Hagen Hopkins
When Kiwi comedy icon Ginette McDonald first appeared onstage in the late 60s as suburban satirist Lyn of Tawa, fellow actor Laura Hill, 49 – party gal Toni on Shortland Street – was just a twinkle in her parents’ eyes.
“I was working at Downstage [Theatre] with playwright Bruce Mason, who could do every New Zealand accent from Gore to Kaitaia. When he heard me trying various voices for the play, he encouraged me to do something for Knickers, the late-night revue he was putting on with Roger Hall,” Ginette recalls of the moment that changed her life.
Following that auspicious debut, Lyn of Tawa became one of Aotearoa’s best-loved characters, with Ginette – ‘Nettie’ – who is in her 70s, forever fixed in the hearts of the nation.
Where it all started
Laura tells the Weekly what a thrill it was when she landed her first proper professional TV gig with Ginette. “I was cast in an episode of Duggan in the late 90s, and I was on location, and there’s Lyn of Tawa, comedy acting legend. When my family first arrived here from England when I was five, Lyn of Tawa was one of the programmes we watched, and there I was sitting next to her,” Laura marvels.
“Nettie was lovely too, even though she didn’t remember we’d already worked together when I reminded her about it!” Laura laughs.
Thirty-five years later, theatre is bringing the talented twosome together, and the Weekly caught up with them at Wellington’s Circa Theatre during rehearsals for Noël Coward’s supernatural comedy Blithe Spirit.
“The play is sooo funny,” Laura says with an impish grin. “I’m in hysterics every day in the rehearsal room, and Nettie is particularly delightful. Sharp as a tack, offering brilliant suggestions.”
“I’m probably a pain,” Ginette pipes up self-effacingly, “and I try not to interfere, but I just can’t help myself sometimes.” Ginette also points out that she and Laura have an almost spooky connection to legendary playwright Noël Coward, which is cause for goosebumps when you consider that the play centres around a séance.
“My first professional stage production was in Private Lives at Downstage in 1968. I was playing an irascible maid, which is when Bruce Mason encouraged me to create Lyn of Tawa,” Ginette recalls.
Spooky similarities
“My mother was also an actor,” Laura picks up the thread, “and at the same time Nettie was doing Private Lives in Wellington, my mum Pamela was in Wales playing Elvira in Blithe Spirit. The same character I’m playing. When I told Mum, she pulled out her scrapbook where she’s kept all her clippings from dance recitals to TV appearances, pretty much everything she’s ever done, and there were these gorgeous pictures of her in 1968 at the Prince of Wales Theatre,” Laura says. The resemblance between mother and daughter is striking.
The women share another similarity – they both know what it is to be defined by a single role. “When I joined Shortland Street, I asked producer Simon Bennett if I’d be typecast, and he explained that people who worked before Shortland Street tended to work afterwards. When Toni was killed off, I mainly worked in theatre, then I returned to Shortland Street as a writer which made me realise I could do more than just one thing,” Laura says.
On life after Lyn
Also a writer and a producer, Ginette nods vigorously, as she definitely understands what it is to have one role overshadow all others. “Lyn of Tawa eventually became quite suffocating. There was a time when I wasn’t cast in anything and 50 percent of that was because people didn’t want Lyn of Tawa. But the world’s changed, and the public understands that actors are acting, that Lyn of Tawa was just a role. Things have also changed because I’m old now and Lyn had her heyday literally 40 years ago, and there are so many things that require an old woman so I get lots of lovely auditions playing evil grannies, and nice ones. I just did two horror movies back to back including Grafted, which was real schlock horror and I had such fun on set!”
Ginette is clearly also having a ball with this sparkling farce. “Some people believe all plays need a message, but I don’t subscribe to that philosophy, and I love that Blithe Spirit is plain entertainment. Noël Coward wrote it during WWII to distract Londoners from The Blitz, which feels very fitting for where we are now, with the world so on edge, with a lot to be said for pure comic escapism!”
And while the Weekly could have happily chatted with Ginette and Laura for hours, the show must go on, and the two lively actors – along with Ginette’s adorable Papillion-King Charles Fifi – are called back to rehearsal, giggling cheekily as they make their exit.
Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, part of Wellington Pride Festival 2025, takes place at Circa One until Saturday April 19. See circa.co.nz/package/blithe-spirit for more information.
