On Friday, I posted a promotional poster for Hello Darkness featuring actor Roy Ward on my Facebook page, encouraging my chums to go and experience this very special work. Naturally, one of my most literate friends immediately responded with “Was it wrong of me to add ‘my old friend’?” I wanted to say yes, it is, but it would have been churlish of me to say so, given the content of the piece and our two degrees of artist separation in Aotearoa, but the simple fact is that Paul Simon’s ‘Sounds of Silence’ had planted – and germinated – its seeds in my brain all week, thanks to the title of the piece. And there they remain, reminding me that, for me at least, anything connected to Peter Wells will totally mess with my head.

Produced by the Auckland Writers Festival, Hello Darkness is described in the publicity as “a theatrical meditation on life, death, and the meaning of everything – crafted from the social media diaries and book written by Festival founder, the late Peter Wells, during his treatment for prostate cancer.” The blurb goes on to say, “with a creative triumvirate of Aotearoa New Zealand theatrical greats – playwright Victor Rodger, director Shane Bosher and actor Roy Ward – this is a warm, graceful and intelligent production, not to be missed.”

I could stop there because “a warm, graceful and intelligent production” is exactly what it was. It’s also a tour de force on the part of everyone involved.

With the festival postponed from its scheduled production dates back in February due to the arrival of Omicron on our shores, anyone closely involved in the arts and/or festival management will tell you that rescheduling an event this complex is hell on earth. Add a pandemic and it’s enough to make you hide in the toilet and never come out, but it speaks volumes that the festival has not only proceeded magnificently and with great good humour but has ticked every box, even down to venue accessibility for those of us doddery old totterers not as mobile as we like to think we are.

The festival marketing reminds us that “complex times demand rich responses”, and if ever there were a time for amplifying the collective consciousness, it would be now. As borders have shuttered the world for two years, Aotearoa’s annual celebration of words and ideas returns in full-form with live and streaming events in Auckland from 22 – 28 August’ and so it has. The line-up is stellar, and venues are full – congratulations to everyone involved (in particular, the army of helpful volunteers).

With Hello Darkness on hold since the first iteration early in 2022, the journey to ‘beginners’ can only have been challenging. Does it show? Not a bit. This is a work of great maturity that, in one short hour, takes me from my intense emotional distrust of Peter Wells, whose ability to tear to ribbons all my emotional sensitivities with his searing, late in life Facebook posts, returning me to the love I previously had for this courageous, valiant, and fearless artist. Yes, those long prostate posts tore me to emotional tatters but, like any trainwreck, I couldn’t stop engaging with them, trying to process the anger and tears that they elicited in me until I simply couldn’t engage anymore.

Now I know why.

The Herald Theatre is a wee challenge for actors – and audiences; I call it Mountain Goat Theatre – but this doesn’t appear to present any concern for actor Roy Ward as he negotiates the evening and draws us inexorably into his – and Wells’ – world. He never leaves his comfy chair on a rostra centre stage but he and director Shane Bosher have wrung every ounce of value from Ward’s body as he moves through the phases of his illness. It’s a performance of subtle excellence and my attention never wavers from the narrative that Ward is exceptionally committed to.

I knew Wells a little, was in awe of his ability to off-foot me – this is the man who made Jewel’s Darl – so I recognise, in Ward, the man I knew. While looking like a clone of the original, Ward, in fact, doesn’t look like Wells at all: acting at its very, very best. Ward is one of those rare actors whose work is always of the very best quality, but he never allows himself to transcend his material. He enables Wells to be heard, and in so doing cauterises my own pain induced by those relentless and heart-breaking Facebook posts on which this work is, in part, based.

Shane Bosher is, to my mind, the crème de la crème of theatre directors in Aotearoa New Zealand; our own renaissance man. He’s thoughtful, daring and articulate. His work communicates exactly what it’s meant to, and he gets work from actors that is only achieved through a balance of much aroha and plenty of super smarts. He tops my list of theatre creatives in Aotearoa for 2022 by a country mile. I imagine some of Ward’s success is down to working with Bosher on a top-quality script, but I can’t tell which is what because the production is simply seamless.

I own up to not having read the seemingly dense 140 pages of Hello Darkness before seeing the show – I think I’ve explained why already – and I did want to experience it raw. I have read the book now and, as the Chicks (ex-Dixie Chicks) sing in ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’, their ‘fuck you’ to forgiving George W Bush, ‘time heals everything’ and in my case, it has. (I still loathe George Bush though, apropos of nothing).

The book has a whimsy that the Facebook posts struggled to convey and, in turning Wells’ complex narrative into a work for the stage and solo performance, the inimitable Victor Rodger has created a work of honesty, authenticity and wit. No surprises there because Rodger is, himself, a man of honesty, authenticity, and wit. I recall telling him once, in a moment of sober reflection, that he was my hero, and I don’t resile from that comment. This script is actable, subtle and, at times, outrageous – including the GOFTA-slob episode was pure genius, as was the kindly portrait of Wells’ parents – and Rodger can be justly proud of creating a work that fits Ward like an elegant Wellsian glove.

Three men at the top of their game doing work that moves me and makes me laugh – and snigger occasionally – in the best possible way. It honours Wells, a giant in our pantheon of arts luminaries, many of whom have not been truly valued in their lifetimes. Wells tore me to pieces, Ward, Rodger, and Bosher have, ‘with Hello Darkness’, have made me whole again but without removing the treasured memories of the original heart-rending experience.

I very much doubt I am alone in this,

Bravo.
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