The Future is Virtually Flawed

The Future is Virtually Flawed

Sweet Thing Productions Presents
INTIMACIES
Written by Stephen Sinclair
Directed by Elena Stejko

Award winning NZ writer Stephen Sinclair transports audiences to the near future with Intimacies, a hilarious satire and disturbing premonition of where society is headed, playing at the Musgrove Studio from July 5-27.

A new departure for Sinclair, Intimacies is the outcome of his fascination with modern technology and how it’s warping the way we relate to each other. Developed over the last three years these two thematically linked one-act plays explore the ways in which these new technologies are transforming our lives.

Sweet Thing opens with Sally having a frank and intimate discussion with her Mum. Long-standing issues are brought up and laid to rest. They appear to have a beautiful close relationship … – until Sally’s brother Philip storms in, angry and abusive. He throws Mum out of the room, and demands Sally get rid of her. For Mum is not exactly what she seems; she’s a clone that Sally made of her mother upon her death – a way for Sally to address all the unresolved issues from her childhood.

I’d Rather Be The Pope presents us with Rod, a hard-core gamer who spends most of his conscious life inhabiting the amoral universe of virtual reality. A borderline sociopath who is prone to violent outbursts, he has been marginalised by society. However, when he assaults his Counsellor, her reaction is quite unexpected…

Stephen Sinclair has been writing and directing for the stage and screen for over 30 years. With a string of hit plays including The Bellbird, The Bach and Ladies Night (which continues to be performed throughout the world; the French version winning the prestigious Moliere Award for Stage Comedy of the Year in 2001), productions of Sinclair’s work are highly anticipated.

Sinclair has had a long screenwriting partnership with Academy Award winners Peter Jackson and Frances Walsh, notably on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. His 2010 feature debut Russian Snark (written and directed by Sinclair) won local and international awards including the Grand Jury Prize at the Brussels Independent Film Festival. He is currently working on two animated feature films, one of which he is developing for Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films.

Intimacies features a cast of accomplished actors; Rima Te Wiata (Top Girls, Little Shop of Horrors), Cameron Rhodes (Agent Anna, Tartuffe), Lynn Waldegrave (McPhail and Gadsby), Jordan Selwyn (Apocalypse Z, 13) Peter Tait (Underbelly NZ- Land of the Long Green Cloud), Charlotte Chapman (Deceptionz)

INTIMACIES plays
Musgrove Studio, Maidment Theatre, The University of Auckland
Friday 5th – Saturday 27th July at 8pm (No Show Monday’s)
Tickets: $35 - $25 - $15 student stand-by (plus booking fees)
Book at www.maidment.auckland.ac.nz or 09 308 2383

ends

© Scoop Media