twoPlay ‘TWO’ is touring halls, hotels and bars around the Southern Lakes this November, culminating with a final performance in Wanaka this Sunday (November 29).   

Set in a local pub, Jim Cartwright’s timeless comedy features a landlord, landlady, and their colourful regulars - with all 14 characters played by actor couple Blaise and Sarah Barham. 

“[The Wanaka show] will be the last performance of this current tour and we've been blown away by the feedback so far,” Blaise told the Wanaka App. 

Local audiences may recognise award-winning actors Blaise and Sarah from their performances with Remarkable Theatre, including most recently Cosi and One Man, Two Guv’nors, and their recent Verbatim piece ‘The New Real?’ performed in October at the Lake Wanaka Centre as part of RenewArt 2020.

National and international critics have heaped on praise for TWO. 

The Guardian called it “sharp, witty and quick fire” and the Sunday Times described the show as “a brilliantly, surrealistically and comically poetic piece.”

Each character in TWO has a story to tell: There’s the bantering, bickering publican and his wife; the womaniser and his long-suffering girlfriend; two elderly pensioners, one who wishes

her husband was dead and the other wishing his wife was alive. 

There’s also ‘the other woman’, hiding behind her sunglasses, trying to drum up courage to confront her married lover; an eccentric couple who come to the pub to eat chips; and a lady

who reveals her secret lust for ‘big men’.

The Manchester Evening News warned there would be “laughter and tears along the way in this emotional rollercoaster” and Auckland director John Goudge said it came “with many comic twists and a powerful ending”.

TWO is performing arts company Sahara BreeZe’s second play to tour around this district, following the acclaimed production of Dear Lupin in 2019.

The Wanaka performance of TWO, at the Lake Wanaka Centre, will be the last show of this current tour before the Dunedin Fringe Festival and further tours in 2021. 

Book tickets here.

PHOTOS: Supplied