Top Of The Class Theatre In A Ten-Tonne Truck

Top Of The Class Theatre In A Ten-Tonne Truck

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A New Zealand Fringe Festival show starring some of Wellington’s most lauded ‘up and comings’ hits the streets of Wellington in a ten-tonne truck this February. Keep your eyes peeled for the arrival of the ‘Happy Healthy Hangout’ outside BATS Theatre on Kent Terrace this February for the 2010 New Zealand Fringe Festival.

The ‘hangout’ – a ten-tonne truck outfitted as the home of the Happy Healthy mascot, Griswald the Manatee – is the venue for the black comedy, Who’s Neat? You! which is based on the makers’ experiences of childhood health education programmes in New Zealand.

The creators of Who’s Neat? You! hope that their unusual venue and subversion of nineties nostalgia will get people talking about the positive and negative effects of contemporary attitudes towards childhood education, particularly the message that ‘you can be anything, as long as you work hard enough’. “We began with a sense of nostalgia,” reveals director Alex Lodge, “then we took it somewhere a little darker, and asked ourselves, ‘what would happen if it all went wrong?’”

Another audience draw card is the reputation and calibre of the group of young theatre makers collaborating on Who’s Neat? You! The show stars Erin Banks, who won the 2009 Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Actress of the Year, as well as Paul Harrop and Ralph McCubbin Howell, both of whom were nominated for the Most Promising Male New Comer award, and three other 2009 nominees are included on the Who’s Neat? You! production team.

Who’s Neat? You! runs at 6.30 and 8.00 pm from the 17th of February to the 5th of March (no shows Monday). To book contact BATS Theatre on (04) 802 4175 or email book@bats.co.nz
. Get in quick, as audience numbers are very limited.

ENDS

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