Playwright Gary Henderson took a touching, bittersweet look at life in the 1960s in this beautifully crafted play, directed by Jane Waddell.

Michael Hope is ten years old and sleeps on a volcano. This is his playground, his paradise. But tremors begin to shake his idyll as rumblings in the adult world encroach into Michael’s life, erupting, and throwing his universe into a chaos that will change him forever.

Set within the moody landscape of its title, this engrossing play wove a story in and around the everyday lives of a small town community on Banks Peninsula. It provided a richly emotional journey amid childhood games and adventures, adult issues and events. Although the story of Peninsula is fictional, Henderson says the places and some of the incidental anecdotes are real. It is an acknowledgement, a nod to a time and a place that was a step on the way to here and now.