Transsexual former MP Georgina Beyer says she pulled out of her Dunedin play after realising she "bit off more than she could chew". "It's a massive disappointment. But, in my view, it would have been irresponsible to put it on," she says. Beyer quit Fortune Theatre's two-person production 6 Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks just two days before opening night. After realising the role was beyond her, she told theatre management on Wednesday night she was pulling out. "It was a massive role. I wasn't going to badly at the start, but I just couldn't anchor the script in my head. I kept blowing my lines," she says, noting that although she had memorised the whole of her role she found in rehearsal there were moments when she went blank and tended to jump to other parts of the script out of sequence. "I just felt I couldn't put my co-star (Douglas Kamo) in danger and put on a production that could be slammed by the critics," she says. Fortune Theatre manager Janice Marthen told the newspaper this was the first time the theatre had cancelled a play and pre-sale bookings had been going extremely well. "It was a huge disappointment to everyone involved in the play, but a decision had to be taken after it became clear the performance would not reach the standards expected by everyone involved," Marthen said. She could not say how much calling the play off cost the theatre. Earlier this week, an international theatre company announced it was optioning the play, adding extra anxiety leading up to opening night and forcing cancellation of the proposed post-Dunedin season tour of Otago and Southland. Beyer has acted professionally before, both as a man and a woman, in Close to Home, Shortland Street and Shark in the Park. Ref: Otago Daily Times, Radio NZ (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 23rd February 2007 - 12:00pm