back from all sides – and I can feel the audience collectively noting nothing has changed in that regard.

‘The Grandmother’ is another phase that allows Annie to give back and re-experience what enlivened her as a child, not least the love of books. As for her dedication to exploring momentum and hitting walls – you need to see the show to know what that’s about!

It takes courage to share one’s truth to this extent. There is also courage in Annie and Robin’s choice to avoid arbitrary physicality. By sitting in one spot most of the time, Annie forms the nucleus of a dynamic world of re-lived human experience that becomes highly active in our imaginations. It’s as good as a book only better because we get to share the experience together.
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• Copyright © belongs to the reviewer

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer