Full, bustling, alive _{by Madelaine Empson}

With over a decade of experience in the industry, Eleanor Strathern is a prominent face on the local theatre scene. She has produced more than 60 shows with her independent, award-winning production company A Mulled Whine, has been the house producer for local contemporary performance company Binge Culture since 2020, and now, has accepted a role as the new general manager of Hannah Playhouse. She joins the team after taking the long way home on a birthday trip from Edinburgh, where she produced a successful, largely sold-out season of Werewolf with Binge Culture.

“I applied when I was in Edinburgh. I did my interview when I was in Amsterdam at six in the morning, and then I accepted the job in Budapest at one in the morning on Zoom”, Strathern laughs. “I was in my pyjamas, and I was like, do I look okay waist up?”

Just to start off real easy-peasy... tell me about your childhood!

Well, if you do want to start with childhood, it is pretty good. I didn’t really speak to any strangers until I was nine years old. I was a very quiet, shy, anxious child. And then at nine years old, in 2004, I did Peter Pan: The Pantomime at the Nelson Theatre Royal. Loads of cool people were in that: Ralph Upton from Binge Culture, Maria Williams, Paul Williams was Peter Pan himself. It was star-studded! That was my first extracurricular activity that I’d been bold enough to engage in.

Wow. Did that unlock the picture of theatre as a potential career for you?

I think I just never stopped doing theatre. Whether I thought it would be my career is something else entirely. Lots of people thought I would go into politics when I was a teenager. I started my school’s queer-straight alliance, was very vocal, and was always in the news causing a ruckus. But yeah, theatre was like a gateway drug to activism and to friendship and to leadership, I would say. In my fourth year at university, I got a job at the BATS Theatre box office. That was kind of it! My neighbour at the time, Rhian Wood-Hill, asked me to produce his New Zealand tour. He’s often credited as my start as a producer, and that would be correct [laughs].

What was the play?

The show was called How I Met My Father. It was a solo storytelling stand-up comedy with a really good narrative arc. I took it on completely sight unseen, because I wasn’t in the business of curating or anything like that. I was just helping out a friend, and it ended up being really good, so thank goodness! We went everywhere from Invercargill to Whangārei together. The tour coincided with my move from BATS to Circa Theatre. Circa was where A Mulled Whine really found its roots. Then it was lots of touring, which was a real joy. I worked with Jon Bennett, who came up from Australia and did a few tours with me. But because I was so rooted in the theatre – not only in like, my vibe [laughs], but also physically at the Circa box office every day – the theatre productions started coming through as well. And then they just didn’t stop.

What have been some of the standout productions you’ve worked on?

I was just so, so proud of Skin Tight [2022]. That one will always feel very close to my soul, because it scratched a really good artistic itch where everything came together perfectly. The team were incredible. Obviously, the script is great. Cathy MacRae’s production was just amazing. It was my third show with Cathy and I really enjoy working with her. Sweeping up so many awards – I just felt this swell of pride in everybody. We made it rain from the roof at Circa! Any show that makes it rain is always gonna stand out. Another standout was when Thom Monckton appeared in my inbox. I would describe taking on Thom’s work as life changing for me, because people wanted to book Thom for things, so I was able to engage with more of our industry. I felt so lucky that Thom came with such a strong show as well, The Artist, and that we then made something together, The King of Taking. He is an amazing artist, but also a really good friend. I got my celebrant’s licence and married Thom and his wife Niamh last year.

What has been your experience of Hannah Playhouse and how do you see your new role?

I actually had my first experience of putting on a show at the Hannah Playhouse only earlier this year. Which is, you know, insane! We did rehearse Destination Mars there during my time working at the [2022] Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts. But I’d never put anything on the stage until Jimmy with Micky Delahunty this Fringe. They’re a dream and an icon. I was very excited to be in The Hannah for the first time, because I knew it was an iconic venue, but I hadn’t really felt its presence as strongly in the industry since starting as a producer in 2017. The Hannah was inaccessible to me in the early days of my career, when I was doing small rooms for like, 50 bucks a night [laughs]. And then as I got more established as a producer, it was going through a dark period, or a period of being a rehearsal space, which is also valid and valuable. So, it was a real treat to be there this year and find all its nooks and crannies and quirks and strengths.

This place is special. The Hannah is important to Wellington, because it’s part of our history and our cultural impact to date. It’s hosted a lot of incredible works that we lay claim to. Architecturally, I call it the brutalist babe or the brutalist beast depending on the vibe of the day [laughs]. For me, it’s part of Wellington’s skyline.

I see this role not just as a support for myself individually, financially, as a producer, and as an artist in Wellington, but also as part of the solution: granting artists more options that I was increasingly feeling like I didn’t have myself in my freelance career. An accessibly priced venue that is also somewhere where you can make work of scale. I did feel a sense of relief as The Hannah started opening up its doors more widely and accessibly over the last couple of years. Binge Culture did just have a residency at The Hannah with office space for four weeks, and then full claim to the space for two weeks to rehearse Disaster, which was such a massive, immersive, promenade experience that took over the whole theatre. The Hannah provided us with the space to build it, test it, play. So, The Hannah has already started to release the pressure for me as an independent practitioner.

What do you hope to bring to the role and what does the future of the theatre look like?

What I want to bring to the role is being there to bounce ideas off, with my production experience of what it is to be an independent producer. Is this going to work, how can we do this? We can discuss everything from marketing to budgets. I won’t produce your show for you, but I’ll be there! I might be busy, but I’ll still be there! You can ask for help at The Hannah. I want every artist that comes in to feel prepared and excited. It’s about trying to remove some of the normal stressors of putting on a show by being prepared and providing the space for play and development. 

Stephen Blackburn – the manager of city events at Wellington City Council and a core part of the drive behind The Hannah – and I both have a very similar vision: a Hannah that is full and bustling. Even if the doors are closed because we’re working on something, I want my office to be surrounded by artists trying stuff out. Doing new things with the space. That means also activating multiple spaces. Making sure that it feels alive. That’s the future we both envision and that I’m very dedicated to realising.