When I first began writing Heavenly Bodies in 2006 I started with essentially two main goals. I wanted to write a teenage love story and although I was open to the play having an array of ideas, I absolutely wanted its overall effect to be about a feeling. As time progressed it became clear to me that I also wanted to write a play that touched upon the challenges of being human.
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In 2002 during our season of Dream Seer, I recall my friend and composer Gerald van Waardenberg saying that he sensed that there was a third play waiting in the wings and that it would relate to the other two works. Gerald's prediction proved to be particularly true in the formation of the Fates. Dream Seer drew upon mythology and Harbouring Ghosts addressed our mortality, from these two fertile sources I believe the mischievous Fates emerged and began to make their presence known.
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I knew that a play featuring immortal characters would be important in giving focus to the plays 'human treatment' and this excited me. The break through moment in the Fates development was when I asked the question; if the Fates existed in the 21st Century what would their life be like? My conclusion was that they would be outrageously overworked and desperate for an opportunity to have some fun. The icing on the cake was when I realised that they could also sing snatches of songs about love. With the realisation that these 3 sisters were essential characters, I began the process of re-constructing the Fates by giving them new names and a new back story.
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Since I was young, I have always had an appreciation of history. The remarkable achievements of the Renaissance period had always intrigued me and I therefore hoped to allude to this 'human rebirth' in the play. The opportunity to do this probably occurred when I chose to name my female lead Verona. Verona of course is the location of Romeo and Juliet and it is also one of Italy's major cities. The decision to have a character named Verona became the stepping stone for shards of Italian culture to seep its eventual way into the body of the play. This desire to reference the Renaissance era also marked the beginnings of Hugo character as this 'movement' was not only responsible for an explosion in the arts but also in scientific thinking. I therefore wanted this dimension of inquiry and rational thinking to be present in the text. Out of this historical 'urge' a major section of the plays spine was formed; a Kiwi boy with a scientific outlook would fall in love with an Italian girl who was passionate about the arts.
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Originally this play was a Samoan-Italian love story, this was an exciting actuality at the time and it also was a very pragmatic decision due to teaching and directing in one of New Zealand's largest Pasifika schools. A few years after its very successful premiere in 2008, I realised that I would need to change the cultural framework of the play. My reasoning was very simple, I believed that the story had a broader appeal and that it deserved to have a wider reach. In 2016 the spine underwent some major surgery, the male protagonist became Caucasian and the narrative began to morph into an Italian - New Zealand story. I chose to give the play a Maori dimension because towards the end of the play it tackles some big themes such as death and mortality and this is a territory where Maori culture is particularly advanced. I also thought it might be refreshing to see our indigenous culture through the eyes of an immigrant. Verona therefore embraces her immersion into Maori culture and her life is richer for it, this decision was based on a number of foreigners I know who have become proficient in both Maori language and kaupapa. I believe the cultural identity of the play cements itself by the Fates performing exclusively New Zealand love songs. Without question our country has a rich heritage of song writing and by frequently using the gift of music, this play has become inescapably kiwi.
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A significant decision in the plays development was when I decided to use Physical Theatre as both a theatrical form and narrative tool. Physical theatre is used in the opening scene to both convey a kaleidoscope of human activity and the enormity of the Fates task to manipulate mortal affairs. Physical Theatre is also used for comic effect later in the play when Max decides to promote his mobile gym operation. The use of Physical Theatre gives the Chorus a far more substantial part to play in the story, which is always an important consideration when writing a play for a large cast. My main reason however for using this form was because of its relationship to the plays content. Heavenly Bodies is about the complexity of being human and one of the key reasons for this is that we mortals possess both a heart and a head. Our human anatomy is therefore central to how we experience life and by using Physical Theatre I wanted to give extra emphasis to the importance of our human form.
It would be remiss of me, before finishing this article, to not acknowledge the influence of William Shakespeare as his finger prints are all over this play. My first contact with Shakespeare's writing occurred at the age of 15 when my English class were studying some scenes from Hamlet. It probably is unreasonable to put my finger on it precisely but something new and intoxicating was definitely awakened during those clumsy readings of that great tragedy. The effect was like inhaling a strange brew of imagination and feeling. At an instinctive level these were the two forces that hooked me to theatre when I was young and to this day they remain as powerful and ever present in what I value as key ingredients of a good play.If I was to distill the process to its core, a play with Imagination and feeling is what I hoped to achieve during the prolonged period of writing Heavenly Bodies. In many respects they were two my pre-requisites, the bone and marrow for writing a teenage play about the joys and trauma of being human.
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Kerry Lynch 2017