A nurse and a drag king walk into a bar... and they are shaking (and stirring!) up the local theatre industry.

Georgie Sivier has dreamt about creating her own theatre company since she was eight years old. She studied performing arts at Whitireia in Wellington and quickly dove headfirst into the worlds of acting, standup comedy, directing and drag. But Georgie says her theatre company Play Space was never intended to be a solo project. “Ever since I set up Play Space in 2017 I’ve been looking for someone who challenges and inspires me, someone who is as passionate as I am.”

Kat Forrester is a nurse who turned her hand professionally to performing arts in 2018 after a long flirtation with community theatre. “I studied with Hagley Theatre Company, after taking a breather from nursing and focussing on something more creative for a couple of years. I’d never seriously thought I’d ever jump into the performing arts scene.” The two met when Georgie directed the 2018 Play Space show The Lifestyle, in which Kat played the timid, crystal-loving Carole, who has an awakening at a key bowl party. After The Lifestyle closed and Kat graduated from Hagley, Georgie proposed that Kat join Play Space as co-artistic director of the company.

They now run Play Space Productions together, and have been going from strength to strength. “For us we found that our two different viewpoints worked well together and unlocked the potential within both of us. We have complementary strengths and weaknesses, with our combined skillset we activate this inspiration in ourselves that we can’t get to on our own,” Kat says.

She directed her first piece last year – Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood – and fell in love with directing. “It’s a whole different ball game. It’s like playing God”.

Under Milk Wood was set in The Pegasus Arms, creating an authentic village pub soundscape to accompany the absurd Welsh radio play. “That was our debut work as a duo. To say it was well-received would be an understatement – there were standing ovations and people were talking about it for months afterwards,” Georgie says. “Kat and I have gotten really good at being able to telepathically know what the other one is needing. When I get an idea, Kat might already be working on it.”

Kat came up with the idea for a murder mystery show called The Last Martini – an interactive mystery experience where audience members are part of the action and are the key to solving the murder. Georgie fell in love with the idea immediately; they have been working on this show now for three years. The original production was put on hold when the country locked down last year, and Kat got a nursing contract on the West Coast. But the co-directors kept on with the necessary preparations from afar, and others involved in the show stuck with it to put it on a year later. “This show has evolved so much in this elongated production process – it’s had years of love and inspiration poured into it - this is going to be unforgettable,” Kat says. It is this kind of immersive theatre-making that the duo is keen on exploring more of. “We aim to create a world in which the work lives, where you feel like you have been transported. When you create something, you want to have that je ne sais quoi, that sprinkling of fairy dust that makes an audience go ‘wow’, and feel and laugh in a way they’ve never experienced before.”

The Last Martini will be exactly that – an engaging murder mystery set at Riccarton House, with 1920s dress up encouraged, of-the-time canapés provided by Riccarton Local, live music, a boutique bar and a fantastic show. The production is a must-do this winter.

“We’re putting on a top-notch show at Riccarton House,” Georgie says. “It seems a bit surreal... We've been excited for this event for a long time, to be at such a prestigious place. This is the biggest thing we’ve done and we are so ready.”

The Last Martini
Thu 1 – Sat 10 July
Riccarton House
FB/playspaceproductionsnz
Tickets from Humanitix