Cityscape caught up with Hannah Smith, a Wellington-based directore, designer and producer ahead of her performance in The Road That Wasn't There.

How long does it take to put a show like this together? This show has been in the works for years, and has come to be in its current form after several rounds of development. We first made it for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012 with two weeks of rehearsal and a lot of frantic puppet crafting and recording music in a bathroom; and then we have given it two major re-workings for a season in 2015 and another in 2017. Every time we come back to it we tinker with it some more - there is a lot of new stuff in this iteration. So in short, forever! It takes as long as you have got!

What comes first - the story or the characters? I think for our shows it is usually the story that comes first. Ralph and I will often take a series of long walks where we try and bash out the shape of an idea for a story, and what its outlines might be. Then we fill that in with characters and details and give the whole thing a good shake up.

Where has been your favourite place to perform? We have been lucky enough to perform in loads of lovely spaces and places, but we have just finished performing The Road That Wasn't There in the Hawea Flat Hall in Wānaka at the Festival of Colour. The show is set down that way (in St Bathan's) and so this was a special performance for us.

We caught you last time you were in Christchurch with the Bookbinder - how does this piece compare to that? The Road That Wasn't There and The Bookbinder share similar DNA. They both exist in a space of myth and magic where things can get a bit spooky, and use classic fable narrative tropes as part of their structure. Theatrically, they are both small shows full of obsessive design details.

Your stories have been compared to Margaret Mahy and Neil Gaiman - have you a favourite story from each author? I have always loved The Haunting - just one of the spookiest books of my childhood, and I love that thrill of being almost too scared to keep reading but unable to stop. My favourite Neil Gaiman is definitely American Gods. I loved how the story started in the real world and then the myth and magic started creeping in from the sides while you weren't looking straight at it.

Do you leave your work at the theatre or take it home with you? Oh we take it home! It isn't really a 9 to 5 sort of a job, and because Ralph and I live together, work together and travel together we can struggle to find times to switch it off. Basically though, we are running a small business, and as anyone who has done that can attest - the work just has to get done, whatever time of the day or night you can find to do it in.

If you weren't writing and creating brilliant artistic works, what would you be doing? I can't really imagine living my life outside of the performing arts - if I ever get sick of being an artist I would hope to work either as part of a festival, or at a theatre venue.

On Sunday morning you'll find me... Depends on the week! If we are in Wellington though, then we always hit up the Sunday morning vege market to get some local veges that don't come wrapped in plastic.

Favourite author? Have been on a massive David Mitchell kick recently - he writes these incredibly complicated narratives that twist themselves into interconnected spirals.

Favourite play? Constantly changes, but I was blown away by the production of Wild Dogs Under My Skirt at the Auckland Arts Festival recently.

Favourite movie? Terminator 2: Judgement Day. No shame.

Currently binge watching: Just finished smashing through Russian Doll on Netflix - genius.

Currently on my playlist: Tiny Ruins aka Hollie Fullbrook, 'Olympic Girls'

The Road that Wasn’t There
Wed 17 - Sat 20 April
11am (Wed/Thurs), 2pm & 6pm (Fri, Sat)
Papa Hou, YMCA

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