Writings belong of David Finnigan

Sun Drugs in New Zealand: Tour wrap-up

March 8, 2010 on 9:22 am | In Uncategorized |

Back in the Cancers after ten days in New Zealand, touring new solo show Sun Drugs to Auckland and Wellington. Sun Drugs, directed by Naomi Milthorpe and written/performed by my self, is a grimy teen romance set in the flash-flooded streets of Manila. The show follows hip brothers Mouth and Throat and their attempt to transform art-class geek Alexis Cobweb into prom queen in one week. As the blurb put it: ‘All the sweeping romance of The English Patient and the sassy dialogue of Mean Girls compacted into 25 minutes and microwaved. Including DIY-vibrator making workshop.‘ If that sounds impossibly ridiculous, I invite you to consider Freddie Prinze Jr’s entire career.

After a weekend exploring the North Island with playwright (and fellow Interplay-er) Kate Morris, I rolled to Auckland on Tuesday March 2 to headline Poetry Live’s Tuesday night poetry event at the Thirsty Dog. Had a cool night hanging with some rad Auckland poets, then to Wellington for a four-night season at the BATS Theatre as part of the 2010 New Zealand Fringe Festival.

BATS Theatre. Images by Lina Andonovska.

BATS was grand fun. Cool people, cool venue, excellent vibe. It felt as if generations of young theatre-kids produced their first shows at BATS, honed their skills and experimented with content and style in the tiny black boxes, then as they evolved and grew more skilful, they stayed at BATS and kept producing kickass works. There was a radical sense of community, like a critical mass of weird artists had dug an amazing niche for performance out of a wall in downtown Wellington.

Most excitingly, the upstairs green room I used to warm up pre-show is actually the meeting place for the Royal Antediluvian Order of the Buffalo, a society open to any male over the age of 18, provided he is a ‘true and loyal supporter of the British Crown and Constitution’ and he ‘enters of his own free will and consent’. The RAOB’s purpose is to ‘Defend the weak, to help the unfortunate and render assistance to those in difficulty or need’ (quotes from the totally suspect Wikipedia entry). This noble aim has been overshadowed by the RAOB’s far more powerful achievement: the installation into their lectern of a pair of glowing buffalo horns.

20-25 curious punters rolled into the tiny Pit Bar at BATS each night for what reviewer Hannah Smith described as ‘a cinematic tale of epic destruction and high school prom queens set in the Philippines,’ delivered in ‘a combination of novelistic exposition and screenplay style camera directions with brief outbursts of physical exertion’. I also performed short pieces for the Chit Chat Lounge talkshow at the Fringe Bar (check out the Youtube clip) and on Radio Active FM.

At the end of the Festival, Sun Drugs was nominated for Best Solo Show in the 2010 Fringe Awards (which is more than Freddie Prinze Jr can say for anything he’s been involved with) and I limped back home weary and satisfied.

Huge thanks to ArtsACT for helping underwrite the cost of this tour, and to every other human being who helped make Sun Drugs happen: Miriam Barr from Poetry Live, all the BATS team, the NZ Fringe crew, Kate Morris, Lucy Hayes, Lina Andonovska, Hadley, Andrew Holmes, and especially to director Na Milthorpe, who crafted a mound of loosely-formed pulp into a 25-minute torpedo of teen prom goodness.

My next aim is to organise more Australian performances. I’ll be presenting the show in Wagga Wagga on April 12 for the Riverina Writer’s Centre, and in Canberra on April 30 for the Traverse Poetry Slam, but I’m itching to tour it to other cities. If anyone knows of any performance events / producers / venues in Melbourne, Sydney or anywhere else in NSW/VIC/QLD, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I’ve posted Hannah Smith’s review of Sun Drugs for NZ Performing Arts website Theatreview after the link - dig -

A man walks into a bar, pulls out some shaving foam and hands razors to the brunettes seated at opposite ends of the front row. He proceeds to shave his face by playing an elaborate variation on Colombian Hypnosis. What on earth is going on? It is Sun/Drugs - the half hour one-man show being performed this week in the Pit bar.

Sun/Drugs is presented by Australian artist Blind (there is no program so I cannot tell you if that is his real name) a charismatic young man with energy to burn. One part performance art, one part The English Patient and one part Dirty Dancing, this is a cinematic tale of epic destruction and high school prom queens set in the Philippines of all places.

It is pretty wacky. I liked it.

Smallpox and Cancer make small talk in a bar. Two brothers lay bets over making geek girl Alexis Cobweb into prom queen. The streets of the Philippines are flooded. Somewhere in there we are given very businesslike instructions on how to build our own vibrator and bring ourselves to orgasm.

These disparate storylines are woven together and the whole is narrated in a combination of novelistic exposition and screenplay style camera directions with brief outbursts of physical exertion. It is vigorous, quirky and performer-centric.

There is definitely an intriguing piece of theatre here, though at times the different parts of the performance work at odds with one another. The performance art elements are arresting and affecting but many of them do not serve the story that we are being told. When they work they are marvellous – the way in which Cancer and Smallpox are differentiated from each other in their scene for example – but other elements, such as the extended shaving sequence at the beginning, are never made significant.

I enjoy how these sections break up the less visceral narrative sequences, but I think if this work is to be further developed they would need more functionality and to be tied more tightly to the narrative.

Blind is a very appealing performer and most of his success stems from this personal charisma. Though he embodies a wide range of characters with clarity – most of these are signified by nothing more than a pose and it is always clear who is who – they could easily be extended to create a richer fictive world. I would say that getting a director to further develop and hone this piece would be an excellent idea.

That said, I had a great time. In the intimate space of the Pit Bar the crowd was laughing and pretty much transfixed with this performance. It is extremely Fringey, extremely free, only half an hour long and only 25 people a night get to see it. Make sure you are one of them.

Review by Hannah Smith, Theatreview, 4 March 2010.