NZ premiere of Parlour Song

PRESS RELEASE
PARLOUR SONG
by JEZ BUTTERWORTH directed by SUSAN WILSON

“BLISSFULLY FUNNY ... COMBINES THE COMIC,
EROTIC AND THE DOWNRIGHT DISCONCERTING
WITH SUPERB PANACHE" - DAILY TELEGRAPH

A superb new play from the award-winning author of Mojo and Jerusalem. Parlour Song is a hilarious exploration of deceit, paranoia and murderous desire.

The New Zealand premiere of
PARLOUR SONG, by Jez Butterworth
Opens in CIRCA Two on Saturday 24th July at 7.30pm
Starring CHRISTOPHER BROUGHAM, HEATHER O’CARROLL and GAVIN RUTHERFORD

LUST AND LONGING IN LEAFY SUBURBIA.

Demolition expert Ned lives in a nice new house on a nice new estate on the edge of the English countryside. He loves his job; barbecues; car boot sales. Outwardly his life is entirely unremarkable. Not unlike his friend and neighbour Dale.

So why has he not slept a wink in six months? Why is he so terrified of his attractive wife Joy? And why is it every time he leaves on business, something else goes missing from his home?
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"It's a beauty... wickedly funny. The tone of the play is enthralling... poignant, desperate and hilarious .. crisply written and punctuated by laugh-out-loud comedy. - Financial Times

"The sharpest, funniest piece [Jez Butterworth] has written since his precocious debut... I haven't laughed as much in ages" - The Times

"Painfully beautiful hilarious comedy...emotionally intense and superbly written" -Alex Sierz, The Stage

Jez Butterworth is currently receiving a lot of attention as a playwright. Parlour Song, which premiered in New York, opened in London in a Royal Court production at the Almeida in March 2009, and was followed in June 2009 by Jerusalem, both directed by Ian Rickson. Jerusalem went on to win Best New Play at both the Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards and received six nominations at the Oliviers.

Talking about Parlour song Butterworth said, “The initial idea came from listening to a lot of Blues, and this is kind of like a revenge story, where someone thinks that the person they love is straying; it’s the theme of a thousand songs…and that they are going to be left alone, and that if its true, they’re going to kill them.”

“I grew up on a new-build estate, where the house next-door to ours was exactly the same as our house but a mirror image of it, and that’s really where the play takes place, in these two homes where there are these two couples living. They’re friends and they have barbecues together, and it’s really about their relationships and how they unfold over the course of the summer. I think that most of the stuff I’ve written up until now has wanted to escape my roots, overtly, but of course they’re always there, and I think what I’ve done this time is stage something very much in the kind of environment that I grew up in, but as I say open the door to this very cold wind of the Blues that just whips up… You’re forever hearing of these stories where someone lives at the end of a cul-de-sac for years, and then they murder everyone in their home, and everyone always expresses surprise… and I feel that’s bubbling under this play in a very real way”

“A parlour song is an Anglicization of a Negro spiritual or a ballad or a work song; they would be reformed for piano, and you’d play them in your parlour in middle-class England. And I imagined that that sort of letting in of a powerful spirit into your home could create these kinds of problems.”

PARLOUR SONG

24th July – 21st August

$20 PREVIEW Friday 23rd July – 7.30pm

$20 SUNDAY SPECIAL 25th July – 4.30pm

AFTER-SHOW FORUM Tuesday 27th July

PERFORMANCE TIMES:

Tuesday to Saturday – 7.30pm; Sunday – 4.30pm

TICKET PRICES

Adults - $38; Concessions - $30; Groups (6+) - $32
Friends of Circa - $28; Under 25s - $20

Warning: this play contains strong sexual language

BOOKINGS Circa Theatre 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington
Phone 801 7992 www.circa.co.nz

For interviews and further information please contact: Claire Treloar Ph (04) 386 2930 claire-t@xtra..co.nz

PARLOUR SONG
CAST COMMENTS

“Parlour Song is a sometimes creepy often hilarious foray into suburban unease. Jez Butterworth is a gifted writer of dialogue and manages to craftily suppress real emotions and fears just beneath the surface of his characters' conversations. It's a blistering funny play.”

“My character, Dale, typifies the flawed machismo found in many neighbourhoods - a man who gees up his best mate with jaunty enthusiasm, then applies equal measure betraying him when his back is turned. It's fascinating, and distressing, to like Dale's comical character so much, to explore what appears to be true friendship and care between him and Ned. And then deal with the consequences of him stepping over the line. “

Chris Brougham

“Parlour Song is one of the most exciting and darkly funny plays I've read. It's definitely my cup of tea when it comes to good theatre. The dialogue is tightly wound and the scenes can veer unexpectedly from laugh out loud funny to simply poignant on the turn of a word. It's a piece that will keep you guessing right to the very last page. My character Joy is probably the most ironically named character since Little John. She is a true enigma. Still waters run deep. She is desperate to escape the life she has found herself in after 11 years of marriage and manipulation seems to be her ticket out.”

Heather O’Carroll

“Ned is wondering what is going on. Is anything going on? Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Fine. It doesn't explain why his dad's golf clubs have gone missing or why is beautiful wife joy has a cut on her finger. It's enough to give anyone the sleepless shakes.”
“Parlour Song is a wonderful opportunity to play drama and comedy. And in the studio too! The intimacy of the CIRCA Two space is a pleasure to act in. So much more can be explored when the audience can see you up close. And this play is perfectly for the space.”

Gavin Rutherford

PARLOUR SONG
BIOGRAPHIES

JEZ BUTTERWORTH
Playwright

JEZ BUTTERWORTH was born in 1969 in London. His plays Mojo (1995), The Night Heron (2002), The Winterling (2006) and Jerusalem (2009) premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London. Mojo won the George Devine Award, the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild, Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Playwright. In late 2009, Jerusalem was named at number two in The Times (London) Top Twenty Plays of the Decade., and went on to win the Best New Play at both the Evening Standard and the Critics Circle Theatre Awards . Parlour Song was premiered at the Atlantic Theater in New York in 2008, where his first three plays were also produced. The Royal Court, London produced Parlour Song in 2009 at the Almeida Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. In cinema, he wrote and directed the film adaptation of Mojo (1996) starring Ian Hart and Harold Pinter, and the film Birthday Girl (2002) starring Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin. In 2007 he was awarded the E.M Forster award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Somerset.

SUSAN WILSON
Director

Susan is known throughout New Zealand for her work as both an actor and a director. She received the ONZM for her Services to Theatre in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2002.
In 1981 she won the Feltex Best Actress award for her role as Beryl in the television series Gliding On a role she continued in the sequel TV series - Market Forces.
Susan is a co-founder of Circa Theatre and a current member of the Circa Council. She has directed a number of hit plays for Circa including Torch Song Trilogy, Stevie, Woman in Mind, Mrs Klein and Entertaining Mr Sloane. Susan has directed four of the late Robert Lord’s plays, Bert & Maisy, China Wars, Glorious Ruins, and Joyful & Triumphant, the production which gained her the Director of the Year Award at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 1992. Susan also directed its return season at the State Opera House, its subsequent national tour and the tours to Sydney, Adelaide, and London.
She again received the Director of the Year Award in 1994 for her production of Angels in America, which opened the new Circa on the Waterfront venue. Other plays which she has directed include The Learner’s Stand, Dylan Thomas: Nogood Boyo (Wellington & Sydney), Broken Glass, Arcadia (Winner of the Circa production of the Year 1995), The Herbal Bed, Amy’s View, The Big Picture, Boys at the Beach, Travesties, Rutherford (NZ Festival 2000) The Seagull, The Real Thing, Noises Off, Take a Chance on Me, The Face Maker (NZ Festival 2002), The Importance of Being Earnest, Oxygen, In Flame, A Passionate Woman, The Breath of Life, Vincent in Brixton, Taking Off, The Cherry Orchard, Bright Star, Death of a Salesman (winner of Director of the Year 2006 at the Chapman Tripp Awards), Picture Perfect, Uncle Vanya, Dumb Show, Who Needs Sleep Anyway?, Roger Hall’s pantomimes Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Red Riding Hood and Dick Whittington and his Cat, The American Pilot, Mammals, Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Clean House, Where are you my Only One? and Ninety.

CHRISTOPHER BROUGHAM
Dale

Christopher Brougham has been working in film, theatre and television for the past 20 years, and is best known for his major guest appearance as ‘Robbie’ in Shortland Street. He has trained in both acting for film and improvisation and in 2001 he won the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best Newcomer for his role in Vick’s Boy, and in 2009 won Best Supporting Actor playing Charles Darwin’s assistant in Collapsing Creation. Most recently he played Gordon in Dead Man’s Cell Phone at Circa, and before that he had been touring nationally with the play The Underarm. Christopher is also a photographer and has just completed a Masters in Scriptwriting at Victoria University.

HEATHER O’CARROLL
Joy

Graduating from Toi Whakaari in 2000 Heather devised and performed with the SEEyD Company on two parts of the Trilogy, InSalt and Sand. Other theatre credits include, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Collective, The Cherry Orchard and The Shape of Things for which she won the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Supporting Actress of the Year, 2004. In 2006 she received the same accolade for The Country. Most recently she produced and acted in Guardians, directed A Brief History of Helen of Troy at BATS Theatre, and appeared in The Raft at Downstage and the New Zealand premiere of Postal at BATS. She has also been touring Le Sud to packed audiences at regional festivals around the country including Wanaka, Christchurch and Taupo as well as a sold out season at Downstage last year and a successful return season there this year.

GAVIN RUTHERFORD
Ned

Gavin Rutherford graduated from UNITEC School of Performing and Screen Arts in 2001. Gavin has been fortunate enough to feature in a variety of roles at Circa including Bob McLean in Where Are You My Only One, Ray in This Lime Tree Bower and Beane in Love Song for which he was nominated as Best Actor / Outstanding Performance in the 2008 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. He has also been busy travelling the country and being looked after very well by the provincial festivals while performing sitespecific.co.nz's Hotel and in the wildly popular Dave Armstrong comedy Le Sud. Other Circa productions include Dead Man's Cell Phone, Wild East, An Inspector Calls, The Cherry Orchard, The Winslow Boy, Homeland, Mary Stuart and Uncle Vanya for which he received the Chapman Tripp award for Best Supporting Actor. His most recent film and television credits include Paradise Cafe and Home By Christmas. Gavin would like to thank Hot Yoga of New Zealand for their generous and continuing support.

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