Surprisingly few New Zealand plays have been written about the media, given the scope it offers for drama, politics, scandal and treachery.

Live at Six takes up all these possibilities and more, pitting rival newsrooms TVNZ and TV3 against each other.

This is satire, often biting, even savage at times. Frequent references during the show to the "Veitch affair" remind us that this fictional story is not so very far fetched.

In this scenario, a TV newsreader is filmed acting in a way that suggests she’s under the influence of hard drugs. The video makes its way onto YouTube and all hell breaks loose. Jane, the newsreader, finds the career she’s fought so hard for is looking shaky as Phil the PR Mr Fix-it strives to salvage the situation for the station. Sue, the hardcore chief over at the rival station, throws all the available resources into beating up the story to make it lead material. Both channels are equally unscrupulous. There can only be one winner though. The play follows the two hours up to the magic hour, 6 o’clock, newstime.

Dean Hewison and Leon Wadham have taken significant risks with this play and that’s what satire needs – fearless writers who do their research so that what you see is funny because it’s so close to the bone.

Great casting also makes this show rock.

Michelle Amas nails role of Sue Austin, the ambitious news editor who’s out for blood, while her opposite number Tim McGregor, as portrayed by Frank Edwards, is almost too much of a gentleman to survive in the unscrupulous modern news environment.

Phil Grieve is disturbingly convincing as super Spin Dr Phil Lancaster and Ben Powdrell and Dean Hewison have a great rapport as the rival VT-editors and good mates, not to mention their brilliant editing skills as they manipulate film recorded in the Bats foyer literally just before the play starts. Genius.

Jess Robinson’s ‘mother of the nation’ Jane Kenyon is perhaps a shade too cold at the start, but always keeps us wondering what Jane’s been up to.

Relevant, funny, and ingenious technologically, this is a great credit to all involved.

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Live at Six, the first of the two 2009 STAB plays, which are intended to be experimental, opened on Saturday and is far from experimental, unless a cast of nine on stage and a further nine on screen or on audio tape is deemed experimental.

It is described as a newsroom thriller and performed "all in real time and live on stage", and it struck me throughout its ninety minute running time that the playwrights have come up with a Kiwi version of the sort of glossy British TV satirical comedy/drama that used to be shown long ago on TV1 on Sunday nights.

Award-winning TV1 star, and mother of the nation, Jane Kenyon (Jess Robinson), has been videoed at a media award ceremony apparently under the influence of drugs. Someone has leaked the video onto YouTube and the TV3 newsroom has got hold of it. It’s a race between the two to get their version of the truth onto the six o’clock news. TV1 is into damage control, while TV3 is relishing the schadenfreude it feels as its rival squirms.

Neither team really cares to what depths it will sink to get its version of the truth on air: bribery, spin, tricky editing, and flagrant disregard for peoples’ feelings, families and loyalties, and above all the truth. We have seen it before albeit on a bigger scale in movies such as Wag the Dog, Broadcast News, and In the Loop, but now there’s a local flavour with references to David Bain, Tony Veitch, and others as well as shots from Saturday night’s TV news.

Stuart Foster has designed a terrific set of two identical TV editing suites on either side of the stage, while in the middle is a large desk that both TV1 and TV2 use while above is an all-purpose space that becomes an office, a toilet, a rooftop and so on. And into these spaces Conrad Newport has marshaled with skill his large cast.

Of the excellent cast the standouts are: Frank Edwards as an old-school broadcaster (tie and jacket) not too sure of modern technology, while Phil Grieve is the gruff boss of TV1 and Michelle Amas is his heartless opposite at TV3, and Phil Vaughan provides most of the laughs as TV3’s jackass of a newsreader.

While the play’s hype in the past week over did the possibility of both TV1 and TV2 being upset by its content (which I very much doubt) and that the race to get to air in "real time" doesn’t make any sense in a scripted play, it is still an entertaining entertainment.
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"Truth is overrated" is the marketing tagline. Ratings are the only truth: that’s the commercial television reality that underlies what happens in the ‘real time’ hour leading up to the six o’clock news on rival channels TV One and TV3 (real institutions with totally fictitious characters, of course).

What makes Dean Hewison and Leon Wadham’s Live at Six such compelling satire is its total credibility. Their thorough research, aided by the channels in question, has paid excellent dividends in the characters they have created and in the way the rival teams handle a breaking ‘news’ story that involves one of their number.

Director Conrad Newport ensures that the audio-visual technology – some live, some pre-recorded, all seamlessly integrated by designer/operator Hamish Guthrie- is utilised to serve the human story. That said, digital technologies and internet services play vital roles in the wittily twisting thriller-like plot.

In the tradition of many Stab shows at Bats, the experience starts on entering the venue. In fact a Bats logo is sweeping across buildings via searchlight as we approach. Tickets are picked up at the office door on the street, a snappily attired security guard allows us access to the foyer and we find ourselves in the rosy glow of a Media Awards after party.

As we move on into the auditorium and take our seats, HD monitors screen images of the party we’ve just been part of. The set – well designed by Stuart Foster and lit by Marcus McShane – comprises two control rooms divided by a passage, a large production office table and an upper level that will have multiple uses. And it’s hard not to notice that up there on the wide-screen monitors, a particular young woman back there at the party seems to be totally out of it, forming an amorous attachment to a deep red wall …

Jump cut to 5pm next day. Someone has posted the footage on YouTube, identifying her has Jane Kenyon and asserting she is high on cocaine. Given she is their frontline anchor woman for the six o’clock news, the TV One news team is shocked into damage control. And the TV3 news team thrills to the whiff of scandal. Hold the running order, both sides cry: this is big!

But what exactly is the story? How do they handle it? And how is the other side handling it? These are the questions that drive the next 60 minutes and reveal each character for who they really are, as they grapple with the scandal monster and try to either tame it (TV One) or exploit it (TV3).

Jess Robinson commands our empathy she takes party girl Jane Kenyon from light-hearted professional of status to heavy-hearted object of dismay or delight. As news reporter Kent Nelson, Grant Roa convinces as her best mate, despite the recent breakup of his marriage.

Frank Edwards’ old school head of news Tim McGregor is nicely offset by Ben Powdrell’s talented but new-to-the-game video editor Sam Calway.  

TV One’s chief executive Karen Johnson (Jude Gibson) is in Wellington at a conference so phones her instructions in to formidable PR trouble-shooter Phil Lancaster, given blistering authority by Phil Grieve.

Michelle Amas revels in the role of TV3’s ruthless head of news, Sue Austin, while Phil Vaughan nails the naïve self-absorption of new anchor Gordon Millar.

Nathan Meister finds the elusive integrity in TV3 news reporter Derek Wilson. Dean Hewison shows video editor Fraser Armstrong – who trained with Sam – has what it takes to rise to the top of his chosen vocation.

As Wiremu, the security guard who greeted us and later confiscated the video camera on which the apparently incriminating actions were recorded, Kerehi Paurini effectively contrasts the high-status bouncer with the innocent abroad in the jungle of high-stakes commercial television.

Our focus and allegiance shift back and forth between the two channels as the go-live deadline approaches. Although on opening night an initial tendency to declaim the lines, rather than be the characters, detracted somewhat from the evolving drama, the play is superbly orchestrated to deliver a powerful payoff when each channel finally breaks their news.

En route we have been treated to insights that will ensure we no longer take scandal-based news at face value. And as we respond to the outcome, we may also feel moved to consider our own parts in the ratings game that has spawned the whole catastrophe.

Live at Six is a satirical thriller of our times and a cautionary tale to boot. Not to be missed.
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