Simply irrepressible

Penny Ashton is a little bit bossy, a little bit bawdy and talks so much it's impossible to get a word in edgeways.

- BY MICHELE HEWITSON

Penny Ashton’s curriculum vitae reads: “Poet, MC, Comedienne, Actor, Social Commentator, TV Presenter, Voice Over Artist, Improviser, Wedding Celebrant, Podcaster and all-round showoff.” She has neglected to add: “World-class talker.” She could talk the hind legs off a dozen donkeys and one person - that person being me.

It is, obviously, ridiculous to complain about somebody you are attempting to interview. You want people you are attempting to interview to talk. I say attempting to interview because I early on gave up on any idea of actually interviewing her. She said almost an hour later, that she reckoned I'd got about five questions in. That is overly generous.

She is her own publicist so I said she could sell the new season of her play The Tempestuous: A Shrew'd New Comedy by Will Shakespeare and Penny Ashton. Of course, she got waylaid and went off on a labyrinthine tour of her brain - it must be insane inside there - so I suppose I'll have to do it for her. There is a “stroppy spinster”, Princess Rosa. There are 11 characters, all played by her. There are “popping codpieces” and belching stepfathers and plenty of Shakespeare for the bard’s fans and plenty of “dick jokes” for everyone else. The media release will likely be the only one ever in the history of media releases to include the words “puffed bull’s pizzles”. The Tempestuous is at Tapac, The Auckland Performing Arts Centre, from October 30 to November 2 before dates in Wellington and Dunedin. That'll do her.

A LITTLE BIT SAUCY