There are two memorable messages that bookend the first life of the stage play Things That Matter. Both came to me from Philippa Campbell, then literary manager of the Auckland Theatre Company. The first was an email in September 2016: “We’d love to have a conversation about whether you’d be interested in adapting something as a new play.” The other was a text message five years later, in August 2021: “There’s a very real chance that we’ll cancel.”
The text arrived on my dumbphone while I was in a Devonport cafe. I’d ferried over from the city to fill the gap between watchingand the opening preview that evening. I’d noticed a few people on the boat staring at their smartphones with some concern, and in the cafe the same thing was happening.
