8-11 Sep 1998, University Theatre, The Arts Centre
The 1960s in New Zealand was a time of rapid expansion of what was 'normal' in society and how young people wanted to live. Love on a Bicycle is a fast-moving and poetic cabaret that recaptures the excitement and theatricality of that decade. Directed by Canterbury University's Writer in Residence, Alan Brunton, the performance takes fragments from contemporary poems, pamphlets and protests to convey both its naive optimism and the shock results.

"We have tried to restore some of the theatrical experiments of the time too," says Brunton. "The Collective theatres that started then, like Bruno Lawrence's Blerta, were like rock bands: fragmentary, shiftless and committed to getting out-of-the-normal."

Alongside the performance of poems are songs and dances of the period. It is not a show about nostalgia; it is a reconstruction of the imagination of the period through words and images of figures like James K Baxter and Tim Shadbolt. The programme features poems and short plays published in small literary magazines in Christchurch at the time.

The show culminates with young New Zealanders overseas, wandering Barcelona and Morocco, as The Chicks blast out their unforgettable 'The Rebel Kind'. "It's that idea that everything was strange then that we bring to life", says Brunton.

The performance is by students from the Honours course at Canterbury's Department of Theatre and Film and is accompanied by a small orchestra. Mr Brunton brings to the show two decades of experience with the celebrated troupe RED MOLE. Of Love on a Bicycle, he says, "Sometimes I wonder if I'm not haveing too much fun!" It was only after the dates were arranged, that he learned Bob Dylan would be in town on the Saturday night. "It's a wave," he says, "Surf's up!"

Publicity

Former Red Mole is 1998 Writer-in-Residence
Chronicle, Vol 33 No. 5, 2 April 1998

Love on a Bicycle - Imagining -60s NZ
​Chronicle, Vol 3, No. 14, 3 September 1998

1960s New Zealand now seems a long time ago
Cath Heenan, Chronicle, Vol 33 No. 15, 17 September 1998
A full film recording of the production exists in Free Theatre's archives.

Love on a Bicycle proceeded Alan Brunton's direction of Comrade Savage (1998) for Free Theatre. He went on to collaborate on and Krapp's Last Tape (1999) for Free Theatre. Alan Brunton also assisted Free Theatre on the project The Last Days of Mankind (2000).