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After touring New Zealand for four years, Jonny Brugh is bringing his solo theatrical performance The Second Test to Taupo, the home town of 'cricketing great' John Reid (former NZ captain). Brugh says he was both excited and terrified to meet Reid, during his research for the play.

“I was expecting a good bollocking from the man on our first meeting because of some facts I had wrong.”

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It’s 1953 and the New Zealand cricket team has embarked on the maiden tour to South Africa, including 22 year old fast bowler Bob Blair. On Christmas Eve disaster strikes in the form of lahar down Mt Ruapehu, the infamous Tangiwai disaster. Among the 151 victims is Blair’s new fiancé Nerissa Love.

The play tells Blair’s story, one of the most famed in New Zealand sporting history. In cricketing circles the tale is legendary, full of drama and emotion.

"The Second Test is the story of love lost, it is a story not easily relived by those who lived it. This has been the toughest part of telling this story."

The Second Test is on 18 - 19 May at Erupt Lake Taupo Festival 2012.

During what hours of the day do you feel most inspired?

Mid-morning. The evening is a good time to sit down and think about your story but often you're tired and the ideas come slowly. Sometime you need to sleep on an idea, to have a look at it in the morning. Eureka moments can arrive just after you hit the snooze button, when I've just woken up and begun thinking about it in a.

How would a good friend describe your aesthetic or style?

Like Hairy Maclary making booby traps.

What aspect of your creative practice gives you the biggest thrill?

Creating story telling brilliance with a creative partner, eureka moments in writing and theatre making. It's in the use of the craft of theatre making, when you use different technical aspects of story telling come together to create a multi leveled or particularly poignant moment. When making a show about true events one gets to meet the real people who lived them, or at least one hopes to meet them. With The Second Test I've had the pleasure of meet numerous people who lived it. Having the blessings of these people sure feels good. The relationship with the audience is important in comedy because your used to hearing the response to things, in theatre I'm enjoying learning how to understand a silent response.

How does your environment affect your work?

If there is ever a time or place to obsess it is not in front of the computer. This is my number one rule- minimize time spent on the computer and maximise writing/devising on the floor. The page is an easy place to obsess, theatre magic doesn't come from the page. It needs to see itself play out on the stage. A computer is a place to plan out ones ideas, story lines, symbolism. The stage is the place to create magic.

Do you like to look at the big picture or focus on the details?

What's the point? Why am I telling this story? Are often questions one asks oneself after the fact once your make the play and seen it on stage. But there is so much joy in the making of and the craft that when you hit a good patch you don't question anything. In the lean patches one can easily start questioning it all. I think the joy of the 'doing' is too good and visceral which smoke screens the tough times.

What's your number one business tip for surviving (and thriving) in the creative industries?

Enjoy it. Listen and learn.

Which of your projects to date has given you the most satisfaction?

Atrocities by Sugar&Spice was the most provocative and expressive production I've had the pleasure of creating with my comic partner Jason Hoyte. That production was like having all our taps on full.

Who or what has inspired you recently?

I love music, live music. Darryn Harkness is an Auckland musician whom I have the pleasure of playing live music with in a band called Andrew Fagan and the People. Darryn does a solo show of spoken word, music and songs that is both inspiring, energetic and yet somewhat improvised. His craft with the loop pedal, computer, guitar and drum kits is inspiring to say the least.

Tell us a bit about your background.

I began performing as a comedian in 1993 with Jason Hoyte, Sugar&Spice. We performed a very physical, abstracted form of comic performance that won us a Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best Comic Performance. And later in 1998 we won the Billy T Award. We performed at the Melbourne comedy festival several times and enjoyed many tours of New Zealand during the NZ comedy festivals through the 90's. The comic stand up environment felt limiting for us and we moved on to writing and producing full length plays. This is where I learnt how to truly tell stories with new craft facets of communication. In 2005 I toured My Brother And I Are Porn Stars around the world with the amazing Jackie Van Beek. We had a great time taking it to Great Britain several times. In between making theatre and film I am a personal trainer and photographer and a house handyman for hire.

Tell us a bit about your work at Erupt (from inception to conception)

Taupo has always been a place where I wanted to tour this play because the great John Reid lives there. John was in the team that toured South Africa in 1953 and captained NZ for 34 test match's and in 1956 John was the first man to captain a winning side, beating the West Indies in New Zealand. I play him in The Second Test and so I wanted to bring the play to his home town in the hope of gracing his wider community.

This play has been touring New Zealand for four years now. This is the first time the show has been invited to be part of an arts festival.

The research has been a fantastic experience. I have met numerous cricketing greats and had cups of tea with some widows of the men who have passed on. It was both an exciting and terrifying thing to meet John Reid in Taupo. John was suitably protective of his team mates and made sure that I was to “get it right”. I was expecting a good bollocking from the man on our first meeting because of some facts I had wrong. But as soon as his dogs jumped up to say hello and sniffed me on the driveway I felt instantly calmed. John has been very helpful with details. Not to mention my own batting footwork.

Meeting Bob Blair and talking with him about his loss in 1953? that was a humbling and profound experience. Bob and I corresponded over about a year during which time I sent him the first draft of the play. We managed to bring Bob and his wife Barbara in New Zealand from Cheshire in England. The first three nights of the play were performed to a front row of the Blair family. The same nights the show was graced by some NZ and Australian cricket greats as well. Men whose careers I was too young to see. All remained behind to talk to the youngsters. The Second Test is the story of love lost, it is a story not easily relived by those who lived it. This has been the toughest part of telling this story.

If you could go back and choose a completely different career path to the one you've chosen, what would it be?

I am already on the career path I was meant to be on. Though I studied fitness in 2007 for the purpose of healing my imbalanced and painful body, after studying I've enjoyed working as a personal trainer to some very focused people. A few very famous comedians and the odd actor on The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit. To play a goblin required very specific strength and flexibility. I also love being fit and pushing myself physically.

What place is always with you, wherever you go?

The West Coast near Auckland, the hilly suburbs of Wellington. The New Zealand landscape.

What's the best way to listen to music, and why?

Live music is the best. Though I clean houses to pay the rent so my headphones and shuffle are crucial.

You are given a piece of string, a stick and some fabric. What do you make?

A kite.

What's the best stress relief advice you've ever been given?

Pay for a good massage.

What’s great about ERUPT?

Taupo is a beautiful place. I have some great memories of my father and me fly fishing. I used to make boats out of pumice and sticks and race then down the river.

What’s your big idea for 2012?

To embrace the winter.

• Erupt Lake Taupo Festival is on from May 10 - 20.