Baby, it’s cold out­side. “Heat”, by New Zea­l­and play­wright Linda Chan­wai-Earle, returns to Wel­ling­ton after its 2008 debut at Bats. I did­n’t quite know what to expect of this icy Ant­arc­tic tale, but I ended up really enjoy­ing it, and found it sur­pris­ingly mov­ing.

Set in an isol­ated research hut in Ant­arc­tica, it focuses on couple Stella and John. They’re both sci­ent­ists – she stud­ies pen­guins and he the ozone hole – and they’re alone togeth­er for the pitch­black Ant­arc­tic winter. There’s been a tragedy in their past, and the claus­tro­pho­bia of spend­ing six months isol­ated in a tiny hut in a dark cli­mate soon takes its toll.

But they are not alone. The third char­ac­ter is Bob the pen­guin, a favour­ite of Stel­la’s from a pre­vi­ous vis­it. He’s poorly and so Stella lets him live in their hut, much to John’s annoy­ance – it’s a tiny hut and Bob’s a big ol’ emper­or pen­guin.

John and Bob the pen­guin share a moment

“Heat” has a real magic­al feel­ing to it. The set uses min­im­al light­ing to great effect, and Gareth Far­r’s sound design brings an atmo­spher­ic edge. And the theatre itself had its air­con­di­tion­ing cranked down low to add to the icy mood – not unpleas­antly cold, butif it’s a hot sum­mer­’s day, make sure you’re wear­ing more than a t‑shirt.

The cast is superb, with Kate Pri­or as Stella, Simon Vin­cent as John, and Bry­on Coll as Bob. Bry­on Coll is not only naked, apart from some pen­guiny body paint, he also man­ages to, well, act like a pen­guin, to the point where it’s very easy to for­get you’re look­ing at a naked man, rather than an actu­al pen­guin.

But des­pite all the magic­al flour­ishes, at the heart of Heat is a very simple yet strong story of a rela­tion­ship between a woman and a man. I highly recom­mend Heat.

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And you may have noticed a ship­ping con­tain­er out the back of Circa. It has a wind-powered tur­bine and sol­ar pan­els, which are dir­ectly fed into the Circa Two theatre, mean­ing the entire play is powered off the grid.

It’s a cool concept, and ties in with both the play’s Ant­arc­tic hut set­ting, and also the need for sus­tain­able energy sources.

  • Heat plays at Circa Theatre until 19 Feb­ru­ary.