From the Cast...
George Henare
Baudelaire / Te Rangi
Loving working with the Circa team again. Can’t wait to share this craziness with the audiences."
Jason Whyte
Charles Meryon
“It is an
honour to be sharing the stage with some of NZs finest actors, and a wonderful
challenge to get inside the mind of Charles Meryon.”
Emma Kinane
Jeanne Duval / Madame Bourgeois
“Pasefika is an inspiring production to be involved in; the rehearsal room is buzzing. An exciting new script, a creative design team that's twice the usual size, and the added zest of being part of the Festival. It's like Theatre Christmas in February.”
Aroha White
Louise Niveau / Ruiha
“I feel as
is Stuart was living in Paris with Meryon and Baudelaire while he was writing
Pasefika. His words are cheeky, challenging, lusty and a pleasure
to commit to memory.”
From the
Designers…
Andrew Foster
Set Design
There's no
escaping Pasefika as a complex design proposition. A weaving of diverse
cultures, multiple locations, and I think most intriguingly; of memories.
Stuart Hoar pronounces his surrealism by anachronistically allowing the play to
slip in and out of its historical period. Contemporary urban references float
through Paris in the late 1800's, and as in the central character's art works,
the boundaries of culture, geography and physics become blurred in recall.
During the design process I've been fascinated by the way in which the mind
reconstitutes images from memory, and the distortion of facts by feelings.
Charles Meryon's etchings reflect a hyper-real amalgam of both his experience
and his emotional responses, with the effect of endorsing perception over
reality. I suppose that this has become my key premise in designing Pasefika.
An attempt, if you will, to chronicle a landscape of the mind.Marcus McShane
Lighting Design
Pasefika is a play that thinks a lot about conventionality, both in art
and in history, and explores the life of someone who breaks with it. It
seems only right to follow this lead, and break with a lot of lighting
conventions as well.
We're working with a layering of angle and texture
along (and even through) the set, and are repurposing an architectural light-work
that bridges traditional light and projection in order to incorporate it as
well.
Johann Nortje
Video Design
The AV
(video projection) in this show is used as a very important part of creating
each scene as well as aiding in the story telling. As the design of the show is
very abstract compared to standard realism, the video projection thrives on
this freedom to create and aid in the turmoil and visions of the characters.
Tane Upjohn-Beatson
Sound Design
When
Captain Cook first heard traditional maori music he was awed and unnerved by
its passion but unfamiliarity and out of tune-ness to the western ear. Meryon
must have had similar experiences of the natural soundscape and music of New
Zealand, that haunted him for decades to come.
Instead of
focussing on realism, the sound design and music of Pasefika focuses on
creating for the audience the same sense of infatuating otherness, and a
dreamlike juxtaposition 19th century France, New Zealand, and New Zealand
today. Pasefika is on at Circa Theatre from 22 Feb – 16 March. For Festival dates, please book through Ticketek (details below). For the post-Festival season, please book at Circa (details below).
BOOKINGS: for performances 22 Feb-16 Mar (New Zealand Festival), call TICKETEK on 0800 842 538 (www.festival.co.nz or www.ticketek.co.nz)
BOOKINGS: for performances 21 Feb and 18-29 March, call Circa Theatre on 801-7992 (www.circa.co.nz)
Show Times: Tue and Wed 6.30pm, Thu-Sat 8.00pm, Sun 4.00pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment