Master of human geography

His last play was set in a hotel, and his next will take in the hot rollers and hairspray of a beauty salon.

But right now Paul McLaughlin is in Palmerston North to direct Macbeth, this year's Summer Shakespeare. MICHELLE DUFF caught up with the city's new artist-in-residence.

Paul McLaughlin watches impassively as the woman screams in his face.

She's on the brink of tears, angry and emotional, shocked that her husband could be such a coward.

Her hands shake, her voice rising to a crescendo as she hurls insults across the small space.

"Good," says McLaughlin, unfolding his arms. He turns and walks towards the window, spinning back around with a hand raised.

"Start from here," he says, pointing at the edge of the stage, "and when you get the impulse, get up and start moving. Also, slow it down for me. Go for a more conversational tone, so that you've got something to build into."

Lynn Garrick nods, and retraces her steps. She begins Lady Macbeth's soliloquy again, quieter this time, her tone almost menacing as she stalks up behind her husband.

We're at the audition for Summer Shakespeare, which is shaping up to be a rather unconventional version of Macbeth. McLaughlin – a Wellington-based actor, director and the city's new artist-in-residence – has been scouting the city for talent for two weeks.

"Wait, stop there," he says, as Garrick pauses between lines of vitriol. "This is a man who was a general, and you're calling him chicken. What does that do to a military man, when you say that?"

Garrick thinks for a moment, then spits out the line with renewed venom.

Now it's time for her to read a passage by one of the witches.

"Okay," McLaughlin says. "What I'm thinking of doing with these witches is making them war reporters. So can you say the whole thing like you're doing a news broadcast?"

Audition over, Garrick grabs her bag. A local dentist, she's also studying vocals with teacher Kathi Craig and had a lead role in last year's Abbey Theatre Christmas production, All Shook Up.

So how was the Macbeth audition?

"I thought he was going to do some stuff with a group of people," she says, flushed. "So that was a very cold start. But I understood what he wanted, and was happy to give it to him.

"I like that about acting actually – I have a responsible job, so I like something where someone else makes all the decisions."

McLAUGHLIN'S diary is a minefield of audition forms, loose paper and a slightly battered Macbeth script, with indecipherable notes crawling from the margins.

It's his own version of shorthand, he explains, so that he knows when a line should be delivered faster, or a scene slowed down.

"I've been doing a lot of devised work for the last few years, so I was interested in doing something scripted again," he says of his decision to accept the three-month, Massey University-funded artist-in-residence posting.

"I've directed this play before, and I found out they hadn't done a production of Macbeth here for a while."

A student of Toi Whakaari drama school in the 1990s, McLaughlin has a CV bulging with assorted film, theatre and television productions.

Recent accolades include a 2004 Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for actor of the year in Albert Speer, and a bevy of awards for the 2007 drama Hotel, written with four others for the Wellington Fringe Festival.

After dabbling in drama in high school, a youthful McLaughlin packed himself off to Otago University to study a Bachelor of Arts in human geography. That's quite different to acting, isn't it?

"Not really, actually," McLaughlin says. "[Human geography] is the story of people – and that's what acting is, that's what directing is. So I think there was some kind of link there, however tenuous."

But drama school called – and 20 years on, the excitement of theatre can still leave McLaughlin breathless.

"There's nothing like being on stage in front of a few hundred people, that's what I dig. Television is much more lucrative in terms of the pay cheque, but it's very much like a type of machine. You are being rushed along for time, and sometimes it feels as if acting is the last thing they are considering."

His last play, Hotel, received rave reviews and was set in a suite at Wellington's Museum Hotel. Audiences of 12 at a time were let in to watch the lives of five characters unfold.

The whole idea – which is also being explored with the upcoming Summer Shakespeare production – is to take theatre out of a conventional space, McLaughlin says.

"I think people have this feeling you go to the theatre, catch a performance and leave. But theatre for me is in a bus stop, it's in a library, it's people moving and being around you.

"It's just showing people that theatre is not a building, theatre is every day."

While he's here, McLaughlin will begin work on the prequel to Hotel; this one's called Salon, and there are no prizes for guessing where it's set.

"In the hair salon I'm always noticing how people are eavesdropping on conversations; that's very human. They also get a very tactile experience," he says, massaging the air with his fingers.

With funding from the Taupo Arts Council through Creative New Zealand, the play should be finished in time for the Wellington Fringe Festival this February.

But right now – Macbeth.

"I THINK it's one of Shakespeare's more easily interpreted stories, with themes that are still relevant – power, emotion, revenge, justice and the supernatural," McLaughlin says.

Shakespeare should be musical and loud, theatrical and engaging, he says.

A stroll through The Esplanade confirmed it was an ideal backdrop.

"I thought it was a little park and it was bloody huge," he says. "It really spoke to me as an interesting place."

The Macbeth he envisions will take place against an Apocalypse Now-style Vietnam War setting, with a modern soundtrack and the witches doubling as war reporters.

"I want to find ways into the story that are contemporary but don't mess with the script that has worked for 400 years," McLaughlin says.

"It's not a very high budget so we can't create elaborate sets. It's not like you're in a theatre and it's going to be perfect ... you really have to make the show work for that space, in the right time of day in whatever weather you get."

It's also a great experience for actors, who can't rely on technical tricks to guide the audience's attention, he says.

And the finished production is always a buzz.

"I think it'll be exciting. It will ask you to engage yourself mentally and emotionally with the story.

"I'm really into that – I'm not interested in you sitting there just watching it; I want you to be involved in it. It's got to be something that stays with you."

The final audition for Summer Shakespeare is this Sunday at 3pm, in the Evelyn Rawlins room upstairs at Square Edge.

- © Fairfax NZ News