 He played Bottom in the graduating class's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".His first production after graduating was the critically acclaimed "Knot A Problem"—a solo show that he wrote while at drama school loosely based on his own life—at BATS Theatre in Wellington as part of the 1996 New Zealand Fringe Festival.Later that year he played a Scottish doctor in "The Vampyre Dances" at Circa Theatre in Wellington.