A Most Outrageous Humbug

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Liquor, Laudanum, Love and Literature:

Three Spoon Theatre presents A Most Outrageous Humbug

The surprise winners of ‘Best in Theatre’, and ‘Best of Fringe’ in the New Zealand Fringe Festival in 2008 return to the festival this year with a brand new theatrical endeavour which revels in and reveals the shocking stuff of Edgar Allan Poe’s life and works.

A Most Outrageous Humbug is to be performed at the Waimapihi Reserve at the top of Holloway Road in Aro Valley's heritage district, from the 20th to 28th of February.

This exciting site-specific production is a fictionalised biography of one of literature's most moustachioed and mysterious figures. “Aro Valley’s Waimapihi Reserve is one of Wellington’s most under appreciated beauty spots,” says Bradley, “it is redolent with atmosphere and provides the perfect backdrop to our show”.

"We were initially going to present a show based solely one of Poe’s short stories," says director Charlotte Bradley, "but once we started researching the man himself, we realised his own life was just as macabre and even more ripe with theatrical possibilities".

"He is a fascinating and tragic figure," adds Bradley, "the women in his life – his mother, and many love interests – were constantly dropping dead around him, at age 26 he married his 13 year old cousin, he had powerful and vocal nemeses, and he was increasingly enslaved to drugs and booze. The suffering artist Poe-sonified ".

In 2008, this group of young enthusiasts established a reputation for work that is simultaneously intelligent, populist, and unpretentious, delighting both audiences and reviewers alike. “Occasionally a theatre company arrives out of the blue and simply blows you away,” said Capital Times theatre reviewer Lynn Freeman, “enter stage left, multi 2008 Fringe Festival award winners, Three Spoon Theatre”.

Its’ stimulating setting, shocking content, and refreshing new talent all combine to make A Most Outrageous Humbug a theatrical experience that is not to be missed! Book now for lust, loss, liquor, literature, love, and laudanum.

A Most Outrageous Humbug
Feb 20-22, 24-28
Waimapihi Reserve, at the top of Holloway Road, Aro Valley
Tickets: Waged $15, Unwaged $12, Fringe Addict $10
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL as there will be no door sales. Tickets available from Downstage Box Office. 04 801 6946. www.downstage.co.nz/book

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