Circa: Ninety By Joanna Murray-Smith

The New Zealand premiere of a funny, sharp, and touching new play from one of Australia’s most successful playwrights starts the new 2010 season at CIRCA Theatre.

NINETY, by Joanna Murray-Smith Opens in CIRCA Two on Saturday 23rd January at 7.30pm Starring MICHELE AMAS and ANDREW FOSTER

ISABEL JUST WANTS NINETY MINUTES.

William and Isabel were once married, but something happened. Something broke deep down in the mechanism of their lives together and, seeing no way to repair it, they threw it away.

But perhaps they were too hasty.

Soon William will be married again, so ninety minutes is all Isabel has to make her case. Ninety to remember what they had. Ninety to regain what was lost. Just ninety to rediscover love or call it a day, forever.

“Witty. Wise. Perceptive. Heartbreaking. ... the words, the ideas, shine … a genuinely moving piece of theatre” – Australian Stage

“Smith writes plenty of whip-smart dialogue … compelling” – Herald Sun

“This is a great success that is as moving as it is enlightening” - Sunday Herald Sun

Joanna Murray-Smith is one of Australia’s leading playwrights whose works have been received with acclaim in Australia, Europe, UK and USA. Her plays Bombshells, Honour and Female of the Species have all enjoyed seasons on London’s West End with Female of the Species being nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Comedy 2009. Ninety premiered at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2008. Artistic director Simon Phillips, who has worked with Joanna over several years and premiered many of her plays says, “She seems to have in equal measure the ability to write searching relationship dramas and very vigorous comedies of ideas. Ninety is a combination of the two areas. You get little arcs that are terrifically funny and then land down on these very tenderly written pieces examining the relationship. "One of the things I find most compelling in her scripts is I feel like there's nothing that doesn't stand the test of time. You can hear the work again and again. She has an innate sense of poetry in her writing." Renowned British director, Trevor Nunn, who asked Murray-Smith to adapt the Ingmar Bergman film Scenes from a Marriage for his stage production, links her personality to her writing: "It's clear Joanna writes so well about contemporary people because she participates in everything. She's the opposite of the writer in the ivory tower. She so often gives you the feeling that her plays come from the inside looking out, and not the more analytical and manipulatory process of observing from the outside."

Joanna Murray-Smith, when talking about her writing says, "I'm very interested in the idea of love and long-term relationships and the collusion that happens between people in staying together. Allowing each other a certain amount of self-delusion, making a pact to be silent about certain things, seeing in each other things that no one else sees."

For the two actors starring in Circa’s production of Ninety, the authenticity of the play makes it a joy to work on.

Michele Amas, winner of best Supporting Actor for her role in Rock ‘n’ Roll at Circa last year plays Isabel. She says, “After a year of doing five plays back to back (something I haven’t done since my 20s) I never imagined I would choose to work Christmas and New Year and forgo a holiday, but when I read the script I couldn’t let it go. I had to do it. The characters are so real to me and so true to my experience of life I couldn’t bear that people wouldn’t get to experience it unless we did it! And as rehearsals progress, I feel more and more intoxicated with the beauty of this script.”

Andrew Foster, who was head of Radio Drama at Radio NZ, plays William. He says, “I have really enjoyed rehearsing Ninety. Murray-Smith’s writing is incredibly challenging for an actor, bristling with sophisticated rhythmic and emotional movement. Yet the humanity in this script feels so real, and so baldly honest, that one can have that rare feeling of being carried along by the truth and forget any notion of acting at all.”

“Joanna Murray-Smith has a gift for comedy and a flair for intimate drama that gets under the skin” - The Age “The quality of her work ... transcends national boundaries in its acute exploration of the psychological states that determine social outcomes.” – The Age

“(Joanna Murray-Smith is) a thoughtful, deeply probing playwright and one of the country’s finest.” – The Sydney Morning Herald

Murray-Smith has Oscar Wilde’s gift for one-liners” – Daily Mail UK

NINETY 23rd January – 20th February 2010

NINETY by JOANNA MURRAY-SMITH directed by SUSAN WILSON Starring MICHELE AMAS and ANDREW FOSTER

23rd January – 20th February 2010 $20 PREVIEW Friday 22nd January – 7.30pm

$20 SUNDAY SPECIAL 24th January – 4.30pm

PERFORMANCE TIMES:

Tuesday to Saturday – 7.30pm Sunday – 4.30pm

TICKET PRICES

Adults - $38; Concessions - $30; Groups (6+) - $32 Friends of Circa - $28 Under 25s - $20

BOOKINGS Circa Theatre 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington Phone 801 7992 www.circa.co.nz

ENDS

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