From the outside the Ruakokopatuna Community Hall looks like almost any other corrugated iron Wairarapa shed or even a half-hearted wool shed.
As is so often the case, first impressions can be deceptive. Something was different. The faded painted iron sheets still looked the same, but the grass had been cut. Clearly cars were going to park. An event was looming.
Inside the stunning polished wood floor was reflective at its best, out the back the barbeque was fired up and the FaceBook page request of “anyone going to Greytown, can they take the lamb to the butcher” had been fulfilled. (Being the only vegetarian in the valley, I never go to Greytown).
This was ‘community’ at its best. The table was lined with salads that the Ritz would be jealous of, chocolate cake, eclairs and lemon drizzle cake would put any café out of business and some appropriately out of character, but delicious samosas were flown in from Mumbai.
Chairs were in rows; staging had been cadged from Gladstone. Punga fronds and flax leaves adorned the walls. In comparison The Opera House would have looked forgotten about, positively faded and wilted.
The Ruakokopatuna Theatre Royal was all ready for a good night and that is what we got.
The BITCHES BOX took to the stage. The Bitches’ Box is the decade long comedy partnership between creators/performers Emma Newborn and Amelia Dunbar, who have been together making audiences around the world laugh since 2011. The pair landed on the idea of performing a comedic theatre piece as two hot farm bitches, passing the time whilst locked in a bitches’ box, acting out the bitches’ dreams, fantasies and frustrations.
As well as being Arts Festival favourites, The Bitches’ Box were definitely Ruakokopatuna favourites. They’ve travelled to the nooks and crannies of rural NZ, stopping off with us and performing to a sell-out capacity audience of 80. All tickets were sold long before performance date and unfounded rumour has it that some non-ticket holders found the back door.
At a conservative estimate, it is believed around 30,000 people have seen them perform, with most of these shows playing outside of the main town centres in rural community halls and wool sheds. Ruakokopatuna can proudly add their numbers to that. 30,081.
This is what rural community life in the provinces is, a community hall full of happiness and everyone having a great time all the while laughing hard.
It was a truly wonderful event.
“I have not laughed so helplessly all week. The Bitches’ Box is fall-off-the-chair funny, so brilliantly written and executed that only admiration makes you stop snorting…It is superhuman how doggy they are.”
Libby Purves -The Times UK
The event was kindly and generously supported by RURAL SUPPORT WAIRARAPA and HEARTLAND SERVICES, Martinborough, to whom we are most grateful.
As an aside, you will have read in last month’s Martinborough Star that the community has had an AED installed at the hall. Already it has been a worthwhile addition to our community.
