STOMACH
A Play by Amelia and Saraid
Directed by Jessica Joy-Wood
Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2015
All Female Theatre Company Tackles Eating Disorders in New Play
It’s time to talk openly about eating disorders, say the creators of the play STOMACH - at Bats Theatre January 27 to
31. The first play to use the renovated Propeller Stage at Bats.
Actors and writers Amelia Reynolds and Saraid Cameron say they hope STOMACH’s Wellington season will spark conversation
among audiences about many women’s unhealthy relationship with food.
A devised and semi-verbatim play, STOMACH travels backwards through the intense friendship of 20-somethigs Amy and Sara
- who initially bond over their respective YouTube lip-syncing alter egos and love for 90s Girl Band TLC.
Cameron says the pair write about their own experiences: STOMACH was inspired by unhealthy patterns and relationships
they found in themselves and those around them in. The play is about bulimia, female friendships, and everything it
means to be an early 20s something woman of the 90s.
“It’s important to us that we embrace women on stage and, in STOMACH, open up a conversation about how common it is for
us to use food as an emotional sledge-hammer against ourselves and each other,” Reynolds says.
The Wellington season follows a sellout season in 2014 at Auckland’s Basement Theare directed by Jessica Joy Wood (Super City, The Brokenwood Mysteries) and designed by Ruby Reihana Wilson, Reynolds says the company works exclusively with women and aims to produce plays
which address female issues in an accessible and fresh way.
STOMACHS’s Wellington premiere also follows a workshop with Silo Theatre’s artistic director Sophie Roberts.
Further praise for STOMACH:
“Both Saraid and Amelia give intelligent and insightful performances allowing the audience a window into the complex
nature of eating disorders and how they can affect relationships. Sometimes funny, intense and emotionally moving, it’s
a very brave account of a very difficult subject. You know something is good when it is still lingering the next day.” – EDANZ (Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand)
“It’s one of the best produced, best acted, best designed, funniest and most moving shows of 2014. Everything about
STOMACH is stunning.” - Lexie Matheson, Theatreview
“Writers and performers Amelia Reynolds and Saraid Cameron have created a script with incredibly natural dialogue, and,
almost more importantly in today's theatre, pop culture references that roll off the tongue with great ease” – Matt Baker, TheatreScenes
STOMACH plays at BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace from January 27-31 2015 at 7.30pm.
Tickets: $20/$15 at http://bats.co.nz/ticket-form/ or book@bats.co.nz or call 04 802 4175
For enquiries please contact Amelia Reynolds on 0221901811 or ameliaandsaraid@gmail.com
Bios:
Amelia Reynolds
Amelia ‘s screen debut was Cloud Nine's William Tell. A few years later and she nabbed a core role in season three of
The Tribe. Since then she has played leads in Disney Channel Australia's As The Bell Rings and the the CBBC and Gibson
Group's children's drama series Paradise Cafe.
Whilst living in Wellington she performed in Uther Dean's (n)one down at the Pit Bar and soon after moving to Auckland
hit the stage in 2014’s Young and Hungry season of Atlas, Mountains, Dead Butterflies by Joseph Harper.
A graduate of Victoria University, Amelia has since moved to Auckland where she is set to hit New Zealand screens as
Annie in the six part miniseries When We Go To War.
Saraid Cameron
2014 was a busy year for Saraid. She played Veronica alongside John Tui and Fasitua Amosa in the Auckland premiere of
the Tony Award winning The Motherfucker with the Hat, and then performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the four
week sell-out season of Generation Z (which the Guardian named in its top 10 shows to see).
She is also a voice artist, working for brands such as McDonalds, Karicare, Symbio Yogurt, Lightbox, and Animates Pet
Store. Saraid graduated from Unitec with a bachelor of performing and screen arts in 2012.
[ENDS]