WINTER & Condoleeza Rice

Nigel Edgecombe as Horse
Melissa Billington as Crystal

Condoleeza Rice flew into New Zealand on the 31 July, same day as the premiere of my play, "WINTER". Although I didn't spot her in the theatre, there were twelve women from the American Women in New Zealand Network in the audience waving American Flags. (Who sent an email saying how much fun they had and how fabulous the play was!!) -- Good on ya American Women -- . Perhaps they were hiding Condee because Auckland University's Student Association offered a $5,000 reward for the citizen's arrest of the U.S. Secretary of State. Pressured by the police, the Association withdrew their offer; however on hearing about the withdrawal, Victoria University's Student Association, in Wellington, offered a $10,000 reward.

Within days of the first performance two reviews of WINTER were published, both of which failed to mention how much the audience laughed. I thought perhaps the two middle aged Pakeha (white people for you non-Kiwi readers) men had no sense of humour, but I was wrong. Check out this statement by AUSA President David Do, who issued this statement to the media why the reward was offered for the citizen arrest for Rice:

"It's hard enough living as a student in Auckland these days without having a war criminal coming to town, so we thought we'd give our students a chance to make a dent in their student loans and work for global justice at the same time."

To read more about this event see the Victoria University student magazine salient, at www.salient.org.nz.