Ana­hera is the new play from Emma Kinane. Described as an “enthralling mix of an intense miss­ing child dra­ma and a behind-closed-doors look at New Zealand’s social ser­vices” it’s a con­tem­po­rary domes­tic thriller about a strug­gling Kiwi fam­i­ly and how one woman mak­ing a stand could make all the dif­fer­ence. A final­ist in last year’s Adam New Zealand Play Awards, it opens at Cir­ca The­atre on Sat­ur­day. The team behind the show talked to us about it.

“Ana­hera was giv­en a 2‑week work­shop cour­tesy of Auck­land The­atre Company’s The Next Stage ini­tia­tive, and Katie Wolfe was the direc­tor who bril­liant­ly helmed that work­shop per­for­mance. When writer Emma Kinane decid­ed to pitch the play to Cir­ca, she asked Katie if she’d like to direct it again, and since then she has gath­ered a won­der­ful group of peo­ple – a real mix of Auck­land and Welling­ton in the cre­ative team work­ing on Ana­hera. Jacque­line Nairn and Neill Rea will be famil­iar to audi­ences from their work on Short­land Street and The Bro­ken­wood Mys­ter­ies, and they have brought their absolute A‑games to the char­ac­ters of Liz and Peter, whose child has gone miss­ing. Welling­ton audi­ences will already know Neenah Dekkars-Rei­hana, Simon Leary and Susie Berry. This fan­tas­tic trio uproot­ed them­selves to rehearse the play in Auck­land last month and now they’ve wel­comed the Auck­land con­tin­gent back here, and our team now also includes Auck­land-based Mark McIn­tyre who has designed a stark­ly evoca­tive set, stun­ning­ly lit by Lisa Maule, and oper­at­ed by Bon­nie Jud­kins.”

Play­wright Emma Kinane con­tin­ues: “Ana­hera was inspired by my daugh­ter Claire’s teenage rage over a school project. She rant­ed that sta­tis­tics tell one sto­ry, but the media presents us with a total­ly dif­fer­ent, false stereo­type. An idea start­ed to form in my mind, but it took a long time to come into focus. And once I start­ed the play, I tried real­ly hard to stop writ­ing it – about five times. The more I got into the sub­ject mat­ter, the more I want­ed to chuck it in and write a com­e­dy about fluffy bun­nies, but Ana­hera kept call­ing and wouldn’t let me give up on her. Each time I tried to walk away, Ana­hera the play took a stand and made me keep writ­ing, just as Ana­hera the char­ac­ter takes a stand for the Hunters.”

”I set this play in two dif­fer­ent time peri­ods because the show is aimed at par­ents of chil­dren, but also at the chil­dren who then become par­ents, or who are like­ly to become par­ents. Every­one has been a child, and most of us go on to be par­ents. Ide­al­ly the audi­ence will relate to char­ac­ters in both time set­tings — the chil­dren and then the adults (and par­ents) they become. The con­ver­sa­tions that I hope will spring up around this play con­cern all of us.”

 “I would love to hear that the audi­ence are engag­ing in intense, won­der­ful, soul-search­ing con­ver­sa­tions in the bar after the show. I think peo­ple will be moved by the events in the play, but I’m also hop­ing that they will take a moment to peer under the sur­face, to check their own actions and assump­tions in their own lives and rela­tion­ships. I have delib­er­ate­ly not answered many of the ques­tions that are raised by the sub­ject mat­ter, because I want peo­ple to have those con­ver­sa­tions after the show. I hope they leave the the­atre with ques­tions and a sense of recog­ni­tion and a desire to effect change.”

  • Ana­hera, on at Cir­ca The­atre 9 Sep­tem­ber – 7 Octo­ber 2017

A per­fect life, a per­fect secret.

We’re all hid­ing some­thing.

Liz and Peter Hunter have it all. A great mar­riage, suc­cess­ful careers, a beau­ti­ful house and two won­der­ful chil­dren.

Until their son Har­ry goes miss­ing.

Dis­traught, they wait for news from the police, sup­port­ed by social work­er Ana­hera. As the hours pass and every­one is pushed beyond their lim­its, Ana­hera must make a stand. But is it already too late? Can Ana­hera save any­one?