For the underpaid, overworked and disenchanted

For the underpaid, overworked and disenchanted.

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Ever wanted to escape the meaningless, repetitive drudgery of your nine to five existence? Felt the need to bring down the workplace walls with a bloodcurdling scream? Clock your boss?

Slow Boat Records and Aro Video presents Postal by Lucy O’Brien at BATS Theatre - a biting black comedy focusing on three middle-aged, cross-cultured postal workers trying to find the meaning of life in a post office.

The play is a theatrical expose of the invisible members of New Zealand society, and the cultural divide that separates them. Underneath the veneer of the smiling public servant, Postal reveals a desperate, last-ditch quest for identity that seeks to reach the faceless masses of the ‘New Zealand public’.

The play is loosely based on O’Brien’s experience working for Australia Post. She says “it was one of the worst working experiences of my life. Part of that was because I had an incredibly overbearing, evangelical boss and part of it was because I was simply crap at the job. The bottom line is – nobody goes into a post office because they want to, not really. They’re always there to pay a bill, do the banking, stuff that’s really just an inconvenience to their day. I couldn’t deal with all the flustered, miserable faces. But I was determined not to give up, so I started writing about it as a kind of therapy, which is where Postal was born”.

Although this is O’Brien’s first staged production, it has already received considerable support, particularly from Playmarket who chose it for their Write Out Loud Festival at Circa Theatre last year. Award-winning director Kerryn Palmer (Sniper, Pig Hunt) says “Postal went down a treat at Write Out Loud and we’re excited about its debut in Wellington”.

Postal - Going, going. Gone.
Written by Lucy O’Brien
Directed by Kerryn Palmer
Produced by Adrianne Roberts
And starring: Rashmi Pilapitiya, Heather O’Carroll, Simon Smith and Paul Harrop

BATS Theatre
22 Sep-3 Oct, 6.30pm
Tickets $13/18
To book: book@bats.co.nz or 802 4175

ENDS

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