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- By Franklin Times Junior Journalist Lexi le Roux
On April 4 and 5, Oddysey Theatre Pukekohe, performed a sold-out play that was put
together in two weeks.
The cast consisted of seventeen children, ages 10 to 17. Together with a
talented director, Douglas Roberts, an incredible co-director, Bonnie Taylor, and help from
amazing parents, they pulled off the impossible.
It took hours of exhausting work; blocking, re-blocking, learning lines… and miraculously, a
two-hour show called Shakespeare’s Notebook was born.
Director Douglas Roberts had originally done the show in 2018. It includes seven famous
Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, King Henry V, The Tempest, and Hamlet.
The seven stories had their boundaries vaguely blurred together, as William Shakespeare
(played by Paige Loveday) had recently invented his two best characters, Rosencrantz (Evan Loveday) and Guildenstern (Eliana Ward). The only problem was that Shakespeare could not decide which play to put them in.
Both characters were eager to be in a story, but they always ended up dead (especially whiny Rosencrantz, who was never content with his role). Neither of them fitted into any story.
Until they reached the final part of the play, Hamlet.
That was the one story where they actually managed to make a name for themselves, and not die… until Hamlet swapped sealed orders from the King of Denmark around, and arranged his two friends’ execution.
All three shows were sellouts. People experienced a wonderful finished product, but
nobody knew what went on backstage: bloopers that only the cast can laugh about. Funny
dances that sprang into existence because of remarks made by the co-director. Close
friendships that will never be forgotten, and bittersweet tears when the show was over, and all must depart.
Roberts has done these shows for over seventeen years, and when the Earth orbits around the sun once again, Oddysey will be back for another annual performance.
- Lexi le Roux is homeschooled in Franklin
