After four decades together, Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst are one of New Zealand theatre’s most enduring love stories. Joanna Wane looks at why playing a married couple in their latest project, In Other Words, cuts so close to home. Memories tend to rewrite history with the creep of time.
But Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand both remember exactly the same moment when that first bolt of lightning struck. The scene is Kafka’s The Trial , the Steven Berkoff version. Their characters, who become lovers, are facing the audience when the door frames they’re standing in suddenly wheel so they confront each other face to face.
“It’s a significant moment [in the play],” says Hurst. “Well, it really was a significant moment for us. I got the full kipping.
” Hurst was 25. Ward-Lealand was 20. Both were in relationships at the time.
More than four decades later, they have two adult sons and remain one of the most legendary couples on the New Zealand theatre scene..
