Aftermaths: Three Short Plays

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Thu Aug 27 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Aftermaths: Three Short Plays

Thursday, 27 August 2009, 12:49 pm
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington

The fragility of the human condition, and the ease with which we allow our humanity to slip, is the focus of Season 2 of Victoria University’s Theatre 304 Directing programme.

This season, three young directors promise three distinctly different half-hour plays that explore the complexities of human emotion and relations, and their repercussions.

The evening kicks off with Neil Labute’s Helter Skelter, which highlights the antagonistic nature of the relationship between a young couple expecting a baby.

Director Alison Krefft says this work uncovers the complexity and vulnerability of everyday people.

“It encourages us to face our own boundaries and fragilities, to cut through the layers of social etiquette.”

Director Nicole Harvey follows that with Carol Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children. This hard-hitting play looks not at the politics of blame, but at the innocent victims of war.

“Churchill wrote this play in protest at the value given to life in Israel,” says Ms Harvey.

“In such widespread destruction—the repercussions of war, the obliteration of homes and families—what do you say? How do you explain such devastation?”

Wrapping up the evening is Samantha Woodward’s production of the New Zealand play, After Kafka, written by Angie Farrow.

Set inside a cocoon, a collection of characters work to inspire author Franz Kafka as he struggles against writer’s block to produce his seminal work, The Metamorphosis.

“Each of the characters struggle to find meaning, but find themselves dragged down into an insect-like existence, no longer special and no longer able to give Kafka the inspiration he needs,” says Ms Woodward, who promises audiences can look forward to the physical spectacle of actors flying around the stage, stuck in tubes and climbing a flight of human stairs.

With three different perspectives on the theme of human fragility, Aftermaths: Three Short Plays looks certain to be an unmissable night.

What: Aftermaths: Three Short Plays

Where: Studio 77, 77 Fairlie Terrace (Gate 10 of Victoria University’s Kelburn Campus)

When: 7pm, 9-12 September 2009

To Book: email theatre@vuw.ac.nz or call 463 5359

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