Distraction Camp @ BATS
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Free Theatre Christchurch invites you to a House of Illusions. Inside, live music is performed by a pianist and cellist as actors tango together.
Between dances and songs, the actors move to dressing areas at the edge of the stage, and prepare for a series of performances, given for the audience and for each other.
A bishop hears the confession of a young penitent, and gives penance. A judge hears the testimony of a thief, who is consequently punished by an ominous masked figure. A camp commandant trains his “horse” – a young woman who must be disciplined and put through her paces. A woman sings soulfully in remembrance of times past. The thief sings for the camp commandant, and in reward is given the head of her torturer in a box…
This is DISTRACTION CAMP, the acclaimed follow-up production to Free Theatre Christchurch’s award-winning FAUST CHROMA (Montana Award Nominee for Most Original Production at the 2009 Chapman Tripp Awards).
Directed by Peter Falkenberg, DISTRACTION CAMP pays homage to Hamlet, The Balcony, films such as The Night Porter, The Tango Lesson and Frida, and the sentimentality and brutality of Argentine tango.
“Unlike any other show you’ll see this year”
Steph Walker, Programme Manager, BATS Theatre
“Distraction Camp, Free Theatre's latest production, has at its heart a delicious contradiction whereby sensuous, bizarre, exotic and theatrical images uncover an arid, soulless world.”
Alan Scott The Press, December 2009.
Emma Johnston sings Volver with musicians Chris and Nicole Reddington (piano and cello) as part of Free Theatre Christchurch's production DISTRACTION CAMP (dir. Peter Falkenberg).
9pm, Tuesday August 31 – Saturday September 11 (excluding Sunday and Monday)
Book @ BATS: (04) 802 4175 or email book@bats.co.nz
Ticket prices: $20 / $13
An artist Q&A session will follow the performance on Thursday 2 September
Email admin@freetheatre.org.nz, or call 03 3653159
| Attachment | Size |
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| Press Kit DC @ BATS[3].pdf | 5.32 MB |
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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.
