Elimination Rounds: Darwinistic talent show

A savagely Darwinistic talent show, an anarchic end-of-the-world party,

Lets make a night of it!

Binge Culture Collective present

Elimination Rounds

BEST NEWCOMERS (NZ FRINGE ‘09) MOST ORIGINAL CONCEPT (DUNEDIN FRINGE ‘09) BEST OUTDOOR (NZ FRINGE ‘10)

In the 1900s we couldn’t stop destroying each other. In this century we can’t stop destroying the planet, but Generation Y has a notorious reputation for ignoring the warning signs. And so, with reminders of the dire state of the world bombarding us every day, what are we really doing with our time?

“If this is our immediate future, I want no part of this. Yet this is unmissable theatre,” Sharon Matthews, Theatreview.

Binge Culture emerge fearless from Storytime For The Hungry (“Best Outdoor” NZ Fringe 2010), an anything-can-happen outdoor exploration of Clown and challenges those brave enough to join them for Elimination Rounds, an amalgamation of the company’s critically acclaimed productions, Animal Hour and Drowning Bird, Plummeting Fish.

Elimination Rounds revisits, refines and interrogates these shows. It’s a raw, brutally honest examination of voyeurism and exhibitionism, and the dark nature of the live event itself. “We want our audiences to be witness to something real happening, rather than casual spectators” says co-director Ralph Upton, “Our audiences are always part of the show, and both they and the performers have to expect the unexpected”.

The show opens with Animal Hour, a prime time talent show featuring a live band, ambushed by a wildlife documentary, with the most vicious elements of both. It provocatively probes the ability of art and science to provide “answers”. One contestant is left standing as the talent show gradually dissolves into Drowning Bird Plummeting Fish (“Best Newcomers”, NZ Fringe 2009) – an after-party where the beer is warm, the music is shit and the world is ending. In this setting, the party games will be life and death.

This is theatre – a supposed ‘dead’ medium, entertaining only for 1900s survivors who can’t handle IMAX – amidst and affected by the crisis state we are currently in. For no matter how dimensional a humanoid from the Alpha Centauri star system is, if the tsunami hits while you’re watching it, it won’t be there with you questioning what had kept us, and our world, from tipping over the edge.

Binge Culture Collective is a group of young graduates from Victoria University of Wellington’s Theatre Programme. They have been making innovative devised theatre since 2008, using young New Zealanders, and the real world, as a starting point.

Expect to be provoked, challenged and entertained. Every audience is a catalyst, every night is different, and everybody has a part to play...

'Binge Culture get my award for the most exciting new company. Brave, expressive, energetic, hilarious. Their work is messy and explodes off the stage. It's unusual, thorough and uncomfortable - everything theatre should be. I loved these shows.' Jo Randerson

For more information on Binge Culture Collective, visit www.bingeculture.co.nz.

30th March – 1st April, 7.30pm

BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace, Wellington

Bookings: book@bats.co.nz or 04 802 4175

$20 Waged / $14 Concession 6th – 10th April, 7.30pm

Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland

Bookings: bingeculture@gmail.com or 027 464 3473

$20 Waged / $14 Concession

ENDS

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