Helen Clark in Six Outfits

"Helen seems adrift, lacking in direction and without a sense of purpose in life. Perhaps when she finds one, she will make a contribution to something."

In 1967, Helen Clark’s leaving testimonial from Epsom Girls Grammar made a fatal mistake that would be repeated over and over again in the years to come. It underestimated her.

Award-winning writer Fiona Samuel MNZM (Pike River) has created a hilarious new play, Helen Clark in Six Outfits. It retraces the remarkable trajectory of a farm girl from the Waikato who became New Zealand’s first elected female Prime Minister and a powerful force at the United Nations.

Helen is played in her later years by the luminous Jennifer Ward-Lealand CNZM. The older and the younger Helens deconstruct her personal and political lives over the past 50 years, satirically framed through the lens of six key outfits.

She faced ideological battles with her father, George, criticism of her looks and choice of clothes, questions over her marriage, and disapproval towards her lack of children. Clark’s constant scrutiny is presented in a warm, funny and occasionally shocking insight into the personal and public compromises and costs she withstood in her inexorable rise in power.

Commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company and now making its world premiere, Helen Clark in Six Outfits examines a forthright and ambitious woman as she negotiates social expectations about what – and who – makes a leader.

Ultimately, we are asked, if Helen Clark broke through the glass ceiling to lead the way for women in power, where are we now?