Growing Potatoes – a Play in a Pool

H20 Productions presents

The First EVER Play in Freyberg Pool Growing Potatoes – a Play in a Pool

NZ Fringe Festival 2005 25 February – 1 March, 9.30pm Freyberg Pool & Fitness Centre, Oriental Parade, Wellington Tickets: $12/$10, bookings at Ticketek: 04 384 3840 (service fees may apply) door sales from 9pm.

“Why is it only in a disaster that folks do what they ought to be doing every day?”

Writer Janie Walker and Director Katrina Chandra have created a community theatre project that includes synchronised swimming, a woman that prefers to live underwater, The Drag Kings and a cast of 22 actors aged 7-70.

This is the first time Freyberg Pool has been used as a venue for this kind of performance. Says Janie: “It’s about illuminating everyday life and allowing the audience to observe. For me, that’s what theatre is all about.”

Growing Potatoes – a Play in a Pool presents the life of Freyberg Pool, past and present. Water sets the scene for the themes of identity, community and connection.

The title, Growing Potatoes – a Play in a Pool comes from a thread in the play. Eighty-five year-old Jock was involved in the 1951 Waterfront Lockout and he ponders the illegal action of giving potatoes to strikers. “We felt the longing to do so.”

Jamie Delich, the Manager of the City Council’s Recreation Wellington unit that operates Freyberg, says projects like this “typify the innovative and creative way Wellingtonians see their city”.

“Okay, here’s the thing; it rains, and the rain falls on the top of a mountain. The water runs down and there’s a waterfall and the waterfall goes into a stream, the stream becomes a river, river becomes the sea. Then water evaporates from the sea, and it rains again.”

ENDS

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