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Six Bad Arthouse Plays Threaten Wellington Arts Scene


Six Bad Arthouse Plays Threaten Wellington Arts Scene

Six Bad Arthouse Plays is a bold and serious interrogation of the premise that intentionally bad avant-garde theatre is indistinguishable from any other kind of avant-garde theatre.

In acknowledging that it is, in fact, bad, it allows the audience to do something they're not usually supposed to do at an avant-garde performance, much as they might secretly want to - laugh. Plus, it allows some of the avant-garde theatre world’s most pretentious writers and directors the chance to be as weird as their imaginations and an amusingly low budget will allow.

"Six Bad Arthouse Plays is theatre as it truly is," says Umlaut Seven, director of The Paark.

"Six Bad Arthouse Plays is like if seven different people united and brought, like, theatre with them. With butter," says Amber Crystal, director of Yogalogues (Some Curious Musings).

"Six Bad Arthouse Plays is like seeing a puppy run over a tank," says Johann Spunkmeyer, director of Don't Touch The Butter.

"You will," says Arthur Whiteman, director of Like My Status.

"Six Bad Arthouse Plays is abuse. It's abuse." says Gyna, director of A Cord Dance.

"Six Bad Arthouse Plays is like Twilight, but with a better love story, a bit like Fifty Shades of Grey, but with more Harry Potter fan-fiction," says Audrey Hillcrest, director of Teh Interwebs.

"Six Bad Arthouse Plays is a bit weird," says Mark McMarkson, director of Native Birds of New Zealand.


Six Bad Arthouse Plays was first performed at the Hamilton Fringe Festival in 2012, where it sold out every night of its run and was hailed as the “highlight of the Fringe” for some reason. The 2015 New Zealand Fringe is the play’s first steps outside the warm, nurturing womb of Hamilton and into the cold, indignant, gale-force air of Our Nation’s Capital.

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Conceptualised and produced by Joshua Drummond, who is in semi-regular paid employment as a kind of village idiot at a number of major media organisations, and directed by Brendan West, a professional drama nerd at Waikato University, Six Bad Arthouse Plays is seven short plays, which take the proud tradition of avant-garde theatre, drag it out quietly behind the shed and shoot it repeatedly, in a manner that is simultaneously cruel, truthful, amusing and merciful.


It is being performed at 7 PM at BATS for the New Zealand Fringe Festival, from 9 - 14 March. Tickets are $18 full price, $14 concession, and $12 for Fringe Addicts.


The esteemed cast includes Joshua Drummond, Louise Blackstock, Benny Marama, Ross MacLeod, Bronwyn Williams, Brendan West, Emma Koretz, Jono Carter, and features Tim Kapoor as himself.


Plays include:
"Like My Status" by Arthur Whiteman.
"Yogalogues: Some Curious Musings" by Amber Crystal.
"Don't Touch the Butter" by Johan Spunkmeyer.
"The Paark" by Umlaut Seven.
"Native Birds of New Zealand" by Mark McMarkson.
"A-CORD-dance" by Gyna.
"Teh Interwebs" by Anonymous.

More information can be found at www.sixbad.co.nz


****ENDS***

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