14 May 2007 11.59 Productions presents

Coffee and mayhem!
Café Dement - site specific theatre comes to Christchurch!!!

Double award winning comedy Café Dement performed @ Savoy Brown Café - 143 High Street - bookings Ticketek
Performances 13,14,15,16, 21,22 and 23 June @ 7.30 pm and then 19,20 June at 6 pm

Wellington has got used to site specific plays, performed where they are set, with Tim Barcode plays performed on site since 2001. Now Christchurch will get to see award winning Café Dement by Tim Barcode.

"The play is about a café and set in a café and the audience gets real coffee served as part of the play," says director Sam Fisher talking about Café Dement which won 2 awards in the Wellington Fringe Festival in 2004 and had an extended sell out season. "The cast are the café staff and they go about an evenings' work, until their odd personalities cause a meltdown in front of the customers, in this case the paying audience."

The play is performed in real time, that is, there are no scene changes or stops to the action. Café Dement follows plays in Wellington set at a travel agents, a TV studio, and an office. There is even a Café Dement 2 which may also be performed in Christchurch. The Wellington Fringe Festival now regularly sees other groups producing site specific theatre - including from 2007 an excellent fully professional (and highly recommended) site specific company.

"Many cafes have staff who are anything but café workers, usually frustrated writers, artists, dancers, actors, and musicians, and the long hours low pay and frustration of co-workers is a natural place for drama to unfold. Café Dement is the story of the secret lives of this café and takes place in an extreme evening with infidelity, disagreement, attempted murder and drug and alcohol abuse. Usually in real cafés you'd have to wait a week to see all four."

One of the stars of the play is the venue, The Savoy Brown a fantastic little cafe, located in High Street. "Savoy Brown is a fantastic friendly café with its own roast of coffee and with friendly professional management and staff. While Savoy Brown is small, it suits the themes in the play perfectly," said Sam Fisher. "In any site specific play you need a venue where the people are able to appreciate and support the idea while seeing the benefit they can get from people coming through."

The last Tim Barcode plays in Christchurch were 'Geeks bearing Gifts in 2004' and in 1999 and 2000 there were three performed in the Green Room.

What is Café Dement about?

Hilarious site specific Double award winning comedy
Café Dement performed @ Savoy Brown Café - 143 High Sreet
Performances 13,14,15,16,21,22 and 23 June @ 7.30 pm and then 19,20 June at 6 pm

ends

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