ATTEND – ‘Moving Stationery’ And ‘Echolalia’ In Wellington .

Cheeky, “ridiculous” and “delightful”, Echolalia is a solo clown theatre performance, the like of which is very rarely seen in NZ.

Tickled by the social “weirdness” of autistic children while working with them on a holiday programme, Jen McArthur created a character for the stage who doesn’t register social niceties. Echolalia uses the forms of clown, physical theatre and dance to present Echo – a young woman preparing for a much needed job interview. This challenge is intensified by the front door, behind which the pressure of social situations awaits.

Touching, surprising, playful, McArthur spellbinds the audience, in this highly recognisable portrayal of a person doing battle with their fears.

“McArthur’s tender performance as Echo is both delightful and heart breaking.” Salient.

Premiered in July last year at BATS, McArthur has since reworked the script with the assistance of Jo Randerson. “(Her) work is an important vein of comic, poetic clown that needs to get stronger in NZ for our theatre industry to grow.”

Jen McArthur is a Wellingtonian trained at the NZ School of Dance, Circomedia circus school in Bristol and by Lecoq clown teacher Giovanni Fusetti. She joined the international Kallo Collective after meeting fellow New Zealander Thom Monckton at a clown workshop. The Collective has developed a unique sense of theatre style and physical comedy drawing from the masters, Chaplin and Keaton, and adding a contemporary twist.

Contact:

$14 Full / $12 Concession / $10 Groups 6+, kids under 10, fringe artists

Moving Stationery is a wordless one-man physical comedy show combining dance, object manipulation and clown technique. The creation of Moving Stationery took place in Finland as part of a three-month artist’s residence. With very little human interaction during that time, and outside temperatures dropping to -28 degrees Celsius, the result is a particularly well rehearsed but slightly off-kilter show.

This comedy of errors revolves around Sigmund, the bewildered recipient of a new office job, who is completely out of his depth. Sigmund’s desperate attempts to defend himself against his own mistakes spiral out of control until he is fighting an epic war against a (deceptively) harmless office. The elevator, his lunch, and the office stationery seem set to destroy him.

Don’t miss this opportunity to experience TWO tested works steeped in a New Zealand sense of humour, from internationally experienced performers/ creators.

“I shall not reveal the conclusion, but by all means my applause was rapturous.” Salient