Wait for it! Yes, it's on the way. An opera based on the life of Len Lye with music by Eve de Castro-Robinson and a libretto by Roger Horrocks is about to go into production in Auckland.
This is one of a number of attempts to get Len Lye on the boards. A couple of years ago Brian Hannam’s play Len was workshopped a couple of times - once by Playmarket with a suitably bald Stuart Devenie as Lye and then by the Auckland Theatre Company - but a production never even made it to off-off Queen Street. The actor John Watson also wrote a one-hander Len. The life and times of Len Lye (1901-1980) that he proposed touring round the country but that went nowhere.
Now we hear that along with the opera a musical LYE! is waiting in the wings. A bunch of songs have already been penned including the theme song ‘You are my universe’, ‘Heavy metal’, ‘Twisters’, 'Stop the sculpture I want to get off’, Move me’ and the anthem ‘Stainless.’ More on the Lyes as they come to hand.
