The Earthquake in Chile
The Earthquake in Chile is a Free Theatre production in collaboration with international performer/director Richard Gough (Centre for Performance Research, Wales), New Zealand celebrity chef Richard Till and A Different Light Theatre Company. It is performed as part of the 2011 Body Festival.
Based on Heinrich von Kleist’s short story The Earthquake in Chile, this performance will explore the sense of communion and community that emerged in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes.
Set in 1647, at the moment of a great earthquake, a young man is about to hang himself because his lover, a nun he has made pregnant, is to be executed for gross transgression of her vows. The earthquake strikes and saves them both. After finding each other in the chaos their first impulse is to flee town, but they find that everyone has changed into loving and compassionate fellow citizens with no one exercising power or trying to persecute them any longer. Everybody meets, helps, and feeds each other. They have a compassionate meal together and the couple decide to stay. But when they take part in a thanksgiving service the communal togetherness is destroyed again by the resurgence of the old hierarchies of church and morality.
This performance of The Earthquake in Chile will serve the community by drawing people together and feeding them. The performance borrows from the form of a church service, featuring early and contemporary songs and a meal break. It will also allow discussions about how to rebuild our community without at the same time restoring the detrimental hierarchies of the past.
A light meal of tapas provided!
Free Theatre Christchurch is one of the longest running theatre companies in the country. It has been a major contributor to performance culture in New Zealand and played an important role in the Christchurch Community. "For quarter of a century Free Theatre has refined cultural horizons and shaped Christchurch's perceptions of contemporary theatre." - The Press, 21 May 2008.
St Mary's Anglican Church, 21 Church Square Addington.
13, 14, 15, 8pm
Sun 16, 7pm (performance followed by Artists Talk)
For enquiries and to book tickets for The Earthquake in Chile, please contact Te Puna Toi (03) 364 2987 ext 7934 or email tepunatoi@canterbury.ac.nz.
Member Profile
Free Theatre ChristchurchFree Theatre Christchurch was established in 1982 as an incorporated society with its own theatre in the Christchurch Arts Centre (New Zealand). Its original mission statement included the following objectives: to stage old and new rarely staged European plays in original translations, new New Zealand plays, and classical English texts in an unusual and experimental style. From the start the emphasis has been on non-verbal action and high production standards, discouraging the star system and encouraging long rehearsal and training periods in a company context.
Over a series of projects that include Last Days of Mankind, Footprints/Tapuwae, Samson Airline, Fantasia, Philoctetes, Diana Down Under, Ella and Susn, Faust Chroma, Distraction Camp and Doctor Faustus, a committed ensemble has developed under the direction of Peter Falkenberg. The ensemble has ventured outside of Christchurch and received a number of awards and nominations, including:
* 2009 Nominee for The Montana Award, Most Original Production (Faust Chroma),
Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards
* 2009 Award for Best Theatre (Ella and Susn) at the Dunedin Fringe Festival
* 2009 Nominee for Best Production Design (Ella and Susn), Dunedin Fringe Festival
* 2009 Award for Best Production Design (Faust Chroma), Wellington Fringe Festival
* 2008 Award for Best Theatre (Faust Chroma) at the Dunedin Fringe Festival
* 2008 Nominee for Best Production Design (Faust Chroma), Dunedin Fringe FestivalFree Theatre Christchurch is currently assembling a repertoire of old and new works to tour nationally and internationally, and developing an archive of its remarkable 30-year history.
