Pictures: Amalia Osborne.
Young star Alwyn Broome talks about Antonia Prebble like they’re longtime friends. The hilarious five-year-old made his acting debut alongside the Kiwi actress in local comedy Double Parked last year. He played Otis, the son of self-proclaimed “breastfeeding guru” Meredith, who was played by his real-life mother, Olivia Tennet.
While on set, Alwyn made a point of telling other cast members he wasn’t just there because his mum needed childcare. He had a role.
“Al’s scene was when Antonia’s character Steph had finally pumped enough breast milk that she’d worked all day to get. Then he comes and knocks it over,” recalls Liv, chatting from her home in West Auckland.
“Well, he had such a crush on Toni – I mean, who wouldn’t? – that when her character got upset about the milk, Al whispered, ‘Oh, no, I’ve really upset her!’
“I explained it was all totally pretend. To make him feel better, Toni said to him, ‘Knock it over again. But this time, I’m going to crack up laughing and think it’s the funniest thing ever.’ Then in the next take, you can see him smirk. After that, he said, ‘Look, Mum, I’m making Toni laugh!’
“Once we wrapped and were walking away, he casually goes, ‘Hey, we should catch up with her again some time’.”
Liv’s gorgeous son, who she shares with musician and sound engineer Tom Broome, 37, is also the inspiration for her solo dance show For You To Know And Me To Find Out, which features at Wellington’s Fringe Festival this month.
Unashamedly wearing postpartum mesh undies on stage, the multitalented performer explores the juggle of simultaneously trying to keep your little one and your artistic career alive.
The show uses different genres of dance, coupled with a voiceover of Liv’s inner “mum thoughts”. Alwyn’s voice also pretends to be her director. The idea for it came during lockdown in 2020, when the new mum choreographed short dances to her then-six-month-old baby’s myriad of “obnoxiously loud” musical toys.
Her ’80s robot moves made little Al crack up, so she filmed the dances and shared them on social media.
“He had this one colourful phone toy that actually had some pretty catchy tunes,” laughs the actress, 34. She originally found fame as Tuesday Warner on Shortland Street.
“Tom joked to me, ‘Hey, this song actually slaps – we should sample it!”
“What started as me being silly, dancing around to those tunes, turned into a random, funny, buzzy hybrid theatre show. Probably because that’s what’s being a parent is like a lot of the time.
“And yes, Tom did sample those toys’ songs and put them into a proper musical track for me to dance to. I also feel quite proud that I’ve made this show during kindergarten hours.”
She reflects that the show has also been healing for her. To express conflicting emotions about how motherhood can be joyous, tedious and hard – often in the same moment!
“Having a child has taught me a lot about myself,” admits Liv. “And Al has been a good inspiration for me to be brave too.
“In acting, you get so used to other people being in control. You might go for 70 auditions and only get two yeses. But a solo show is a really amazing way of giving yourself the yes and showing my son that I can do it myself.”
After more than 20 years in the industry, Liv has several new acting projects in the works. One of which includes playing the title role in Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Mary in August.
Written by Shortland Street actress Jess Sayer, it builds on the bones of history to reimagine the events of the infamous night that birthed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Liv is also on our TV screens this month, playing a producer in Three’s new primetime comedy Vince. The show follows a broadcaster (played by Jono Pryor) dumped by his network after an unfortunate mishap.
She’s also reprising her much-loved role voicing feisty yellow dinosaur Kiri in an upcoming animated children’s movie Kiri And Lou Make Friends. It’s based on the claymation series about little dinosaur Kiri and elephant-like creature Lou (the latter voiced by Jemaine Clement), which aired on television for four seasons.
Kiri And Lou became so popular that Liv found herself being identified in public by her voice alone.
“I feel like 2025 might be a great year artistically for me!” says the bubbly actress. “Now that Alwyn has started school, I feel like the fog has cleared and I’m excited to focus on creative work a bit more.
“It’s nice to be like, ‘Oh, there I am!’ In those early years of motherhood, it’s quite easy to lose yourself and there’s not a lot of time for anything else, but also what a privilege it is.”
For You To Know And Me To Find Out opens 19 February at Wellington’s NZ Fringe Festival. For tickets, visit fringe.co.nz.
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