Fringe Festival Sample
Tore cuts himself, Marsey’s a slut, Peter is a homo and Charlotte’s a bitch. But don’t judge them yet – wait until you
see what they’re really like!
Examining what people are ‘really like’ provides much of the subject matter for a new play opening at the Wellington
Fringe Festival, which explores the worlds of four disparate teenagers struggling with their place in the world. Cut Out
is on at Wellington youth venue ZEAL, from the 15th – 20th February.
The play is based around the seventh form year of typical High-Schoolers: Self mutilating, standoffish poet Tore can’t
convince his parents he doesn’t want to be a lawyer, upbeat socialite Marsey’s promiscuous reputation hinders her quest
for total female equality, homosexual prefect Peter is embraced by his friends and family, despite his own misgivings
about his sexuality, and debating team bitch Charlotte campaigns bitterly to be treated as a human being, not a dog, by
her intellectually inferior peers.
Emphasis on positive self image in the educational system and secular society grows daily. But even though encouragement
is only a phone call away, suicide, anorexia, self mutilation and vandalism continue to happen, maybe even to you. No
matter how much you want to believe that you’re wonderful just the way you are, and it doesn’t matter if everybody
doesn’t like you, you too may secretly know the truth…
The four actors Kip Chapman, Stacey Musham, Jonny Hair and Emily O’Brien-Brown, and the writer Paul Rothwell, are newly
graduated students of the Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts at UNITEC, and are overseen by experienced actor turned
director Elizabeth Hawthorne, from the TV series Spin Doctors, and soon to be seen on stage in The Graduate, for
Auckland Theatre Company.
Paul Rothwell also has another production, called Paul’s Parables, at the Fringe Festival. This show features two plays:
Undine, about attention seekers and anorexics; and The Felinity of Wendel, a macabre, childish fairytale about a cat in
the body of a girl. Cut Out is on at Zeal, 50 Victoria Street, at the following times:
Saturday 15 February 9 pm
Sunday 16 February 2 pm
Monday 17 February 7 pm and 9 pm
Tuesday 18 February 7 pm and 9 pm
Wednesday 19 February 7 pm and 9 pm
Thursday 20 February 7 pm and 9 pm
Tickets from Ticketek (ph 04 384 3840, transaction fee may apply) Door sales 30 minutes prior to the show.Adult $12,
Students $8 Fringe Addict $6