Australian drama at Circa

27/07/2011 9:33:00 a.m.

Richard Chapman and Sophie Hambleton play in When the Rain Stops Falling at Circa.

WHEN Wellington actor Sophie Hambleton finishes her role in Circa Theatre’s When the Rain Stops Falling she’s heading to the big lights of Auckland.
Hambleton plays the younger Gabrielle York in the play, opening for the first time in Wellington this week. The Newtown girl says she’s been lucky in Wellington but she’s looking for change.
“Sometimes you just want to play in a different playground,” she says.
Hambleton graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2007. She has worked on stage and screen, and was nominated for the most promising female newcomer at the Chapman Tripp theatre awards both in 2008 and 2009. Last year she won the Chapman Tripp actress of the year award.
In When the Rain Stops Falling she plays a woman searching for love, finding it, and having it taken from her at a young age. Hambleton shares her role with Jude Gibson, who plays the older Gabrielle. Hambleton says with a split role she and Gibson have had to work closely to ensure continuity in the character.
“We’ve each approached the role in our own way but we’ve had to work together on such things as gestures and mannerisms. It’s like when you meet a long lost cousin but you know they’re family because of their hand gestures.”
Andrew Bovell’s award winning drama spans four generations following the story of Gabriel Law as he traces his father’s footsteps to solve the mystery of his disappearance.
“It’s a play about generations and what each generation passes on to the other,” Hambleton says. “It shows how the voices of the past echo into the lives of following generations, like when you question where you come from and there’s that grandparent you didn’t meet who may have all the answers.”
Hambleton says the play moves through a series of interconnecting stories unrolling the tales of seven characters in a well crafted and multi-layered script.
“It’s an amazing piece of writing, like a puzzle really. We’re been rehearsing for four weeks and I’m still discovering pieces, finding something new every time I read the play.”
When the Rain Stops Falling, Circa Theatre, July 30 to August 27.

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Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

A question of nutrition
Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.
Relay for cancer
Organisers say Sunday’s Relay for Life is full to capacity with hundreds of Wellingtonians registered for the event.
A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.
Osteoarthritis awareness
Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis.
Arthritis is New Zealand’s leading cause of disability, affecting 305,000 adults, and osteoarthritis is its most common form.
The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.
Wild walk
Take part in the Big Walk at Zealandia on March 31.
Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.
School pool
The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
Grants from the fund have also been made for pools at Wellington East Girls’ College, Barhampore School and Tawa School.
Easter bikers
Motorcyclists are invited to get on their bikes and collect Easter eggs for families support from the Wellington City Mission.
The charity run on April 1 is organised by motorcycle lobby group BONZ.
Eggs can be donated at Red Baron Motorcylces in Alicetown. The registration fee for bikers is $10, plus the cost of Easter eggs.
Crafty
Made on Marion opens on the site of the former Golding Handicrafts site in Marion St, from April 1. They will continue to supply craft materials.
Ze upgrade
Taranaki Street fuel users will notice that the Z Energy’s former Shell Service Station is closed. Z are doing a “total revamp”.
The job will take four weeks.
Newlands Moves
Developer Ayal Aharoni has agreed to build only 90 instead of 220 houses on his six and a half hectares above Ngauranga Gorge in Newlands. Only low density occupation will be allowed on the remaining 8.4 hectares.
Baring Head
There's a new draft plan out for what should happen at Baring Head. It outlines how the Greater Wellington Regional council would like to manage the newest addition to its regional parks network. Grazing animals will go, motorised vehicles will be prohibited, predators will be controlled, and the lighthouse will be preserved. Submissions are invited.
It’s a wonder
A new childcare centre in Newtown says it is dedicated to helping kids grow up healthy in mind, body and spirit. Little Wonders Childcare on Rintoul Street is an independent early childhood education and learning centre, the sixth centre to be opened by its Auckland-based owner. It caters to 100 children aged between three months and five years old and has been open for a little more than seven weeks.
Festival treats
CHILDREN have not been forgotten by organisers of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.
For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

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