Michael Hurst Official Website

6 September 2010, 11 p.m., TVNZ Heartland: Duggan "A Shadow of Doubt" pt. 1
(repeated 7 September, 9 a.m.)
Michael and wife Jennifer Ward-Lealand guest star as a husband and wife whose daughter disappears.  From 1998.

20 August-18 September 2010:  Happy Days
Michael directs Samuel Beckett's Happy Days for Silo Theatre, starring Robyn Malcolm and Cameron Rhodes.  At Herald Theatre.  Click here to book. Reviews:

The Big Idea: "That it is a fascinating play is a tribute to the two actors and director Michael Hurst.  Directing a play where the actors barely move must be difficult, but it was always, unfalteringly intriguing.  Malcolm's performance was . . . mesmerizing".

Listener:  " . . . it is a rare pleasure to see one of [Samuel Beckett's] plays performed.  . . . Hurst's direction captures the vaudeville humour, particularly in the sexual inuendo and the byplay between the 'talkative wife' and the 'henpecked husband' . .  . ".

NZ Herald:  "Malcolm's performance is an absolute marvel.  The play's restricted movement highlights the qualities that make her so compelling in the small screen close-up.  Her smile lights up the whole theatre while moments of anguish bring forth real tears.  Cameron Rhodes has few lines but he uses them superbly . . . "

theatreview:  "Director Michael Hurst has focused predominantly on character: Malcolm's eternally friendly, pragmatically optimistic biddy against Rhodes' coarse, recalcitrant old bastard . . . An extract from Peter Brook in the programme puts it in a way I see no cause to rephrase: '[the] audience leaves . . . nourished and enriched, with a lighter heart, full of strange irrational joy.'"