CIRCA Theatre’s first play for 2011, The Motor Camp, is also a first for the world.
Written by Kiwi Dave Armstrong, the play is based on a 1980s story idea by director and best friend Danny Mulheron. It is a verbal jigsaw puzzle of “pretty much everything Dave’s ever thought about,” says Mulheron of his “colleague who started out as my friend”.
The duo, who toss badinage at each other as if they were characters in the play, are delighted to talk about the process of writing The Motor Camp. They quote Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Janet Frame, admitting that most of the inspiration for the play came from their adolescent, parental and personal camping experiences.
“We were 13 and at Wellington High School together. I guess our parents were friends first and then we went camping,” says Mulheron.
“I think it’s Dave’s autobiography about his family and he thinks it’s about my family. It’s about the working class life – you can’t get away from it.”
Social-climber Dawn (played by Olivia Robinson) is the only Maori character. She is more interested in mixing cocktails than looking after her teenage son Jared (Anthony Young). Her partner Mike (Phil Vaughan) is a fisherman and redneck builder.
On the other side, Frank (Tim Spite), a left-wing literacy lecturer, wants a quiet Christmas holiday with his wife Jude (Danielle Mason) and teenage daughter Holly (played by Mulheron’s daughter Florence). “A camping ground is a great equaller. University lecturers reading Chomsky sit slap-bang next to shop assistants reading Dan Brown. It was this juxtaposition that attracted me to the idea of the motor camp as a Pakeha marae where issues of family, relationships, educations and politics could be discussed,” says Armstrong.
“Race is easy but class is different. We don’t like to think we are being judgmental but we just disguise it well,” Mulheron adds.
The final scene involves every character on stage, resolving their differences and “having it out”.  
“I never consciously thought about it but it’s like the formal apology ‘ifoga’ in Samoan culture, when you humiliate yourself and then apologise – it’s a public forgiveness. The play draws on Maori and Pacific culture but not in an icky way, or a ‘museum’ way,” says Armstrong.
It also draws on the dynamics between married couples, men and woman, and pressures placed on children.
“The mothers are peacemakers. If the husband rocks the boat the wife does damage control. In fact, the women really have far more power. The kids are more mature than the adults in the play and there is lots of pressure on them – academically. It’s all that striving or aspiration bullshit parents put on their kids so they can buy themselves into class. They project their own desires onto their kids,” says Mulheron.
Camping exposes people and their behaviour and the play revolves around dramatic oppositions created within the camping environment, with unholy alliances, and “six characters keeping all the plates spinning at once”, says Mulheron.
“It’s a love song to camping…and Ladas.”
The Motor Camp, Circa Theatre, January 22 – February 19.