Hot taste of coffee and success
Veronica Lake, trapped between paramount and purgatory.
They bought a $400 van from the side of the road on a whim and set off around New Zealand to bring their idea to life.
Now their fourth production is back in Wellington, a one-woman show where Ellis brings the story of schizophrenic Hollywood starlet and tragic alcoholic Veronica Lake to life. It’s had some tweaking since it was here at the Fringe Festival in February, with some newly commissioned music from Colleen Davis and Tom Rodwell, but the show’s success reflects a long journey for Ellis. She’s from Tauranga and started with speech and drama, before uni in Wellington, a stint in Melbourne and Europe, then a return to Kiwiland to answer her calling.
“We did our first show touring with the van with no experience. It was called Biscuit and Coffee, so we thought we’d do it in cafes,” she laughs, “But some places were so small I was almost sitting on people’s knees.”
In Waimate they had the challenge of filling out a 600-seater cinema in a town only populated by 200 people. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t manage.
“It was this tiny place and a truly massive theatre space. It used to be a bustling town, but evidently they moved the highway,” laughs Ellis.
In Gore, it snowed. In April. With all their money spent, Ellis and Ormsby asked to sleep in the theatre, but were not allowed. Instead, the locals gave them the run of the whole boarding school, closed for the school holidays.
In four years they’ve come a long way, now invited to play at the Nelson Arts Festival and being chauffeured around “like VIPs and staying in nice places.” The amping up of the Veronica Lake show from the shoestring Fringe show in February to the higher budget and remastered version is a reflection of the path they’ve trod, “It’s our journey shrunk down into six months,” explains Ellis.
She likes the difficulty of portraying Lake, a suspected mentally ill, definitely volatile superstar thrust into the Hollywood limelight at 17 before a downward spiral that left her an unknown, struggling cocktail waitress in her fifties. She stays in one spot on stage for the whole show in a huge, billowing dress, symbolising Lake’s entrapment in Hollywood, between paramount and purgatory.
After the success of the company, the pair bought a new van, which broke down immediately. The old van they sold with a $6 profit. So what did they spend the money on?
“More coffee. Which means more ideas.”
Drowning in Veronica Lake, Circa Theatre, November 1-12.
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