Rebecca Fox discovers the personal story behind the big issue.
As a rule, Ella Yiannoutsos does not like to act in her own shows, as she finds she is a little too close to them.
However, for her latest work No No No, described as a "dark sci-fi comedy", she made an exception.
"It’s got clones, its got exes and its got heartbreak."
The other goal has been to bring it to her hometown of Dunedin where she met many of those who have been involved in the show.
"I think it's such a personal show to me, and such a kind of risky move to do a tour in this kind of funding situation.
"It's a crisis, so I wanted to be able to surround myself with people who I know I really trust, and just want to do it from their hearts."
Her producer Reva Grills is also from Dunedin, and she met actor Īhaka Martyn and tech operator Joseph Cooper at the university’s theatre department. Another friend from Dunedin, Tia Hibbert, co-directed the first season of the show.
"I’m definitely excited to come home."
Taking a play she has written on the road - six locations across the South Island in less than two weeks - has been one of her "biggest" dreams.
"I have a lot of musician friends, and seeing the ease with which it is [possible] to take a band on tour compared to a theatre show, I've always been a little jealous. I'm like, oh, it's just you and a guitar, and you just rock up, whereas we're going to have two vehicles in convoy with six people, a bunch of set pieces.
"So it’s a lot, and I'm just very proud to be at this point. It's a big dream."
The play itself started out being written as a 10-minute piece as part of Centrepoint Theatre’s Playwrighting Intensive in 2023, where she was mentored by playwright and performance poet Nathan Joe.
"This show, No No No, was like a bowl that I needed to create to put down some things that I didn't want to carry around in my head anymore, and that I'd learnt a lot of things."
She decided it had the potential to be a full-length piece, and with Grills on board decided to put it forward for the New Zealand Fringe Festival.
It was a very intense month-long writing period to get the play ready for its BATs debut, but she already had good bones to work with.
"Nothing works better than a deadline."
Her ex read the play and was "all game for it".
"He was like, ‘oh my gosh, is this show going to get me cancelled?’ And I was like, ‘no, we both come out looking as bad as each other, as idiosyncratic as each other, but don't worry’."
To Yiannoutsos, AI seemed the perfect vehicle to tell the story of Ben and Nono.
"I'm kind of using it to inspect humanity and the way that it fails and the way that it triumphs, I guess."
While many people - especially artists and writers - are scared of of AI, art is good for interrogating issues that seem scary or insurmountable.
"What's good about it, what's bad about it, what should we be cautious about, what's funny about it as well. I've done so much research, so much reading, and I think how I feel is a combination of fear, but also it's kind of honestly the natural progression of humans.
"I mean, we created it, and so we have to deal with it. And I think just becoming really aware and in touch with what's going on with artificial intelligence, instead of just being like, ‘oh, I don't like that’, turning a blind eye, because I think ultimately that won't work."
Performing a piece influenced by her own life story has not been too hard for Yiannoutsos, as she has taken the story of a couple becoming different people over the course of a relationship to the extreme - asking "what if I was a different version of me?".
"Like, the emotions are true, but what actually happens in the show is so distanced from reality. You know, it's 50 years in the future, it's very sci-fi, we didn't actually have clones of each other walking around."
It has been a busy few years for Yiannoutsos, who moved to Wellington to study for her master’s degree in scriptwriting at the International Institute of Modern Letters under playwright and screenwriter Ken Duncum, where she was awarded the 2022 David Carson-Parker Embassy Prize in Scriptwriting for her thesis play Dumbshow. Her first play, Kouros, was shortlisted for Playmarket’s B425 Playwriting competition.
"It's just a little bit more going on, theatre-wise for me, up here."
Along with Grills, she has also set up a production company, Grammelot Productions, which has turned out to be a much bigger endeavour than she imagined.
"But it's also so great to finally feel like I have the power over what I create, and we can put the art out that we want to see."
"It was great to finally get to the point where I can support my own art, and I can support other people's art."
The reality of that though meant doing a lot of funding applications to get projects off the ground which can be "very wearing", she has found.
"We're going to be doing a booster campaign. But there's a lot of theatre that's just kind of paying up front and hoping you earn the money back.
"So yeah, I think as a baby production company, we're still working out what a good financial model is for us, but it's hard out there."
They have decided to focus on one production at a time, so at the moment that is No No No. If it does well on the southern tour, they hope to do a North Island one and then take it to Melbourne Fringe.
"After that I have plenty of shows up my sleeve."
Being on the road is not going to cramp her writing style as she describes herself as a "sporadic fit of inspiration" writer.
"I wish I was like some of my writing buddies who just have this sort of dedicated daily grind practice, but I just kind of wait, and then every now and again I'll just be hit."
TO SEE
No No No, Dunedin Fringe Festival
The Globe Theatre 7pm, March 20-22.
Oamaru Opera House, March 25, 7pm.
