…well the stage itself will be lit up like a Christ­mas tree but the bar and exter­i­ors will be lit by candles for Earth Hour.

 Sat­urday is the clos­ing night for Pick of the Fringe at Down­stage, if the whirl of Fringe and the New Zea­l­and Inter­na­tion­al Arts Fest­iv­al has passed you by this year you can still catch two out­stand­ing shows at Down­stage. 

Theatre is an exper­i­ence to be shared and both shows on offer are really access­ible as well as being ‘Fringe’, so you could take you sis­ter or your boy­friend or your work col­league.  You can see both shows for $40 which is very reas­on­able.

back/words is a piece of doc­u­ment­ary theatre with per­form­ances that focus on being com­pletely faith­ful to the source of the story.  The source being in this case, filmed inter­views with people that have been loosely framed around import­ant ‘firsts’.  Out of hours and hours of foot­age they have shaped a theatre length show full of humor and emo­tion.

All of the cast wear ipods which are play­ing the dia­logue as they per­form it, ven­qui­litrist theatre if you will.  This device works but the stor­ies them­selves are what draw you in as the act­ors switch from eld­erly couple, to gay man, to eight year old girl, to bogan with true com­mit­ment and skill.
 

 Wan­nabe was a massive hit with the judges at Fringe Fest­iv­al, win­ning best solo show but also rock­ing some ser­i­ous satire and straight up com­edy gold.  This man is a one man boy band with the act­ing chops to have you keep­ing up with the char­ac­ter changes and wav­ing your hands in the air like you just don’t care.
 
Yeeeaaah girl.
 
Go, it will be fun.  Take someone you wanna get close to and spend some time at the candle lit bar per­haps…
 
 
 
 

 Photo cred­it: Domin­ika Ziel­in­ska