Casts as above
ISBN 0 86473 494 8
Price $29 95

Plays 1: Small Towns and Sea: Horseplay, Flipside & Trick of the Light
(three full length plays - published in association with Victoria University Press)
Ken Duncum


Horseplay Brought together by an absurd set of circumstances which leads to them sharing the stage with the rear end of a horse, novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson and poet James K Baxter enact an hilarious hypothetical meeting in Hawera in 1972 - with interruptions from Auntie and Wilma the would-be girlfriend. Unbeatable comic parts for four actors, and an excellent introduction to two extraordinary NZ writers and their worlds. (Cast - 2m 2w)

Flipside The overturned Rose-Noelle was adrift for 119 days. How did the four men trapped in her cope with the sea, the weather, each other and themselves? This powerful play, adapted from the book that chronicles this real life adventure, Capsized, explores the possibilities. (Cast - 4m)

Trick of the Light The long shadow of the Crewe murders falls on two generations. What is the link to the brother and sister who bring their mother's ashes to a motel that has been closed for thirty years? (Cast - 2m 1w)



Ken Duncum grew up in Rotorua and is recognised as one of New Zealand's leading playwrights. Duncum's work for screen and stage includes the plays Flipside (Chapman Tripp Award for Production of the Year 2000), Waterloo Sunset, and Blue Sky Boys (Best New Zealand Play 1990), as well as scripts for major television shows like Duggan and Coverstory (Best Script, TV Drama, Film and TV Awards 1997). In September 2001 Duncum was the inaugural recipient of the Michael Hirschfeld Memorial Writing Award, and in 2002 he began as the Michael Hirschfeld Director of Scriptwriting, coordinating the MA in scriptwriting at Victoria University's International Institute of Modern Letters.

Ken Duncum's latest play, Cherish (VUP 2004) won Best New NZ Play at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2003 - making it two in a row after Trick of the Light won the same award the previous year.