An Australian play's New Zealand premiere in Tauranga this month offers a high quality, well-written, humorous take on country life across the Tasman via local five lady actors in a black box set.

Yes, ‘The Appleton Ladies Potato Race' premieres at 16th Ave Theatre on Saturday, June 10, and runs for two weeks via 12 performances – so grab tickets now and get ready for a cracker!

Inspired by true events, Melanie Tait's affectionate Australian play is an effervescent, amusing and big-hearted tale about women taking action and showing the world there's more than one way to win a race!

Tauranga director Dennis Fenwick first read the play two years ago.

'One thing for me is when you read a play the first time and can already visualise it on-stage – that's a good play. This one I could!

'It's extremely well-written, it's funny without playing the gag...it's very quintessentially Australian in its humour and has some really interesting back stories – but none of those interfere with the story. Instead, they give it colour and make it real.

'And we, in Tauranga, get to do the first performance of it in New Zealand!”

Dennis says the cast has been rehearsing for five weeks, with a support team wrapped around them, including lighting and sound people.

'They're doing an amazing job – the actresses were scripts down on week two. This means we've been able to evolve the play to the extent where we're beginning to own it as a performance piece.”

Dennis says the set is very, very simple.

'It's what theatres calls ‘black box'. I like directing this style because the actors work hard to give visual cues about location – such as a bar, hair salon, doctor's surgery etc – which allows the audience to create their own image around it, kind of like reading a book. And it's great theatre – it really is!”

As such, Dennis encourages Tauranga to book tickets early – as they're sure to sell out! ‘The Appleton Ladies Potato Race' is on show at 16th Avenue Theatre from June 10-24. Purchase tickets at: https://www.iticket.co.nz