28 June, 2025

Dyeing for his craft? Decision needed for Ibsen classic

Going grey?… Max Pirotais-Wilton must choose whether to dye his red beard for upcoming performances

A contemporary version of the Ibsen classic A Doll’s House is another stepping stone for actor Max Pirotais-Wilton.
It’s the Devonport resident’s fourth community theatre role and the first in which he is playing a much older character. He is debating whether to colour his striking red beard an ageing grey.
In another first, North Shore group Foolish Wit Theatre, which is staging the production at the PumpHouse theatre in Takapuna this week, hopes bookings will allow it to meet a long-held aim to profit-share with its cast.
For Pirotais-Wilton, aged 26, any payment would be just a bonus. He finds acting brings rich rewards in itself. He likes being part of a diverse yet like-minded team.
He plays Dr Rank, a friend to both Nora and Torvald Helmer (played by Gabrielle Dally and Rama Buisson), the couple whose seemingly ideal marriage is at the heart of the play.
Playwright Henrik Ibsen is regarded as the father of modern theatre. A Doll’s House was first performed in 1879, shocking audiences with its ground-breaking exploration of marriage and morality.
The adaptation Foolish Wit has chosen is by playwright Amy Herzog. It is a faster-paced, more modern take on gender roles, and has been described overseas as “an electrifying revival”.
Pirotais-Wilton says he is looking forward to the challenge – grey beard or not – of playing a man confronting his loyalties and mortality. Physically, he has been working on a slight stoop. Psychologically, he says, his character opens up during the play.
The acting bug first struck Pirotais-Wilton at Takapuna Grammar School more than a decade ago. Newly arrived from France with his French mother, English father and younger brother, he soon got involved in school productions.
He enjoyed a less formal school environment than was usual in France.
“Unlike France, they [TGS] had drama classes; there you study drama as literature, you don’t act it.”
Teachers in France were prized as subject-matter experts, he said, rather than necessarily being trained to teach well. Even at primary level, students were expected to do homework, such as conjugating verbs.
He remembers an early cultural clash coming home from school in New Zealand. “I said to mum, ‘I’ve got no homework’, and she said: ‘What?’”
Pirotais-Wilton had a small part in the TGS production of Oliver in Year 11, going onto a bigger role in Grease in 2017, his last year at school. He also participated in the Sheila Winn Shakespeare competitions.
At university, he completed a BA in creative technologies, then went on to work in software development, creating interactive experiences.
Drama was on the backburner for a few years, but in 2023 his mother noticed Company Theatre advertising for an extra in its performance of Death of a Salesman so she suggested he might want to ease back into it.
Enjoying the experience, Pirotais-Wilton then auditioned for Shoreside Theatre’s Summer Shakespeare season of Measure for Measure, playing the comic sidekick Lucio. Then he was a detective in the company’s Agatha Christie season last year.
Through the connections he made from performing for Shoreside at the PumpHouse, he heard about Foolish Wit’s A Doll’s House coming up there, becoming one of the play’s six-member cast. He had time for rehearsals, because after an ownership change at the company he worked for, he was also left looking for a new job.
Getting back into acting brought a renewed sense of connection.
“If you’re thinking about giving [community theatre] a go – absolutely. The community of it, is very strong.”

• A Doll’s House, staged by Foolish Wit Theatre, from 25-29 July at the PumpHouse Theatre, Killarney Park, Takapuna. Tickets from the theatre box office or online.

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