Two of New Zealand’s most respected actors, Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand, have opened up on their relationship, careers and getting older in the latest episode of 'Grey Areas with Petra Bagust'.
The performing arts power couple, who have decades of experience on stage and screen, are in the midst of performing 'In Other Words' - a powerful play about a man with Alzheimer’s whose relationship with his wife is tested as the disease causes his memory to fade.
It marks one of the few times across many decades that they have shared a stage – and Jennifer says it’s a “real treat”.
“We both tour a lot, but this one you can actually come home and there's somebody there,” Jennifer told Petra.
“The quite absurd thing is the script is quite domestic,” says Michael, “and we've made it our own anyway, so sometimes the line is blurred between. When you know the dialogue of at home, it slips easily into each other. We have each other on all the time about it, don't we?”
“Sometimes I just slip a line out of the play and he doesn't realise!” laughs Jennifer.
One of the joys of touring the show, Jennifer says, is running forums where she and Michael get to hear of people in similar situations to their characters.
“I have women sometimes waiting and just saying ‘I'm your character’,” she says.
“They see my character because she's essentially the caregiver, and that is unseen work a lot of the time and it's mostly mahi aroha - unpaid work - until the point where you are actually physically unable to do that and then you have to put your partner into a care facility.”
I love that that means they're really connecting with it on an emotional level. They see themselves in me or they see their loved one in Michael – and to be seen is a wonderful and powerful thing.
The pair told Petra performing in the play has also made them think in more depth about their own aging, and what it means to edge closer to the end of one’s life.
“You've got to make your peace with it,” said Michael. “Death is mine. You've got to own your death because no one else is going to do that process for you, no one's going to do your dying for you.
“I'm very stoic and I'm very calm about all of that. However this play does stir that up – and when you're confronted suddenly with that, you have to really ask yourself, ‘How have I lived?’”
Jennifer said performing 'In Other Words' had made her confident that if one of them did start experiencing Alzheimer’s symptoms, they would notice it quickly.
She also reckons it serves as a good reminder to serve people well in their old age.
“The important thing when you've had deeply loved people go, is that when they've gone they knew they were deeply loved by me and that I kept my promise to say ‘I will be with you right ‘til the end’. "
"I think there's something really comforting for a human being to hear that they won't be alone.”
Listen to the full episode of 'Grey Areas' with Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand here.
