Students stage world premiere

victoria-university-of-wellington

Thu May 17 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Students stage world premiere

Thursday, 17 May 2007, 10:44 am
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington

MEDIA RELEASE

17 May 2007

Victoria University theatre students have come together to form a theatre company with the goal of staging a world premiere—a New Zealand adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s Russian classic, Enemies.

The 22 third-year students are not only acting in the show, but are responsible for all aspects of production, as part of a course that teaches the challenges of creative collaboration. They have been hard at work for 12 weeks in rehearsals, production meetings and realising a period set design, constructed by the students themselves.

Under the teaching of directors David O’Donnell and Sara Brodie, they have endeavoured to stay true to the play while bringing it into a modern context. Enemies depicts Russian society in the midst of radical change, capturing the tensions between the working class and their oppressors. With uncanny relevance to the current industrial debates in New Zealand, it tells the story of a fight for basic human rights.

Award winning playwright Dean Parker, who has written this new refreshed version, is happy to have his premiere produced by the student ensemble.

“It's such freedom to be allowed a large cast. So many plays are small-cast—delineating the bourgeois nightmare. A decent-sized cast gives you the chance to drag the nightmare out into the daylight for proper examination.”

Mr Parker says the re-write was inspired during a recent visit to Russia. “I worked through the script in the weeks leading up to a trip to Russia, thinking that re-working a Gorky play would be good for me, get me in the mood—and it did.” He even picked up a Russian newspaper on his travels, handing it over to the students for use as a prop in the play.

This refreshed classic play will be performed at Studio 77, 77 Fairlie Terrace. The season starts 30 May and runs until 3 June. Tickets are $12 waged and $8 unwaged.

ENDS

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