CIRCA - Talking of Katherine Mansfield

Talking of
Katherine Mansfield

STARRING CATHERINE DOWNES

Fascinating, compelling –
an evening of pure delight.

Acclaimed actress Catherine Downes brings her latest work, Talking of Katherine Mansfield, to Circa Theatre for the opening season of her New Zealand tour. Talking of Katherine Mansfield opens in Circa Two on Wednesday 27th February, and runs until Saturday 16th March.

Cathy performed this wonderful exploration of Mansfield’s writing about life, death and what we want in between, at the Ubud Writer’s Festival in Bali in 2012 after a sell-out season on Waiheke Island.

In Talking of Katherine Mansfield, she discusses and performs highlights of her internationally lauded play “The Case of Katherine Mansfield” and offers new insights to its themes, illuminated by a selection of Mansfield’s finest short stories, including the much-loved The Doll’s House.

During a literary career that abruptly ended with her death from tuberculosis at only 34 in 1923, Mansfield produced what are generally regarded as some of the best short stories in English. She was also a prolific journalist, and kept a journal from the age of 18 to 34 when she died.

“When I was researching, I became interested in Mansfield’s journals and diaries,” says Cathy, “her intimate writing about her own feelings and where she wanted to go. They were very personal and candid, very private. She probably didn’t expect they would ever be published.”
“And in her stories, there are so many layers beneath the surface. It’s like a spider’s web where everything is interconnected and every word counts. On a deceptively small canvas like The Doll’s House, which could be a metaphor for all her stories, she was able to explore big and universal themes. And her articulation of them is so acute and precise.”

Talking of Katherine Mansfield - an engaging and dramatic account of one of New Zealand’s favourite literary icons, whose creativity and ruthless honesty are brought to vibrant life in this fascinating work.

“I would have been happy to stay on in the theatre and see it all over again” - The Gulf News

Tributes for “The Case of Katherine Mansfield”:

“A powerfully executed work of art” - NZ Listener

“A treat not to be missed” - Time Out, London

27 FEBRUARY – 16 MARCH Tues – Sat 7.30pm, Sun 4.30pm

Prices: Adults $46, Concessions $38, Friends of Circa $33, Groups (6+) $39, (20+) $36, Under 25 $25.
$25 Specials – Tuesday 26 Feb and Thursday 28 Feb

BOOKINGS:
Circa Theatre, 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington
Phone 801 7992
www.circa.co.nz

ENDS

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