Bruce Mason Playwriting Award finalist Eli Kent is so cool you almost don’t want to like him. It’s like not wanting to admit you read The Da Vinci Code or that you liked Eat, Pray, Love (the book) – it’s just not as much fun liking something that everyone else likes too.
TWENTY two year-old Wellington playwright Eli Kent is grounded, charming and onto-it; so unless those characteristics turn you off, you’re going to have to get onboard the Eli train.
His writing is also very good.
Kent officially entered the scene with his play Rubber Turkey in 2008, and he took out the Best New New Zealand Playwright Award at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards that year. Last year, The Intricate Art of Actually Caring nabbed Most Original Production at the same awards, and won Best Theatre at the Fringe Awards, heading into repeat performances at Downstage Theatre for the Best of Fringe. His play Thinning was a standout for this year’s Young and Hungry showcase.
He’s also just been announced as one of four finalists for the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, the winner of which will be announced this week.
Kent is also an actor.
“I’ve always said that acting and writing come from the same place of make believe. When you’re young and playing Power Rangers or Peter Pan you’re essentially having a long devising session. You’re working in a group where there’s often a leader to devise a make believe world,” says Kent.
Like those childhood games, collaborative theatre can have its ups and downs.
“When you’re writing with other people you’ve got to find a world that you can all share. If you get on different planes it can get hard, like playing Power Rangers and two people wanting to be the red one. That said, sometimes it’s the perfect match and everyone likes the world you’ve created, but wants to be a different Power Ranger.”
Kent works in these collaborative environments much of the time, acting as the official writer but drawing inspiration from a group. Along with friends Eleanor Bishop and Robin Kerr, Kent set up The PlayGround Collective in 2007. The group has since gathered more young theatre practitioners.
“With The Intricate Art of Actually Caring, rehearsals were like a workshop, with everyone just hanging out in my bedroom working on the script.”
Kent’s characters are witty, and quick delivery of dialogue puts emphasis on their cleverness. There’s an interesting dynamic in hearing dialogue that is so obviously real and human, but at such a superhuman and relentless speed. Is anyone actually that clever, and funny, that much of the time?
“A lot of the dialogue in Thinning and The Intricate Art is from conversations I remembered and wrote down, but strung together without the periods of boring stuff in the middle. That’s what drama is; real life, but condensed and purified.”
The pace is for entertainment; the subject matter serves a different purpose.
“The moments of truth, the stuff that feels real, is what connects you to the characters.”
Kent has just finished a Masters in scriptwriting at Victoria University of Wellington, a course he was accepted into on experience alone and with no prior university study. As is relatively common among writers, he does still worry that one day inspiration will decide not to visit anymore.
“When it comes you don’t really know where it’s coming from. Looking back sometimes you can feel like you can’t really take credit for an idea, like it just happened.”
He might not be keen to take all the credit, but a selection committee might just make him, at the awards on Friday.

The finalists for the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award are Lynda Chanwai-Earle (from Wellington), Arthur Meek, Eli Kent and Thomas Sainsbury. The winner will be awarded $10,000.
The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award is named for well-known New Zealand playwright Bruce Mason, and has recognised the work of up-and-coming playwrights since 1983. Previous winners include Toa Fraser, Hone Kaouka, Jo Randerson and last year’s winner Pip Hall.