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Winner of the 2014 Adam NZ Play Award, Elisabeth Easther’s Seed is a multi-narrative play about the business of fertility and tells the story of four women in their late 30's to early 40's as they try to get pregnant, stay pregnant or become un-pregnant. Renee Liang interviews the playwright.

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Pregnancy. The biological clock that ticks louder and louder.  For women of a certain age, it’s impossible to ignore – even if they don’t care, everyone else seems to have an opinion.  It was the loaded topic of fertility that pushed playwright Elisabeth Easther into writing Seed, her wickedly funny award-winning play which fictionalizes the stories she’s been hearing around her.  Renee asked her about the play, writing, and independent producing. 

You were an actor before you started writing - what pushed you into it?

I started focusing on writing because I just didn’t like sitting around waiting for the acting work to come in. So I wrote my second play after finishing Shortland Street, I was a bit shy so used a pseudonym, and then I cast my net a little wider, and suggested a column to The Dominion Post, then later another to the NZ Herald, both were taken on and slowly writing overtook acting… which I’m very happy about. No one cares what you look like as a writer but acting is pretty harsh that way and I’m not a huge fan of frocking up and putting on make up. Writing can be done anywhere, any time, and frequently is.

How do you juggle all the different parts of your life?

Modern life sees us all doing more than one thing these days. I write a lot of lists, I have loads of them, and then I slowly tick things off. Some things are big, like write a play, others are more achievable like finish an article or have the windscreen fixed and some are downright ridiculous like win an Oscar  - which I have to confess is on my list – as a writer though, not an actor, I hasten to add!

Any tips for making time for writing?

After you’ve finished procrastinating, wasting time, making toast and pulling out weeds sit down and don’t get up till you’ve something to show for your time. I don’t have Facebook or Twitter or anything like that because I know I could easily get caught in the net.

You've written for stage, screen and page - do you prefer any one form and why?

I find them all hard. Most writing is toil, whether it’s an article or a script or even a list there’s a long part of any piece where you think it’s crap, where it is crap, and then slowly you chip away, chop things out and hold it up to the light, and eventually, if you’re lucky and you’ve put in the effort you’ll have something you can show to the world. I love it but it’s not easy. It’s amazing how often people say, ooh I think I’d like to be a writer, like it’s some kind of easy, effortless occupation – it’s hard. I went to a seminar run by Roger Hall once, and he said hands up who wants to be a writer, we all put our hands up and he said then what are you doing here, go home and write. He then smiled and carried on with the seminar – but I got what he was saying. Don’t just talk about it, or think it, do it.

What's the most important quality for a stage play to have?

Characters people can relate to, honesty, humour, pathos, I like to go to the theatre and have a few decent laughs and also be moved. I don’t mind having my views challenged either. I want to learn something, feel something, I want my interest held. Is that too much to ask?

How long have you been working on Seed?

I started work on it early last year when it was a novel and slowly it dawned on me that it was a play and I wrote the actual script pretty quickly as I was cannibalising that original novel, which rather informs the form it’s taken. Most the big things I’ve written have taken a short time to blast out but the back brain thinking has probably been pretty intense… but the actual writing is usually brief.

You've assembled a stellar cast and creative team - are they all people you've worked with before?

Emma Willis the director is a friend of friends who I knew peripherally and we were at a birthday party in Sept last year and I thought she was super fun and smart and groovy and so I sent her the script. She was in Wellington but happily got a job at Auckland Uni and moved back up here, and she was just the perfect person at the perfect time. She’s doing great work on it. Janine Burchett is an old buddy whose work I adore, Fiona Mogridge is a mother at school and she came up to me one day and said she’d heard I was putting on plays and she’d like to get back into acting so perfect timing there. Great attribute for an actor to be in the right place at the right time. And she’s super. Renee Sheridan is someone whose work I’d seen and loved and we just clicked and Alex Ellis I first came across as a publicist for The Edge, then it turned out she was also an actor and put on plays she writes with her partner – and when I saw her on stage I was mesmerized. She’s amazing, they all are and Callum Stembridge plays all the men’s roles and he’s fabulous. I didn’t know him till now but he couldn’t be better suited.

Tell me about the second play you're putting on this year, Famous Flora.

Later this year I’m putting on a play about Flora Mackenzie, the brothel keeper at the White House. She was the child of wealthy landed gentry from Mangere and she started by designing and selling fashion from her shop Ninette Gowns, “the finest dress salon in the Pacific”. However during World War II she discovered a demand for more than just pretty gowns from her glamorous sale staff – and this proved to be her rise and ultimately her fall. It’s a forgotten part of Auckland’s history that I couldn’t stop myself from digging up.

Producing yourself versus getting someone else to produce - your thoughts?

I can’t imagine what it’d be like not to have to do all the stuff that a play involves but one day I dream of other people doing everything. But in the meantime with Seed at least I’ve surrounded myself with amazing good people so I’m not so freaked out. Because I’m surrounded by great talent I feel quite confident about how it’s going to turn out.  Bronwyn Bent, the producer is amazing but I can only wring her out so much as she’s getting paid next to nothing, everyone is, so I’m so very very grateful for their effort. I hope one day I’ll make plays that’ll pay enough for the actors and crew to eat… and then I’ll aim for them to be able to afford oysters and champagne. One day.

What are you working on next?

I have a number of scripts I’m working on, and I’ll just keep plodding on, writing will never be easy but I keep on doing it. I have my day jobs, voice overs, the Herald, I love all my jobs so it’s not like it’s a pain, but while it’d be cool just to sit around writing scripts. All the other stuff informs my work… the great thing about the Herald is I go in and I have colleagues and experiences so I think I’ll just carry on as I am. That’d be cool. Another good thing about the Herald is I get tickets to so many cool things, the pay isn’t great but the perks are amazing.

• Seed is at The Basement in Auckland from 17-28 June