Photos: Emily Chalk
Eve Gordon has been a familiar Kiwi face for more than 20 years. The former Westside and Power Rangers actor and theatre performer became a household name playing Stacey in Three’s comedy-drama The Almighty Johnsons.
In 2009, Eve’s highwire stunts and thrilling rope work led to them co-founding circus theatre company The Dust Palace, and Eve soon became a sought-after circus artist.
Eve’s love affair with circus and physical theatre first began in drama school.
“I was so impressed with the storytelling and the physicality of it all,” explains Eve, 43, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them. “It’s not about being beautiful or not beautiful, it’s about whether you can do these cool things or not.”
Last month, the star gave a dazzling aerial performance in variety show Smashed – The Nightcap, as part of Auckland Arts Festival. The show earned stellar reviews and Eve’s new high-fashion, high-drama show Haus of Yolo tours New Zealand and Canada from next month.
Undertaking daredevil acts takes confidence. But despite the flashing lights, fabulous outfits and breathtaking acrobatics, behind the scenes all was not well and in 2023 Eve’s world fell apart, leaving them almost unable to function.
After several years in the industry, Eve created more than 20 shows with The Dust Palace. They also ran a studio and trained other performers.
“It was constant and not just the work,” tells Eve. “It was a constant of holding responsibility, risk, people’s careers, people’s emotional states. I was so tired that when anybody would ask for any kind of creative idea, my brain, body and my whole being would go, ‘I just need to go to bed.’ I had nothing left.”
Eve had reached breaking point. “I’d been doing way too many things,” they explain. “Most years, all the money I earned would go back into the company to keep it running. It’s one of the things you do when you’re one of the founders. I basically started crying and didn’t stop for two months.”
Eve went home to their parents’ house in Rotorua, changed their phone number and didn’t look at emails.
“I went completely AWOL,” admits Eve. “It was the only thing I could do.”
At the lowest point, Eve was only able to do five hours of work a week.
“For someone who has always been infinitely capable, being able to do it all has always been one of the things that I can offer the world,” they say.
Eve simply had too much going on. “The perception of The Dust Palace was so good from the outside. We looked like we were going from strength to strength. But it was just me scrambling to get things done as best as I could the whole time.”
Such was the pressure, Eve felt they’d never been 100 percent happy with any of their stage creations.
“I’d only have two hours a day to work on something, or I wasn’t able to properly warm up or warm down because I had meetings either side of rehearsals,” recalls Eve.
Ever determined, Eve knew they had to fight back.
“One of the main things I realised pretty quickly was that if I didn’t spend the next phase of my life committing to being a performer first and foremost, I’d regret it until the day I died.”
They also started therapy, which led to the life-changing realisation about their gender identity.
“I’m a non-binary human,” says Eve. “My therapist wrote it into my first assessment. Having these words on paper that gendered me ‘they’ was the wildest feeling. It felt so good. I felt seen and felt valid for who I am.
“With acting, I’ve always struggled with feeling uncomfortable in my own body, but now that I’ve found myself as a non-binary person, I’m starting to feel so much more comfortable.”
Eve’s new life comes with a new era for The Dust Palace. They’re taking up residence in the newly-named Ellerslie Arts. While Eve co-creates and co-directs the shows, the focus for them is still on performing.
“It’s a space that I can finally open creatively into,” enthuses Eve. “A space that is warm and has inviting wairua [spirit] so that vulnerability, creativity and risky stuff can happen.”
The Haus of Yolo tour is on at Ellerslie Arts in Auckland May 15-18. Visit thedustpalace.co.nz.
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