Welcome to episode 212 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys .

Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library.

Sameena Zehra is a writer, director, actor, storyteller, comedian and “extreme doodler” – it was my first time meeting her, to have this chat. I was interested in talking to her because of the many things she’s done and because she divides her time now between England and New Zealand, having fallen in love with Wellington just a couple of years ago.

But also she was to be in a play called White Men – which was to be at BATS Theatre and hopefully still will be one day. You’ll get, from that language there, that the play is in fact postponed due to virus concerns. I found this out just as this podcast was readied for air. In fact our chat about the play is still in this edit – I did re-cut the intro to explain the show is postponed. For now. Fingers crossed it gets to return to play its hour or so on the stage…

But I wanted to include this conversation still because the podcast has never been about just plugging a current thing and Sameena and I had a great chat – particularly, I think, for two people just meeting and not super aware of each other ahead of the meeting. We talked Cancel Culture and religion and problematic individuals and cognitive dissonance and many artistic concerns relating to those concepts. And of course we talked through the things Sameena has done – from early activism and street theatre in India to playing on stages around the world, to falling in love with Wellington and dividing time now between New Zealand and England.

I loved this conversation. And I look forward to one day seeing the play. I’m a fan of the Red Scare theatre group and all they do – you might remember that last year I spoke with Cassandra Tse from Red Scare. I’ve included a link there to that earlier chat as we mentioned Cassandra and Red Scare in this conversation.

The other reason I’ve included this podcast now – rather than waiting for a hopeful rescheduling of the play – is because this is the new normal for now. Shows are being cancelled or postponed left, right and centre. And each day we are learning about new measures and restrictions. For now I have podcasts in the bank and they’ll continue – but that may not be the case, maybe soon gatherings of two people will be ruled out for a time. I certainly hope that’s not the case. But I wanted to share this as it happened and when it happened. And I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Here now is episode 212 of Sweetman Podcast – my conversation with Sameena Zehra.
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