Strike PercussionJust before my Welling­ton­ista priv­i­leges are removed due to, erm, non-com­pli­ance with accept­able post­ing chronom­e­try (or some­thing) here’s an update on every­one’s favourite pro­fes­sion­al the­atre, Down­stage.

Last week they launched their new Sea­son brochure, “Life in High Def­i­n­i­tion”, which lists all the shows between now and Christ­mas. High­lights are many, but include new plays by Jo Ran­der­son (Good Night — The End) and Stu­art McKen­zie (Biog­ra­phy of My Skin, star­ring his wife Miran­da Har­court), Col­laps­ing Cre­ation (by the team that brought you On the Con­di­tions and Pos­si­bil­i­ties of Helen Clark Tak­ing Me as her Young Lover last year) and the return of beloved cir­cus-the­atre show Ada­gio with extra, added, Christ­massy bits.

Also on the menu between now and Novem­ber is Sound­stage, Down­stage’s new ven­ture into the world of pop­u­lar music: Once a month Sun­day evening shows fea­tur­ing favourite local bands in a relaxed, the­atri­cal set­ting, the first act is The Wool­shed Ses­sions on Sun­day night short­ly fol­lowed by Lit­tle Bush­man on 2 August. The Wool­sheds are so pop­u­lar that the Sun­day evening show has almost sold out and an extra 3pm mati­nee has just been added. Seats are lim­it­ed and going fast.

Tonight the “Life in High Def­i­n­i­tion” sea­son gets under way with the return of two of Down­stage’s best friends: Strike Per­cus­sion always raise the roof with their high ener­gy, high pre­ci­sion per­for­mance. This time they are joined by the vir­tu­oso Aus­tralian impro­vi­sor Adam Page who wowed Welling­ton audi­ences with his solo show dur­ing the Fringe. They have been col­lab­o­rat­ing on new work, com­bin­ing Strike’s hit­ting things with Adam’s blow­ing into things and the results are explo­sive.

Adam will also be doing his usu­al mul­ti-instru­men­tal impro­vi­sa­tions (with Strike sup­port) so no two shows will be the same.

You can down­load a pdf of the “Life in High Def­i­n­i­tion” brochure here, or con­tact theatre@downstage.co.nz and ask for a paper one to be sent out to you. Inter­est­ing­ly 90% of Wool­shed book­ings have been over the web at www.downstage.co.nz which is pret­ty remark­able. Also, today, Down­stage have launched TradeMe Tues­day — a chance to get Down­stage tick­ets for as low as $1 reserve. It’s a bit like Grabaseat — check in to the TradeMe Down­stage Store every Tues­day for more spe­cials.