Wednesday to Come is the first play in a trilogy by New Zealand playwright Renée. The second play in the trilogy is Pass It On, and the third is Jeannie Once. The play follows the women of a family during the Great Depression in New Zealand.

Background

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Wednesday to Come by writer Renée is her best known play.[1] It was written for a Playmarket script competition and Renée had received a New Zealand Arts Council Grant to support the writing.[2][3] It was presented at a playwrights conference in May 1984 directed by George Webby who went on to direct the premier production.[3]

Renée forged a path in New Zealand with her writing 'about working-class women, takatāpui and Māori' and Wednesday to Come included four generations of working class women.[1] The first performance took place at Downstage Theatre in Wellington on 17 August 1984, directed by George Webby.[4] The play was published in 1985 by Victoria University Press.[5]

An example of Renée's feminist lens in the play is the statement by the character Iris speaking to her position as a working-class woman:

Who will remember us? We need someone because it seems to me that everyone’s forgotten about us. And even if they do remember it’ll only be bits. We’re the ones they leave out when they write up the books.[1]

Wednesday to Come set during the 1930s is the first in a trilogy of plays featuring the same family. The second play is Pass It On (1986) set during the 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute and the third play is a prequel Jeannie Once (1991) set in 1879 featuring the great-grandmother of Jeannie from Wednesday to Come.[5]

Characters

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  • Granna – in her late seventies
  • Mary – fifty-five
  • Iris – thirty-four
  • Cliff – fifteen
  • Jeannie – thirteen
  • Ted – thirty-six
  • Molly – twenty-eight
  • Dot – thirty-five

Synopsis

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The play is set in early spring of 1934. It takes place in Mary's family house, halfway between Palmerston North and Wellington. Domestic tasks such as ironing, washing, dishwashing and cooking take place during the play. Granna, Iris, Mary, Jeannie and Cliff are in the kitchen, waiting for Ted to come home. He arrives with a coffin, and it becomes apparent that Ben has killed himself while working at a labour camp in the Great Depression.

Productions

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Producer (Location) Date Crew Cast
Downstage Theatre (Hannah Playhouse), Wellington 17 August – 22 September 1984 Director: George Webby

Designer: Janet Williamson

Lighting: Stephen Blackburn

Granna: Davina Whitehouse

Mary: Kate Harcourt

Iris: Jane Waddell

Cliff: Tim Homewood

Jeannie: Lucy Sheehan

Ted: Cliff Wood

Molly: Michelle Leuthart

Dot: Ruth Dudding

Court Theatre (Christchurch) 3 November 1984 Director: Alex Gilchrist

Designer: Tony Geddes

Granna: Gwyneth Hughes

Mary: Judie Douglass

Iris: Wickham Pack

Jeannie: Eilish Moran

Ted: John Curry

Molly: Janet Fisher

Dot: Yvonne Martin

Cliff: Christian Boje

Theatre Corporate (Auckland) 9/11/1984–22/12/1984 Director: Sarah Peirse

Designer: John Parker

Production Manager: Murray Lynch

Granna: Yvonne Lawley

Mary: Dorothy McKegg

Iris: Elizabeth Hawthorne

Jeannie: Alison Bruce

Cliff: Phillip Gordon

Ted: Ross Duncan

Molly: Vivienne Laube

Dot: Teresa Woodham

Fortune Theatre (Dunedin) 7/6/1985–29/6/1985 Director: Lisa Warrington Granna: Pamela Pow

Mary: Shirley Kelly

Iris: Miranda Harcourt

Jeannie: Hilary Halba

Cliff: James Maclaurin

Ted: Nic Farra

Molly: Anne-Marie Speed

Dot: Beverley Reid

Globe Theatre (Dunedin) 4/6/1992–13/6/1992 Director: Renée

Set design: Bruce Appleton

Lighting design: Bruce Appleton

Costume design: Maryanne Douglas

Granna: Marion Coxhead

Mary: Mary Sutherland

Iris: Bernadette Doolan

Jeannie: Petka Dragonoff

Cliff: Chris Holdsworth

Ted: John Forman

Alex Bolton, Belinda Meyer

Russell St Theatre (Melbourne) 13/5/1993–12/6/1993[6] Director: Janis Bolodis

Lighting design: Jamieson Lewis

Designer: Trina Parker

Granna: Iris Shand

Mary: Helen Tripp

Iris: Robynne Bourne

Jeannie: Shanti Gudgeon

Cliff: Eugene Wheelahan

Ted: Robert Menzies

Molly: Christen O'Leary

Dot: Beth Child

Downstage Theatre (Wellington) 27/5/2005–25/6/2005 Director: Geraldine Brophy

Costume design: John Senczuk

Lighting design: Lisa Maule

Set design: John Hodgkins

Granna: Kate Harcourt

Mary: Jane Waddell

Iris: Miranda Harcourt

Jeannie: Ellen Simpson

Ted: Jed Brophy

Cliff: Michael Whalley

Molly: Rachel More

Dot: Katherine McRae

Circa Theatre (Wellington)[7] 23/7/2022–20/8/2022 Director: Erina Daniels

Set and lighting design: Natala Gwiazdzinski

Costume design: Cara Louise Waretini

Sound design: Maaka Phat

Granna: Jane Waddell

Mary: Grace Hoete

Iris: Neenah Dekkers-Reihana

Jeannie: Mia van Oyen

Ted: Jonny Potts

Cliff: Reon Bell

Molly: Hannah Kelly

Dot: Amanda Noblett

Amateur productions include

  • Theatrevue at the Left Bank Theatre, Hamilton, in April 1985, directed by Marc Shaw
  • Marlborough Repertory Society at the Boathouse Theatre (Blenheim), March 1987, directed by Pam Logan
  • Te Awamutu Little Theatre, in April/May 1987, directed by David Broadhurst
  • Globe Theatre, Dunedin, in 1995, directed by Hilary Halba
  • Riccarton Players in Christchurch, in 2005, director by Doug Clarke
  • Hutt Repertory in 2012, directed by Doug Buchanan

Response

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The premier production at Downstage attracted positive reviews. It was described as a 'triumph',[1] Downstage was rewarded for programming it, Renée was acknowledged as one of New Zealand 'finest playwrights', and reviewers also acknowledged the presentation of a women's perspective and experience's usually absent from centre-stage.[3] The prime minister of the time David Lange attended and had his photo taken for the newspaper.[3]

Playmarket published in 1986 a schools study guide of Pass It On and Wednesday to Come in their ACT Magazine (v.11 n.3 Jun 1986).[8]

Extracts from Wednesday to Come were included in A Country of Two Halves, and Whaddarya?, productions by Young and Hungry National Schools Tour, which appeared at BATS Theatre in Wellington and toured schools nationally in 2018, in July 2021 respectively.[9][10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Mabey, Claire (12 December 2023). "Renée: The one and only". The Spinoff. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  2. ^ Parry, Lorrae (2005). "Meat and Potatoes". Playmarket News. Autumn (35): 6–7.
  3. ^ a b c d Smythe, John (1 January 2004). Downstage Upfront: the first 40 years of New Zealand's longest-running professional theatre. Te Herenga Waka University Press. ISBN 978-0-86473-489-1.
  4. ^ Renée Taylor (2019). Wednesday to Come: Trilogy. Auckland. ISBN 978-1-7765-6213-8. Wikidata Q108043471.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ a b "Spotlight: Renee". Playmarket News (16): 9. 1997.
  6. ^ "Wednesday to Come". The Australian Life Performance Database. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Wednesday to Come". Circa Theatre. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Schools supplement - Renee". Playmarket. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  9. ^ "PRODUCTION INFORMATION: A COUNTRY OF TWO HALVES - Theatreview". www.theatreview.org.nz. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  10. ^ "PRODUCTION INFORMATION: WHADDARYA? - Theatreview". www.theatreview.org.nz. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2021.