LITTLE MISS KIWI

 Living up to Expectations

Spoiler Alert:

this post contains details which reveal plot elements of Little Miss Kiwi

before the opening of the  Suez (1869) and Panama (1914) Canals, these were the routes between Britain and New Zealand

The last century saw a steady and continuous counter-emigration from former British colonies back to the 'Motherland'. Many such travellers settled permanently in Britain, making their own contribution to its culture and society.

Little Miss Kiwi is based on a true-life story of this kind of emigration, or, more exactly, on one principal story and several other subsidiary stories. It is intended as a homage to the trials and tribulations and eventual success of one of the many who made the journey.

route via Panama Canal

At that time, and until the advent of cheaper phone calls and, more recently, free, instantaneous communications, letter-writing was the only reasonable means of keeping in touch with one's faraway loved ones.

Letter-writing took time and patience, and was only ever a partially satisfactory tool. Still, there was an anticipation and excitement in the sending and receiving of letters which have been lost in our age of instant gratification.

I hope to have rendered the flavour of those past times through Lucy's letters as they contrast and conflict with the actual events of her new life in a new land.  

airmail envelopes

A few years after the end of World War Two Lucy Murdoch, a naive young New Zealander, travels far from home to learn to be an actor. She has won a scholarship to a world-famous acting school in London.

Little Miss Kiwi is set against the backdrop of post-war Britain, still recovering from the war, but showing the first glimpses of regeneration. This atmosphere of contrasts enhances the challenges - and delights - of being young and ambitious in a strange new world.

MS Rangitoto

Lucy's ship, the MS Rangitoto, takes her over the Pacific Ocean, through the Panama Canal and on across the Atlantic to England.

The Pacific Ocean is endless, endless, endless...Mother, I can hear you say it's the destination that counts...

The story is told partly through third-person narrative and partly through Lucy's letters home to her mother. 

Lucy leaves behind her brilliant, blue and green islands, her mother and brother and a troubled family history for a life-changing venture. 

Wellington, New Zealand in the 1950s

Marlborough Sounds, South Island, New Zealand

After a comical but harmless adventure in Panama City, Lucy finally arrives in London to discover a country and a people still cowed by the devastation of war.

post-war London

Her new home is grey, depressed and alien. Lucy is dismayed: the place her countrymen call 'Home' is cold and unfamiliar. Although the acting school is full of young people looking to the future like Lucy, she finds it hard to make friends; she doesn't seem to fit in. One of the problems is the way she speaks.

RADA, London

She soon found out that the British ear is attuned to accent, the status-marker par excellence. So she felt hampered by her own voice. And what is an actor if not first and foremost a voice?

La Continentale cinema, 1950s

Lucy passes some lonely weeks between her austere Hostel and challenging classes.

When she felt particularly lonely she went to Leicester Square to eat in a restaurant. Sometimes she had two dinners, just to prolong the warmth and the company... 

Her biggest consolation at this lonely time is the excitement of seeing the latest films from the Continent.

London pea-souper

Lucy faces multiple hurdles, some practical, some social, some emotional. Above all, attitudes of the day do not encourage a young woman to be independent:

After all Miss Murdoch, acting isn’t the be-all and end-all of a woman’s life. Surely you know that woman’s true vocation is as wife and mother. Perhaps you should also consider this side of things.

Hampstead Heath

Lucy's situation gradually improves,thanks to her spirit, her determination and her growing confidence. She wins a good part in a play which leads to a new, unexpected friendship.

Soho

Over the summer she works in a northern repertory theatre which boosts her confidence in her own abilities. It also opens her eyes onto another world, another reality of which she had been completely unaware. 

Oh Mother...I saw miners trudging home from work, their faces black, their eyes staring white out of the soot...They are grim, worn out...

Lucy's second year in London promises to be very different from her first, for many delightful reasons...But most of all, she has learnt to have confidence in her own abilities and in her life choices.

Despite her shyness and intrinsic limitations, Lucy gains the assurance to pursue her goals and recognize her own strengths.

Lucy almost gasped: it was not other people’s expectations she needed to live up to. The most important thing was living up to her own expectations. Which, as Mother would have said, was the only thing that truly mattered. Little Miss Kiwi she might be, but she had her pride.