Choose your actors
Lynn Freeman
Eight, Directed by Simon Vincent, Circa Two, to September 3. Reviewed by Lynn Freeman
WHAT in common have - a high class hooker to conservative men whose days have come and gone, a teenager recounting his first sexual encounter and a young man who converses with corpses - is their place in this series of eight monologues written by Ella Hickson.
This was an Edinburgh Festival hit, directed astutely for Wellington audiences by Simon Vincent. The stories are based on interviews with a batch of disaffected 20-somethings.
Very different stories unfold, all of them unsettling to a greater or lesser degree. I was most moved by Astrid’s (Chelsea Bognuda) story (and performance). Astrid is a woman who has been betrayed by her partner and is driven to try out adultery for herself. As her story unfolds, her bravado and resentment start to crumble. It’s a façade. There were a few gasps from the audience as Danny (JonathanKenyon) disclosed his reason for carrying out the limp body of a woman. Paul Waggott was captivating as Jude, a virginal teenage boy infatuated with his French landlady. Jessica Robinson had two outings, as the happy hooker Bobby, and struggling Scottish solo mum Millie.
When booking tickets, you are asked to go online and vote for which six of the eight characters you would most like to see on the night. Audience interaction is all the rage. The characters are clothed by different fashion houses, but on stage, this fashion link is clearly just a gimmick.
Andrew Foster’s memorable set creates a powerful canvas for the actors. He plucks out phrases from each of the monologues, and has them written on packing crates in black paint, evoking McCahon/Hotere. The stories may be British but the themes are universal.
WHAT in common have - a high class hooker to conservative men whose days have come and gone, a teenager recounting his first sexual encounter and a young man who converses with corpses - is their place in this series of eight monologues written by Ella Hickson.
This was an Edinburgh Festival hit, directed astutely for Wellington audiences by Simon Vincent. The stories are based on interviews with a batch of disaffected 20-somethings.
Very different stories unfold, all of them unsettling to a greater or lesser degree. I was most moved by Astrid’s (Chelsea Bognuda) story (and performance). Astrid is a woman who has been betrayed by her partner and is driven to try out adultery for herself. As her story unfolds, her bravado and resentment start to crumble. It’s a façade. There were a few gasps from the audience as Danny (JonathanKenyon) disclosed his reason for carrying out the limp body of a woman. Paul Waggott was captivating as Jude, a virginal teenage boy infatuated with his French landlady. Jessica Robinson had two outings, as the happy hooker Bobby, and struggling Scottish solo mum Millie.
When booking tickets, you are asked to go online and vote for which six of the eight characters you would most like to see on the night. Audience interaction is all the rage. The characters are clothed by different fashion houses, but on stage, this fashion link is clearly just a gimmick.
Andrew Foster’s memorable set creates a powerful canvas for the actors. He plucks out phrases from each of the monologues, and has them written on packing crates in black paint, evoking McCahon/Hotere. The stories may be British but the themes are universal.
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