‘This is what we do’: Three generations take to the stage in A Vaudeville of Flowers

Ranging in age from seven to 75, the Devenies embrace the traditions of a family acting troupe.

Lyra Devenie may only be seven years old, but every time she takes to the stage in A Vaudeville of Flowers, she transforms into something magical. First, she becomes a beautiful pink pansy, blossoming at the bottom of the garden. In the next scene, she’s a carrot being wrenched from the ground, followed by a fly stuck in a web and a clown mowing the lawns. But Lyra’s favourite scene of all is when she takes to the stage with her 75-year-old-grandfather, veteran New Zealand actor Stuart Devenie, and plants seeds into the small, shallow holes his walking stick leaves behind in the soil.

Stuart and Lyra aren’t the only Devenies involved in A Vaudeville of Flowers, a joyful theatre production running at Auckland’s PumpHouse Theatre this week. Lyra’s mother Laurel Devenie directs the show, which follows the colourful traditions of vaudeville theatre with its high-energy mix of music and physical performance. Laurel is an experienced actor and producer – probably best known for her role as Shortland Street nurse Kate Nathan – but she’s also the founder of Whangārei community theatre collective Company of Giants, which created A Vaudeville of Flowers two years ago for the Whangārei Fringe Festival.

Laurel directs both her father and daughter in the show, which turns the ordinary into the extraordinary by celebrating domestic life and everyday objects hiding in the garden, using song, poetry, dance and mime. Having enjoyed sold-out seasons in Whangārei and a local tour, the show has packed up and travelled south to Auckland for a limited run. Together, the Devenie family has helped to build a whimsical, wonderfully chaotic theatre experience that will appeal to all ages – and while it might seem unusual to have three generations of one family rehearsing, travelling and performing together, to the Devenies, it’s completely normal.

Stuart and Laurel are no strangers to working side by side, having taught acting classes together for many years. Once Lyra joined the A Vaudeville of Flowers cast two years ago, it made sense to Laurel to embrace the traditions of a family acting troupe by bringing in her father (Laurel’s mother Gillian completes the Devenie ensemble, having sewn many of the show’s vibrant costumes). Both Laurel and Stuart say that working this closely and instinctively has only deepened their relationship, and there’s been no awkward family tension backstage. “It’s really nice at my age to find that I can be taught by my daughter, and it’s wonderful to be learning from her,” Stuart says.

In fact, the Devenies aren’t the only family involved in A Vaudeville of Flowers. Kelly Johnson – who starred as Gerry “Blondini” Austin in the 1981 New Zealand film classic Goodbye Pork Pie – appears alongside his actor partner Jan Fisher, their two daughters and son-in-law. These familial links have strengthened the bonds among the whole company, just as Stuart imagines a Victorian family travelling troupe would have felt back in the late 19th century. Laurel agrees that it adds something special. “It infuses the show with an extraordinary connection which is varied and very profound, and it just grows every time.”

As for Lyra? She reckons the best thing about performing is simply being on stage with her grandfather, and she’s keen to continue the Devenie acting tradition in years to come. Having been an actor in film, television and theatre for more than 60 years, Stuart says the highlight of the show has been watching his granddaughter embrace the art of stagecraft – checking her props and supporting the cast, despite her young age. “Nobody taught her this,” he says proudly. “She’s just observed it through watching other people and how they work. That’s been a great joy to me.”

Laurel wants A Vaudeville of Flowers to be an exuberant, heartwarming celebration, a show that offers a creative antidote to these heavier times. “It’s rambunctious and wild and unpredictable and unruly,” Laurel says. “People will find a deep narrative about the garden and ecology underneath it, but the whole surface of the thing is anarchic.”

And at the heart of all that anarchy will be three generations of Devenie performers, a whānau both on the stage and off. “It’s a real pleasure to be able to spend time together,” Laurel says of working so closely with her father and daughter. “I’m sure other families do other things together – but this is what we do.”

A Vaudeville of Flowers plays at The PumpHouse Theatre in Auckland from June 16-20.