One of the most legendary couples on the New Zealand theatre scene, Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst have acting resumes that range from pimps, to politicians, to animated versions of Buzzy Bee.

They’ve been in countless productions together, but it had never been just the two of them on stage until their most recent stage work - In Other Words.

In the show, the two play a married couple dealing with the onset of Alzheimer's, and it had a sold out run in Auckland last year.

This year, Ward-Lealand and Hurst are taking the show across the nation, which Ward-Lealand told Jack Tame they’re thrilled to be doing.

“It would be rare to find a New Zealander who hasn’t had some connection in some way to some, either member of their Whanau or friends, or friends of friends who’ve experienced dementia,” she said.

Despite the serious topic, Hurst says the play isn’t particularly heavy.

“It certainly confronts it, but it’s levity and uplifting and the human condition, and caring, and all of those things – and music. So all of those things which are part of the dealing of it.”

Although there is levity in the play, Ward-Lealand and Hurst have taken care to represent the symptoms and reality of Alzheimer’s, which they say has been well received by audiences.

“The feedback that we’ve had from people has been really, really humbling,” Ward-Lealand said.

Dates and Venues

Clarence St Theatre, Hamilton
Hamilton Arts Festival
22nd & 23rd Feb

Circa Theatre, Wellington
27th Feb – 2nd Mar & 5th – 8th March

Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
13th – 15th Mar

Dunedin
TBA 2025

Wānaka
TBA 2025

Opera House, Hastings
4th Apr

Q Theatre, Auckland
11th-12th April

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Nadia Reid has returned.

‘Enter Now Brightness’ is Reid’s fourth album, releasing five years after the last and coming from a period of reflection during the Covid lockdowns.

Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to give her thoughts on the release.

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The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey

A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat and run out of the service. Traded back in a spy swap, Sam appears at Procter's central Florida doorstep months later with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole hidden deep within the upper reaches of CIA.

As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter's closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt soon requires Procter to dredge up her own checkered past in service of CIA, placing her and Sam into the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow's mole in Langley at all costs, even if it means wreaking bloody havoc across the United States.

More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out student at NYU. Between exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it's normal to feel overwhelmed. It doesn't help that she's always been the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy's latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on antidepressants. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

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