Roger Hall plays with grandparents and grandchildren

You Can Always Hand Them Back
By Roger Hall
Music and lyrics by Peter Skellern
SkyCity Theatre, Auckland

"Grandchildren can be little bastards," observes Maurice in Roger Hall’s latest musical You Can Always Hand Them Back. This thought has crossed the minds of many a grandparent. Maurice, played by Peter Hayden and Kath, by Darien Takle, along with pianist, actor and singer Jason Te Mete take us into the world of parents, children and grandchildren and the ridiculous idea that somehow you can always get them out of your life.

Grandparents don’t sign up for nappy changing, driving across town to collect favourite stuffed toys or be faced with the endless bleats of “I’m bored.” They want all the good bits – whatever they are – not a life of chores.

A number of Roger Hall’s plays, notably those written in the last decade, have dealt with issues of aging. This one focuses on the relationships of couples with their children and grandchildren.

The plot follows Maurice and Kath over the last 15 to 20 years of their lives. Their two children are initially slow in having children, so there are the initial conversations which begin with “I don’t want to interfere … but.” Then with the birth the issues of names both for the children and the grandparent “I don’t want to be grandma”  

We then follow the couple through the tortuous early years of grandchildren and its supposed joys – being allowed to buy expensive nursery furniture, babysitting anywhere from overnight to a couple of weeks, trying to get the kids to do interesting things when all they want is to watch TV.

The story line cleverly combines the joys and enthusiasm of new grandchildren along with the feelings of desperation and harassment. As well as telling the adventures with grandchildren the play also dwells on the issues of old age, failing hearing, failing libido and increasing urges to go to the toilet.

The humour comes not just from the jokes, some of them 1000 years old but from the recognition of seeing the characters utter words we might. There were times when couples in the audience would glance at each other at particularly trenchant comments.

Takle and Hayden who have each appeared in several Roger Hall plays inhabit the stage with a with an easy, familiar manner. At times, they speak directly to the audience, engage with Jason Te Mete as well as on the phone or by Skype with their children and grandchildren. Their dialogue is clear and precise, even in the musical numbers.

A couple of the musical items outstay their witty arrival and the final departure of Maurice seemed to be a bit of a spoiler, with grief muscling in on poignancy

The clever set designed by Rachel Walker and the AV design by Simon Barker were well conceived and provided  a sense of place and time.

As with most Roger Hall plays, the characters are stereotypes and much of the dialogue is clichéd but they are New Zealand stereotypes and it is the idiom of our own vernacular. It is this familiarity that makes our responses both cringes of memory as well as sympathetic. The audience, which featured many grandparents attending with their grandchildren was certainly sympathetic and got all the jokes, especially the ones that involved their own past and present lives.

Tune into NBR Radio’s Sunday Business with Andrew Patterson on Sunday morning, for analysis and feature-length interviews.