Summer's tale
9/02/2011 10:23:00 a.m.
Lori Leigh loves everything NZ.
“No, I’m staying. I’ve completely fallen in love with New Zealand. My entire life has shifted here and it’s become my home,” she says.
“I went back to the US a couple of years ago and it felt weird, all those big SUV gas-guzzlers and mega malls.”
Leigh has a particularly soft spot for Wellington.
“Although it’s a city you can run into someone you know on Cuba Street; there’s a little bit of that small town feel to it. People love to be out in nature, going for walks or spending the day at the beach as opposed to sitting in a dark movie theatre. I also love the sea. I don’t know how I ever lived in a landlocked place, there’s nothing better than the feeling of plunging into the cold sea.
“The arts scene isn’t like Hollywood. It seems to be about the work and the art more than being a star.”
This year Summer Shakespeare will take on The Winter’s Tale.
“I like the irony of doing it in summer, and thematically it has as much to do with summer as winter.”
One of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, The Winter’s Tale is also a later one, “So you’d think he was at the top of his game. I do,” says Leigh.
Categorised as a romance, the play also weaves comedy and tragedy with music, magic and even a spot of courtroom drama.
“It has the best of everything that makes theatre work. It really makes the audience a part of the play, which is true of all Shakespeare’s plays but especially here.”
Summer Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale, The Sound Shell, Wellington Botanic Garden, February 11-26.
