Past lives _{by Tanya Piejus}

Originally hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, Sarah-Beth Brown worked as a professional actor and ran a theatre company before upping sticks and moving to New Zealand in 2022. Since then, she’s found her feet in Wellington and performed in Stagecraft Theatre’s productions of A View from the Bridge and The Seagull as a way of establishing new connections.

Now, she’s taking a lead role in KAT Theatre’s production of Laura Wade’s award-winning play, Home, I’m Darling. Her character Judy and her husband Johnny live and breathe a 1950s lifestyle, with Judy having forsaken a potential career to become a wife and homemaker. But behind the gingham curtains, being a domestic goddess isn't as easy as it seems.

“It’s interesting to relate her views to today’s culture,” Brown says. “I’ve seen a huge shift in the last 10 years with women, in particular, and their views on the traditional wife role and the way a lot of cultural rights have been going, to put it bluntly, backwards across the world. I think it’s an interesting perspective to idealise those kinds of values and traditions, but without seeing the bigger picture. The focus is on immediacies and I thought that was a really intriguing thing about Judy. Creating your own reality is something we do in life. Even moving here, I had a vision of what my life would look like and what I’ve experienced is different from what I had in my head. The lesson being, of course, that life is what you make of it.”

“Judy’s a very smart lady and could have had a successful career, but something was jarring with her”, Brown continues. “She wanted a connection with her husband, which she didn’t have with her father. Most people are just looking for that love and connection with someone they can trust and be happy with.”

Home, I’m Darling asks important questions about what women want and how they might successfully find it. Does the answer lie in the past? To find out, rock on down to Cochran Hall, Khandallah, from the 10^th to the 19^th of July.