Coll appears naked apart from body paint as he plays a penguin in Heat, which opened at the Settlers Festival Club last night.
"We thought about using a costume, but it was much more interesting doing it with a naked and body-painted actor, rather than using a suit which changes the shape of your body," he said yesterday.
"It takes about an hour and a-half to put the make-up on. Three people have to help me with it and then they go away for the last five minutes so I can do my bits.
"It's the first time I've played a part naked and it's my first time playing a wild animal and my first time without any lines," the Auckland actor said.
"It's been a huge challenge, to be honest. To prepare for the role, I watched March of the Penguins and studied documentaries on the Antarctic and Bluebird chip ads and even cartoons, like Happy Feet, just to see how penguins move and act.
"It's also a very physical role. I spend most of the show on my knees and it's very hard on the knees, so I have to wear knee pads. There's also a lot of arching the back and throwing the neck around like penguins do. So it definitely affects you physically."
After the show, Coll heads straight to the shower.
"The paint is water-based, so it washes off pretty quickly, but the nooks and crannies take a while. Fortunately, there are heaters backstage so I don't get cold."
Heat is about a grieving physicist and biologist who are studying climate change and emperor penguins at the South Pole.
"They're a husband and wife who are scientists and are hunkering down over winter on the isolated Ross Shelf. They have recently lost a child and it's a chance for them to let go of their guilt and move on with their lives," Coll says.
"I'm a lone penguin who has strayed from the colony and seeks refuge in their hut. A triangle of tension develops between the man, the woman and the penguin. She doesn't want to let go of the penguin, because he's an allegory for the child that died."
Heat writer Lynda Chanwai-Earle, of Wellington, was full of praise for her birthday-suited bird.
"Byron Coll is a very brave actor to appear naked and painted as a penguin without any lines," she chuckled when contacted in Dunedin this week.
The play also features actors Simon Vincent, Kate Prior and Isaac Heron and an original score by Creative New Zealand Antarctic fellow Gareth Farr.
Heat plays at 8pm until Saturday at the Settlers Festival Theatre.
