Struggling to break into the Melbourne theatre scene, Ben Ashby and Nadiyah Akbar decided the only way forward was to make their own show.
Taking inspiration from an earlier production Ashby had developed and directed with Long Cloud Youth Theatre Company in Wellington about young people’s concerns for the future which featured music, dance and acting, he created an entirely new show.
"It was very abstract in its first version with the youth company, and then I rewrote it to a bit more of a narrative for a professional company."
Retaining the three elements of acting, dance and music, Ashby and Akbar, co-directors of a2 Company, created Running into the Sun about young people looking to the future and trying to be hopeful about a range of issues from climate change to global war crimes and political unrest.
"I kind of started asking people about the future and I just realised the overwhelming response was, "I don’t want to think about that", or "that’s terrifying", from young people. I thought, actually, that’s really sad and quite scary."
Ashby, who is from Christchurch, created three characters, all young people graduating from university. Ash and Mary discover they are unexpectedly pregnant, while the other character gets dumped.
"It’s about testing their personal struggles and immediate needs as friends and as a couple against this backdrop of a flash flood that breaks out in their hometown, how they feel morally about the real wars that are going on overseas and what they can do next in order to do something that feels meaningful in the world."
While it sounds very weighty, Ashby still wanted it to be a "good night out" as he felt people want to see shows that make them feel good because there is so much "grim stuff" happening in the world.
The answer was dancing and music. In the earlier version of the show, he paired the youth actors with a group of classical musicians who had just graduated from the New Zealand School of Music and trying to work out where the future lay for them.
"I found that pairing them up and having this beautiful craft of the music matched with all of the massive ideas and exploding emotions of these young actors made this beautiful pairing that really complemented each other well. And we’ve made some really exciting stuff."
So for the new work, he called in musician-friends to form a three-piece live jazz band.
"A lot of the emotion and the journey of the show is portrayed through music and movement. And that, I think, makes it feel a lot more hopeful and a lot more cathartic than it can through just talking about these subjects like you do at a grim dinner party."
Ashby knew from the earlier show, that dancing would elevate any future work, and as Akbar, who is Australian, is a dancer, choreographer and New Zealand School of Dance graduate, they had access to some good dancers.
"We started making some stuff with them and thought this is really working."
"So there’s the video, the music, the text, and the movement, and these four elements that are kind of weaving in and out."
It is definitely a "more is more" approach, he says.
"I think that in some ways, they do overwhelm each other. And that is the effect that we’re going for, where that is how it feels to be alive in the world at the moment. It’s kind of impossible to stay focused on one thing."
If that does not sound complicated enough, Ashby decided he missed treading the boards, so performs in this show as well as directing. He has been directing since just after graduating from drama school.
"Then I suddenly found myself really good at this and really enjoying the skill set. And then I realised I hadn’t been on stage for a long time. So when this show came about, I went, oh yeah, I want to get back on stage."
However, he discovered that he lost a lot of control by doing the dual role as he could not see the whole picture and keep focus the same. So Akbar stepped in, along with Barr, taking turns at running the show when the others were on stage.
"It is really, truly a collaborative process. That’s been one of its strengths as well."
Ashby has loved being on stage in front of an audience again and feeling the energy in the room.
"It still feels more magical to me since Covid, you feel all of that energy in the room and the give and the take of it and everyone being present. It feels really special."
He admits they have taken a few creative risks with the show and hope people go with them on an emotional level rather than a logical one.
"We had a few people say, I’m not quite sure I understood everything that went on, but I loved all of it. That was some of my favourite feedback."
They debuted the show at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, an outlier in a way, as all the performers in their show had studied in New Zealand and met there. Ashby flew some of the cast over from New Zealand to perform.
"We really had a dream run. We just had a week where our audience was really quiet on the first night and then built and built over the season."
The show won best emerging company and best yheatre show, with reviewers calling it "exhausting but exhilarating" and a "visceral experience".
"It was really gratifying and amazing, so we thought we’d better take this home."
"People really don’t care about your New Zealand CV in Australia. They really don’t. Like, a bunch of names that are in New Zealand impressive names and places and people to have worked with. And they’re really not looking to us in the same way that we look to them sometimes."
So to then put the show on and have people go "oh, you guys are really good" was a bit frustrating for Ashby who had been trying to tell them that for a year.
But it means they can bring the show back to New Zealand and hit the road with shows in Wānaka, Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington.
"It’s kind of a crazy thing. We’ve got 10 people on the road on this tour — for an independent company it’s kind of an insane decision financially. But creatively, we’re all really excited about it and really interested. We’ve had a lot of support to try and get it off its feet."
Ashby, who credits fellow Christchurch Boys’ High graduate and comedian Chris Parker for igniting his theatre passion at a school with no drama programme, has found himself finding any opportunity to come back to New Zealand whether it is to teach theatre workshops, direct or perform.
He has a passion for youth theatre having spent a year touring New Zealand with the New Zealand Playhouse doing theatre in schools before a year at university and then going to Toi Whakaari.
"We did a primary school show called Hashtag the fairest of them all, which was about Snow White and internet safety. I was the troll who was the internet troll."
Along with his own experience growing up, it helped reinforce to him the need for youth theatre and he has stayed involved. The last time he was in Dunedin was to direct at the New Zealand National Shakespeare in Schools production.
"I think that it gives a place for young people to find their voice and to find their tribe. I just think that there’s so much talent across New Zealand and schools and it’s just getting people to think, getting young people to think creatively about the future and about how to solve problems, even if they don’t go into the arts, I think it’s a really important skill set to learn.
"But the creative problem solving and being able to work in a team, I think are the two kind of unsung real winners out of youth theatre making."
Ashby is very proud Running into the Sun has come out of a youth theatre background. "And I think that that’s a testament to the strength of what that form can do."
He is not resting on his laurels though with another show in the works called Motion Sickness, featuring himself and a saxophone player, who happens to be his cousin. They hope to perform that at the Melbourne Fringe and then bring it to New Zealand’s fringe festivals.
"It’s a bit of a family affair. It’s about the end of the universe. We thought thinking about the future isn’t enough, we’d better think of the universe as well."
TO SEE:
Running into the Sun: Wānaka, Hāwea Flat Hall, September 7, 5pm.
