Politixia
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Rutene Spooner is performing his show Be Like Billy? at the Court Theatre.
Award-winning Māori actor Rutene Spooner has performed on the Court Theatre stage countless times over more than a decade, but on Saturday he will play a Māori role for the first time.
In his new show, Be Like Billy? opening at the Court Theatre on Saturday, he explores the comedy of pioneering Māori performer Billy T James.
“I cut my teeth as an actor on the Court Theatre stage,’’ he said.
“I have been in children’s theatre, plays and many musicals, but this is the first time on that stage that I have played a Māori.”
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Spooner first performed at the Court Theatre in 2009 and since then he has played an American in the musical Grease, Pish Tush in The Mikado, and more American characters in the musicals Chicago and Little Shop of Horrors.
His new one-man comedy show, which features a four-piece band, songs and moments of Billy T comedy, explores what it meant to be Māori and a performer in the 1980s, and what it means now.
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The new show was commissioned by the Court Theatre and Saturday will be the world premiere.
Spooner said the show also examines his lifelong fascination with the 1980s entertainer.
“I am the generation that inherited Billy T years later through videos and DVD.
“It was the first time I saw someone who was brown, large and in charge, charming and cheeky on screen.
“And both sides, Māori and Pakeha, absolutely adored him. That was wow. That is pretty unique.”
Early in his career, Spooner was a Billy T impersonator at corporate events. He found himself in such high demand that for one corporate event he was flown by private jet from Christchurch to Rotorua.
“I just got on the plane with my yellow towel and a pen to do the moustache.”
It reminded him of the story about Billy T being choppered into venues at the height of his fame because he was performing so many gigs.
“There have been a few moments in my career where I have noticed I am hitting similar points to him.”
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The new show examines Spooner’s relationship with the work of Kiwi comic Billy T.
But his attitude to Billy T’s comedy has changed in the intervening years.
“I just thought this is a man I could be like and does the things I want to do. He makes people laugh.
“There was a period where I was infatuated with him, but as I got older my relationship with his material changed and I started to question, not the man, but the reasons why that material didn’t feel so comfortable any more.”
He said he felt excited to finally perform a Māori character and be himself on the Court Theatre stage.
“It feels great. There’s a little bit of emotion swelling now as I talk about it. It is joyful.”
