Keeping up with Jake in December

I was at the Wellington Theatre Awards the other night. I was there to present the award for New Aotearoa Play which went to the wonderful Katie Wolfe for The Haka Party Incident. John Verryt was the Set Designer for that show as well as Red Leap’s Dakota of the White Flats and, of course, Indian Ink’s Dirty Work.

He was nominated for Set Designer of the Year for all that good work but since he couldn’t be there on the night John had asked me to accept the award on his behalf if he were to win.

The good news is that he was, indeed, announced as the winner. The bad news is that, as I bounded up on the stage, I bumped into the wonderful Katie Wolfe who pointed out it wasn’t John’s name on the certificate or massive video projection behind us. They’d read out the
wrong name! I shrunk back to my seat, crumpling John’s acceptance speech into my humbled fist.

It was actually hilarious and made for a great running gag. In a way, it was a fitting mistake to happen when celebrating theatre. A burst of
scandal and drama unfolding in front of us in real time. A precious unscripted moment. As Katie pointed out – “John won’t mind.” It’s true, the man’s got more awards than shelf space.

Congratulations to all the winners that were and the winners that weren’t. And congratulations to the award organisers who, I hope, can accept this valuable lesson from the theatre:

“You can’t fake a Hamlet without breaking some legs.”

 

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