Ariane Lenihan

Self confessed ‘drama nerd’ with inherited theatre skills secures London degree in performing arts – next stage international film festivals.

When leading Australasian actress Brigid Lenihan died in 1970 she left a stage legacy, but it wasn’t to come into being until 28 years later.

That legacy was her granddaughter, Ariane Lenihan, who at 23 is carving out her own theatrical career.

Last September she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from London’s Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance after three gruelling years. Blame the global pandemic for what made that time so gruelling for the young New Zealander.

The virus hit stage, film and education hard in the UK as it endured long lockdowns, forcing significant chunks of Ariane’s final 18 months’ study to be conducted by Zoom. It was not an easy way of honing a craft that relies heavily on personal connection and interaction.

At times it was demoralising but Ariane’s not a quitter. She refused to give up on the career that’s her life pulse.

However, by the time she graduated she was more than ready to return home. She was one of the ‘chosen few’ Kiwis from across the globe who hit the jackpot in the lottery that granted entry into a Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) facility. 

“It really was a stroke of luck; at the time I was couch surfing.”

Rotorua’s home

Since MIQ, Ariane’s been living in Rotorua and working as a receptionist at the Distinction Hotel and across the departments on staff-depleted days. 

Despite only living here a year in her kindy days, Rotorua is the place she regards as home. “I never considered Wellington or Auckland as home when I lived there.”

Her maternal family connections are deeply rooted in Rotorua and its rural hinterland. Her mother, Shona Jennings, grew up on a Mamaku farm and was a Western Heights High head girl. So were two of Shona’s sisters. She met her husband, Ariane’s dad, Stephen Knight-Lenihan, when both worked at the then Radio Geyserland.  

Ariane’s living in their lakeside bach with one of her 12 cousins, Sarah Wharekura, and Sarah’s partner.

An only child, Ariane’s cousins are a pivotal part of her life. 

“My cousins are my siblings; they love me and give me crap like siblings do.”

They and their respective parents are the reason she’s here.

Her parents are in Sweden where her mother, a long time worker with aid organisations, is presently based. Her father recently joined her following his retirement as a senior lecturer in environmental planning at Auckland University.

“He’s a research fiend and is helping Mum out with environmental factors.” 

Unconventional childhood

Query Ariane about her life and ever so nonchalantly she says it’s not been a conventional one. Never a truer word . . . 

When she was two, aid work took her parents to a settlement near Wewak in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Between the ages of nine and 11 she lived in South Africa.

Despite being so young she retains an enduring memory of PNG village life.

“It’s of sitting in a cooking hut with these beautiful mammas sneaking me saksak [sago]. It was such a sensory experience it has definitely stuck in my mind.”

Being told she was off to live in South Africa doesn’t generate such a gleeful recollection.  

“I hated my parents when they told me. I accused them of taking me away from my friends. I had no idea what South Africa was like. I thought I was going to live in this tiny town where I couldn’t speak the language. When I got there I fell in love with the country and I’m so grateful I had that opportunity. Those were very formative years for me.”

The reality was the non-English speaking tiny town she feared didn’t eventuate.  Ariane and her parents lived in East London, a city, and for one as outgoing as she is new friends were quickly made.

“When we left South Africa I was saying exactly what I’d said about leaving Wellington, that I didn’t want to leave them [friends] behind. I made some really amazing friends there. We’re still in touch and care about each other although it’s 12 years since I saw them.”  

A South African eye opener was the great divide between rich and poor.

“I’d had a very comfortable life in Wellington. It was so different discovering South Africa’s extremes of poverty. The work my parents were doing as VSA volunteers took me into orphanages and townships [shanty towns] where I really got to see the privilege I was born into.

“South Africa was where my eyes were opened to racism. I learnt a lot about apartheid and the inequity it has perpetuated.”

Theatre holiday programmes

Long before the South Africa sojourn, Ariane’s love of theatre had ignited.

“Because both my parents worked they enrolled me in school holiday theatre programmes from when I was about six or seven. I slowly became aware that my grandmother had been quite famous here and in Australia and had acted in London. I guess that gave me the weird affinity I feel for London, but I didn’t really know much about her. She died when Dad was twelve. She was only 41.”

In her final school year she didn’t seriously consider drama as a career option, but nor did she rule it out.

“It was just something I loved to do. I thought about studying anthropology and archaeology then decided to take time out and see where that took me.”

A plan was formulated that would take her to different parts of the States and the UK for short drama courses.

“My mother stumbled on this place in London that had a six-month drama foundation course. It was Rose Bruford.”     

Ariane sent a couple of audition tapes demonstrating the kind of theatre work she was involved in.

“Suddenly I had this interview with the head of class and she decided I was good to go. That was in June 2018 and the course started in September which meant I’d miss the external exams here. My school was good about it saying I could take a couple more internal exams and get credits. I did and skedaddled out of there to the next stage of my life.

Nurturing inner theatre nerd

“It was the first time I had to live like an adult with my parents on the other side of the world but I was okay with that. Because of the way they raised me I’m a fairly confident person.”

Ariane thrived in her new environment. “I‘ve always been a drama nerd and I was with these amazing people from all over the world who were just as passionate about it.”

At the end of the six month diploma course she was offered a place on the college’s three-year degree programme.

“I decided to defer that. I wanted to make sure Rose Bruford was definitely the school for me. I didn’t want to be beating myself up later saying ‘what if?’.”

She returned home and worked at Farmers and Auckland’s Fairy Shop. “I had an agenda to earn money.”

Six months on she was back in London applying for places at five or six other drama schools, including the prestigious RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art).

“That was my top choice for a total of 10 minutes when I realised it wasn’t where I wanted to be, Rose Bruford was.

“It not only teaches you the skills of acting and everything that comes with that but it teaches you about yourself.

“That sounds slightly cheesy but you learn who you are fundamentally as a person. I don’t think many people can say that about the degree they did.”  

Quiz Ariane about the reality of learning the type of skills that are actors’ tools of trade and her response equates to an insider’s guide to the theatrical galaxy.

“There’s a joke around drama schools when university students are discussing degrees. It goes ‘Yes, but is it like drama school where you unburden your deepest, darkest secrets at nine in the morning?’ There’s some truth in that but you learn so much more, you learn to harness your voice but never push it, how to use it when your character needs to evoke the emotion you are feeling.

“You have multiple movement classes, how to connect and harness emotion through movement.  I can cry, I don’t know why but suddenly my body is released of this emotion.”    

Zooming in on classes

She warns that any aspiring actor, however top-notch they consider themselves, must never expect to appear in a full-blown production from day one. 

“You learn by working up from little scenes. In our first year we did Chekhov’s Three Sisters. You then move on to the 19th century playwrights and Shakespeare seasons. I was Isabella in Measure for Measure. One of our final year’s productions was quite heavy. It was a political statement about a woman who sets herself alight in Parliament Square.”

And what of the limitations of those Zoom classes that blighted several segments of her study?

“It was certainly a let down to some degree. You’re working towards a fully practical degree and suddenly you are locked away from your class, trying to do movement alone in your house.”

For Ariane clowning was particularly difficult to master online.

“I found clowning classes really hard.  Clowning is generally hard, but even more so when you are doing it through Zoom and there’s no audience to connect to. I have a new-found respect for people who are clowns; it’s so much more than that image of a goony cliché of a red nose and big shoes.”    

And the future? 

“I have a feeling it’s not in New Zealand, which is a bit sad. It’s a phenomenal country but it’s hard to get a foot in the door here. I feel I’m not done with England yet. It’s where I have created my contacts.  And I’ve realised I don’t just want to be an actor, There are so many ways to be creative with what I’ve learned.”