Victoria University Theatre Program presents

Victoria University Theatre Program presents

”Nobody realises that some people expend tremendous energy

Merely to be Normal”

Albert Camus

Merely to be Normal…

For two weeks in July, Victoria University’s Studio 77 will be transformed into a hub for theatrical exploration and adventure as six young directors present a smorgasbord of plays to invigorate and excite the Wellington community. The Victoria University of Wellington Theatre Honours Directing course culminates in six unique plays to be performed across two seasons under the title Merely to be Normal. Season One sees three directors engaging with international works making their New Zealand premieres. Season Two celebrates three established writers as great texts are reimagined by our directors.

Merely to be Normal is the culmination of an artistic journey. At the business end of their directing course and of their university careers, the six young theatre practitioners are eager to open a conversation about the work with the evening's audience. Audience members will be invited to chat with the directors before and after the show and the directors are opening up their rehearsal room in an online blog.

Taking its name from an Albert Camus quote, Merely to be Normal reminds our audience that theatre is a place to explore what it means to be a human. Merely to be Normal will take audiences on a journey through theatrical as well. From absurdism to a violent satire, from British in-yer-face to a Kiwi comedy, Merely to be Normal is home to an eclectic range of plays.

“I hope that people will absorb our work and take it with them to look a little differently at something they may normally step over”

Raicheal Doohan

Season One

The evening opens with a work by one of England’s greatest living dramatists, Edward Bond. Andrew Clarke will direct Existence, a power struggle between two characters and an exploration of what happens when an over-articulate force hits an uncommunicative barrier. Expect themes and ideas to stay with you long after you leave the theatre.

“Bond manages to tread that wonderful line between preaching without resorting to un-relatable stereotypes or caricatures.”

Andrew Clarke

Raicheal Doohan directs the sad and beautiful Komachi by Romulus Linney, based on a Japanese myth about Ono no Komachi and her lover. Featuring a design by a Wellington architecture student and choreography inspired by traditional Japanese noh theatre, Beijing opera and contemporary dance, Komachi promises to be visually thrilling.

“Our production is a synthesis of cultural treasure combining poetry written by a 'poetic genius' from the Japanese Heian period with Kiwi performers trained in an Australian modification of The Suzuki Method.”

Raicheal Doohan

Season one finishes with an excerpt from The Lost Babylon by Takeshi Kawamura, directed by Fern Wallingford.

“Armed with gadgets and surrounded by screens, our lives are becoming more and more reliant and related to technologies and media that provide us with instant entertainment, information and communication.”

Fern Wallingford

Promising to make you think twice about the screens, wires and blinking lights that surround us every day, Kawamura’s play takes us inside a sinister amusement park as a screenwriter and action movie director enter to create a commercial for the park.

Season Two

Two short works by legendary playwright Samuel Beckett are brought to life by Jonathan Price. Fans of Waiting for Godot will recognise the dystopian world of Rough for Theatre 1 in which two crippled men meet on a street corner. Then, in Ohio Impromptu, we hear the final pages of a story of profound loss being read. It has taken the whole night to read, and now, dawn is just about to break.

“Is there, perhaps, a chance of becoming whole men, again? Perhaps then, finally, they will find peace once more.”

Jonathan Price

Edward Albee’s evergreen one-act play, The Zoo Story, is directed by Samuel Phillips. This surprising, darkly humorous, menacing drama demonstrates Albee’s trademark masterful storytelling and wry insights into the absurdism of American Life. Set in Central Park, the play follows Jerry who has just been to the Zoo, and is now itching to tell someone about it.

“The Zoo Story explores the lengths we’ll go to connect to someone, anyone. It’s about loneliness, love, sex, loss, two empty picture frames, parakeets and two men getting to know each other.”

Samuel Phillips

Season two ends with a play by well-known New Zealand playwright, Jo Randerson. Bronwyn Cheyne directs Fold, structured around a series of aimless parties thrown by the 'Party-Goers’. Fold is a study of people wrapped up in their own world, attempting to make some sense of their lives and ‘sick’ society.

Cheyne is interested in those without tolerance:

“This play serves as a reminder that there are less tolerant people still within our society, and that they make the world a worse place.”

ends

© Scoop Media