Two actors, fifteen characters, one play

Baring All At Herald Theatre

Silo Theatre presents
BARE

Two actors, fifteen characters, one play.

The iconic NZ play that first catapulted Silo Theatre into the cultural limelight returns on October 8 with an encore season of Toa Fraser’s BARE.

Toa Frasers poetic vision of NZ was a debut hit in 1998, BARE went on to tour the country and then on to international markets in Australia and the UK. It launched the careers of Toa Fraser, Madeleine Sami and Ian Hughes and earns its place as an icon of NZ theatre.

This NZ classic has been reconfigured by leading theatre director Oliver Driver and features two talents which emerged from Silo Theatre’s ‘The Ensemble Project’; Morgana O’Reilly (NZ Listener & Metro Magazine Emerging Actress 2007), who has gone on feature in ‘The Jacqui Brown Diaries’ and a core cast member in the upcoming comedy series ‘A Thousand Apologies’ and Curtis Vowell, cast in two shows of ATC’s ‘The Crucible’, opposite Lisa Chappell in ‘Design for Living’ and upcoming political satire ‘The Pretender’.

Originally staged for Silo Theatre’s tenth birthday in April 2007 to critical acclaim and capacity attendance, Fraser spent much time re-drafting a 2007 remix, to ensure that cultural references were up-to-date so that the work could truly capture the current voice of the urban community it represents.

“Fresh and inviting, an instant classic that is as much of a homage to Auckland as Woody Allen’s Manhattan.”
Gilbert Wong for Metro

Under the direction of Oliver Driver, Morgana O’Reilly and Curtis Vowell take up the challenge of bringing 15 different characters to live, from gym hottie to chainsmoking divorcee, from streetkid to Fijian patriarch. BARE gives a snapshot of Auckland culture complete with its prejudices, dilemmas and delights. Love, sex, family, friendship, youth and bad multiplex movies are laid bare in this hilarious and touching 80 minute work.

In its restaging, Oliver Driver has used the construct of the rehearsal room as a metaphor for life. The stage is littered with the detritus of the theatre’s green room, the company water cooler, the office notice board. Delivered as a tag team “competition” of collected storytelling, O’Reilly and Vowell use the various unique elements contained within the environment to transport us to Burger King lunchrooms, Mount Roskill kitchens and Hoyts Cinemas candy-bars. It’s a radical transformation from the original production, and one which enables audiences who have seen the original work to reconsider it.

Alongside this Auckland season, BARE will also be seen this year in Hamilton, Wellington and Nelson.

BARE
October 8-18th 2008
Herald Theatre, THE EDGE
Monday and Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm
Bookings: THE EDGE Ticketing on 0800 BUY TICKETS or www.the-edge.co.nz

written by TOA FRASER
directed by OLIVER DRIVER
designed by JEREMY FERN
featuring MORGANA O'REILLY & CURTIS VOWELL

ENDS

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