February 26, 2010

LOSER, by Thomas Sainsbury, is the latest publication from The Play Press.

With a cast that can expand up to 37, or shrink to 3m and 3w, doubling, it is available from Playmarket ( info@playmarket.org.nz ) or direct from The Play Press, which offers a discount for rehearsal or study sets. Please ask, or check www.playpress.co.nz for all other details. And read on for blurb and reviews …

Loser is a winner! A high school reunion provides fertile territory for an inspired piece of high-spirited mayhem. Six ex-classmates turn up for their 10 year celebration providing material for an hilarious pitch black/zit pink comedy, emotionally charged, over-the-top, and embarrassingly close to the bone. It’s a wild mix of searing exposes of the ruthless cruelties and absurdities of school life, of all its painful and side-splittingly funny realities.

"Their energy flies around the theatre and the play clips along at an almost breathtaking speed … Loser is winner." – The Listener

"Thomas Sainsbury is a remarkable talent … clearly blessed – or cursed? – with a compulsion to make plays … At 25 his score of plays written and produced is into double figures … I can see him fast becoming a classic playwright of his generation …" – Theatreview

"Sainsbury has a gift for the comedic macabre. The writing is clever and funny … His exuberant enjoyment of the poignant humiliation arising from human weakness … delighted the audience." – Frances Edmond

"To say Thomas Sainsbury is an exciting new talent in New Zealand theatre is an understatement. He’s the most challenging, down-to-earth, funny and refreshingly unsettling playwright/director I’ve come across in years. He’s also a powerhouse of productivity …" – Sian Robertson

"Theatre is not about being safe – it is about expression, and artistic endeavours sometimes need to be intrepid." – Thomas Sainsbury

Thomas has been writing and directing theatre for the last six years. Recent productions in NZ include Loser, Luv, Beast, The Mall (also published by The Play Press), Caustic, Main Street and The Feminine, with three new plays – Cindy and Eric go to Hell, Dinner Party Money and Little Blonde Hen – all having premieres in Auckland last year, and GAS and The Christmas Monologues also having further seasons in Wellington.

Several plays including The Christmas Monologues, …and then you die, and A Simple Procedure have had seasons in London and Australia, and several plays are currently being adapted for the screen.

This year we will see several new plays, including The Sunday Roast, Dance Troupe Supreme and Fifth Floor. He has won Playmarket’s Young Playwright of the Year four times and was a finalist for the Bruce Mason Award in 2008 and 2009."

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