‘Wheeler’s Luck’

by Nigel Collins, Toby Leach and Damon Andrews

Wheeler’s Luck is a rural NZ comedy set in the Wairarapa and will run for nine performances from 18th November at Studio 73, Greytown.

Auckland developer, Richard Lush, plans to build a seven-storey gaming and entertainment facility, swimming pool, hotel, health spa, and 18-hole golf course in a local town near you, all at the invitation of the Mayor (a keen golfer). The aim is to inject millions into the local economy and create 51.5 new jobs.

The trouble is, the land has been left to the people of the town according to the will of Nora Cox, not the council - a fact that Mayor Duncan Sanderson has tried to keep under wraps. But there’s no chance of secret machinations in this small town, with eccentric local postie Murray Dickie on the case.

To add to his woes, the Mayor is also having trouble with freak weather and regurgitating sewerage, an experience that will resonate with some Wairarapa residents. There’s a brawl in a local pub that conforms only loosely to legal opening hours, and an annual horse race held on the beach.

So the plot unfolds in this Greytown Little Theatre comedy production Wheeler’s Luck, set in Bell End (a small coastal community to be found in Wairarapa) and coming to Greytown’s Studio 73 in November this year.

The play was written by Nigel Collins, Toby Leach and Damon Andrews, each of whom have significant careers in film, television and theatre as actors and playwrights. Nigel and Toby first performed Wheeler’s Luck in 2004, playing all 52 of the characters of the hilarious and complex plot moving between 1882 and the present day.

Five characters will play all the parts, sometimes conversing with themselves, including the roles of animals and faxes and bells, and swiftly moving between genders. The actors are Egan Tearle, Josh Cameron, and three Kuranui College teachers of music, drama, and dance - Lisa McLeod, Juanita McLellan and Alena-Rose Burt.