Power Suit Moves – Auckland Theatre Company’s ‘Helen Clark in Six Outfits’ set to entertain this Autumn
Auckland Theatre Company isn’t easing into 2026 — it’s striding in with purpose. After the emotional gravity of Waiora Te Ūkaipō – The Homeland, the company pivots hard into something sharper, smarter, and laced with mischief: Helen Clark in Six Outfits.
Under the guidance of playwright Fiona Samuels and director Sophia Roberts, the production traces Clark’s journey from the charged atmosphere of student protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s through to her leadership of the Labour Party and her tenure as New Zealand’s 37th Prime Minister from 1999 to 2008. It’s a sweeping narrative, but one grounded in personal evolution as much as political transformation.
For Auckland Theatre Company, the decision to bring Clark’s story to the stage was both deliberate and deeply aligned with its mission. Creative Director Jonathan Bielski explains, “I commissioned this play because we are committed to backing our playwrights to write new stories about Aotearoa. I chose the subject of Helen Clark because she has led a big life. In the theatre, we should examine big lives… lives that laid a path, that changed the way we think and live. Clark is all of that and more.”
At its centre are two commanding performances. Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand embodies the elder Clark, while Lauren Gibson steps into her younger years. Together, they create a layered portrait of ambition, conviction, and resilience, reflecting the choices and motivations that defined Clark’s rise, and her determination to give voice to those often unheard.
Yet Helen Clark in Six Outfits refuses to be a conventional political retelling. Instead, Samuels finds a visually rich and thematically resonant entry point through Clark’s wardrobe. Known for its bold, unapologetic colour palette, her clothing becomes a narrative device in its own right. Gibson’s younger Clark moves through vintage corduroy jackets and bell-bottom jeans, while the now-iconic crimson power suit emerges as a defining symbol of leadership. Here, fashion is more than aesthetic: it’s identity, strategy, and statement, illustrating how image and authority intertwine.
Samuels describes the play’s creative spark with vivid clarity: “The piece of grit came to me as I researched the heck out of my subject. I was struck again and again by the astonishing barrage of criticism she copped while going about her business.” That criticism, she realised, became the story’s antagonistic force. After a period of creative gestation, the concept revealed itself: “It’s the clothes!”, a breakthrough that unlocked the dual structure of the play and its striking theatrical language.
That sense of becoming, of identity forged under scrutiny, is central to Samuels’ script. The production leans into a subtle meta-theatricality, blurring the boundaries between performance and politics, and asking where one ends and the other begins.
Beyond its stylistic flair, the play also aims to ignite meaningful conversation. It confronts the systemic barriers that have long shaped, and often limited, women’s pathways into leadership. At the same time, it celebrates Clark’s resilience in overcoming those constraints, emerging from an era where female leadership was too often dismissed as novelty rather than necessity.
With Helen Clark in Six Outfits, Auckland Theatre Company delivers more than a portrait of a political life; it presents a vivid, stylish, and thought-provoking meditation on power, perception, and the cost of carving out space at the top.
Helen Clark in Six Outfits runs at the ASB Waterfront Theatre from April 7 to April 26.
Image: Auckland Theatre Company/Rachel Sung
