One of the GLBT must-sees at the Auckland International Arts Festival is a play which was inspired by a stolen kiss between two women in a supermarket. Their love story is told on stage. I ♥ Alice ♥ I is described as a tender documentary-style play. It comes to New Zealand for the first time this Thursday in the first of five performances at Q Theatre’s Loft. The award-winning work is from new Irish theatre company, HotForTheatre. The story follows Alice Kinsella and Alice Slattery, two gentle and retiring Irish sexagenarians who stole a kiss in the condiments aisle of a local supermarket, got spotted by a theatre director and were coaxed into sharing their heart-warming love story with a live theatre audience. Over cups of tea and slices of pound cake, the modest couple describe their life dramas – chance meetings, infidelity, battles with cancer, overseas trips. Written and directed by Amy Conroy, this fresh and funny play is performed by Amy Conroy and Clare Barrett. Amy is a writer, performer and Artistic Director of HotForTheatre. In 2010, she won the Fishamble Award for New Writing when I Heart Alice Heart I premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival (Ireland). Her second HotForTheatre show Eternal Rising of the Sun saw her win the Best Female Performer Award at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2011, with her performance also earning her a nomination for Best Actress in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2011. Conroy has worked primarily as an actor and has previously appeared in numerous works with Barabbas Theatre Company. Actor Clare Barrett won the Best Female Performance Award for her role in I ♥ Alice ♥ I, also at the ABSOLUT Fringe 2010. Her theatre credits include The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, and Swampoodle, Slattery's Sago Saga and Power Point, which won her a nomination for Best Female Performer at the 2009 ABSOLUT Fringe Ireland. Film and television work includes Roy, The Last Furlong, Singlehanded, Fair City and Fallout. HotForTheatre was formed in 2010 on the premise that theatre should provoke, move and delight in equal measures. I Heart Alice Heart I was their first show, and following its Dublin premiere has had seasons in Ireland, New York, Iceland and Scotland. Reviews: “A humorous, affecting and quietly empowering work that fully convinces in its artful facsimile of real people sharing experiences both ordinary and precious,” NY Times. “It involves confronting years of Irish sexual repression, a barely touched homemade dinner and a bottle of the undrinkable Blue Nun wine for Dutch courage. It also involves peals of laughter and stories of staying in bed for three days,” Irish Central Find out how to get tickets here. GayNZ.com - 5th March 2013