'Helen Clark in Six Outfits' by Fiona Samuel

Went to see ‘Helen Clark in Six Outfits’ last night, a play by Fiona Samuel produced by the Auckland Theatre Company at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. Highly recommend it.

This is a largely lighthearted yet heartfelt honouring of an enormously significant figure in New Zealand political life. From a protest about food at Epsom Girls Grammar School all the way through to her time as the third most powerful person at the United Nations, the play covers key moments and episodes in a rich and varied life — and does so with warmth, wit, and real affection.

There are some truly memorable moments — the funny episodes with the Tizards, media training with Brian Edwards, and a fantastic speech towards the end of the play. In between there are moments with her parents, her first electoral victory and arrival into Parliament, attempts to roll her from the post of Labour leader, and much more.

The central theme — communicated through the metaphor of mountain climbing, Clark’s favoured holiday pastime — is the business of taking an ice pick to the glass ceiling. It lands well.

Helen Clark comes across as intellectual, a deep thinker with even deeper principles. A genuinely principled leader in an era not exactly overflowing with them.

The one thing I would have liked to hear more of: how did Helen come to be the way she is? What shaped this deeply principled, intellectually serious, left-leaning person — raised, somewhat ironically, by conservative, National-voting farming parents? That backstory felt like fertile ground the play left largely unturned. It would also help us understand how a person not entirely charismatic chose to participate — and succeed — in an incredibly public profession. Understanding how she came to be the way she is would add depth and colour to the struggle between personal authenticity and public expectations symbolised by the outfits. But that’s a minor note.

Congratulations to the whole creative team — this is theatre worth your time.

Posted to Facebook, 12 April 2026

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