It’s true. The fateful day: 14th October. The venues: Lynfield and Green Bay High Schools. The play: “Remain in Light,” my play for drama students. I worked with Celia Nicholson and her students at Lynfield, helping with some direction and refining the script. There were some great performances from the kids, and the production managed to create a great feeling of foreboding and mystery.
An hour long play for 15 – 18 performers, I call it a post-apocalyptic fairy story:
One morning the sun refused to rise. And then the morning after that. And the morning after that. Perhaps it was tired of what it saw, day after day, going on down on the sinful earth. People were puzzled, then frightened, then panicked.
This is an account of events that occurred in a time out of mind before the records began, events that befell our distant ancestors. Or are they events that belong in the future, a prophesy of what awaits our children’s children’s children? One or the other; perhaps they are one and the same.
Regardless of when, the sun has stopped shining and groups of surviving humans hunt for food, warmth and, above all, light.
A beautifully poetic and impressionistic play for a large cast written for drama school and secondary school students. Direct all enquiries to www.playmarket.org.nz
The play is also a parable about the abuse of power and commodifying of our planet … in this case it is light that becomes the commodity. It requires the performers to spend a large part of the play moving round the stage as though blind, creating some moments of physical theatre quite unlike anything I’ve seen before.
I’m planning to produce the play myself next year in Auckland, with director Elena Stejko and her drama students. It’ll be a short season – so keep your ear to the ground!