BALMY
Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
15/08/2013 - 17/08/2013
Production Details
The 2013 Basement season of Balmy by TWO Productions Ltd.
The Basement, August 15-17, 8.30pm.
Featuring Tai Berdinner-Blades (TV2’s Go Girls) and Tom Eason (Breath of The Volcano, Auckland Arts Festival 2013).
Julie works at Happy Endings Funeral Home. Everyone thinks she’s boring, but she’s determined to save the world.
Balmy is a devised theatre show inspired by the comedy and anxiety surrounding funeral homes and the concept of dying. This black comedy features Julie (Berdinner-Blades), a cleaner and trainee embalmer at Happy Endings Funeral Home, as she attempts to create a show that will inspire audiences to live the lives they want to live. Julie’s attempts range from presenting moments from her life, engaging them in lectures on Pyramids and sharing her dreams about death and the afterlife.
Two Productions is the newly formed company of Thomas Eason and Holly Chappell. Graduates of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, Balmy is their first show in Auckland, after their sellout seasons of If You Only See One Show in Your Life in Wellington and Breaking Wonderful in Christchurch.
Two Productions are thrilled to be working with actress Tai Berdinner-Blades, most well known for her role as Bennie in TV 2’s Go Girls, and with Thomas Press, accomplished New Zealand Sound Designer and Composer.
Directed by Holly Chappell, Balmy is inspired by her part-time job working in a funeral home, her best friend who is an embalmer. Balmy investigates living in a world of death, fear and curiosity.
Balmy plays
The Basement Theatre, Greys Avenue, Auckland City
Thursday Aug 15th- Saturday Aug 17th 8.30pm.
Tickets: $15.00- $18.00.
Book now through ITicket – (09) 361 1000 www.iticket.co.nz/
Show Duration: 50 minutes
50 mins
Interesting concepts in isolation
Review by Johnny Givins 16th Aug 2013
The Basement is to be congratulated for its policy of promoting emerging talent in their two spaces.
It allows us to see the creative spirit of our theatre community experimenting with new concepts, new forms and new ideas in the theatrical spaces. Some are magical and intriguing, and some need to be just experiments.
Balmy is an experiment that just doesn’t hit any of the marks for me. A devised piece by actors Tom Eason and Tai Berdinner-Blades with director Holly Chappell, it has an interesting premise: a trainee embalmer at the Happy Ending Funeral Home.
I am expecting two good actors and lots of great images and confrontations with our concepts of death and the meaning of life in the cosmos as well as the funeral business; a black comedy. Unfortunately there are not a lot of these in this 45 minute piece on a bare stage.
Tai Berdinner-Blades (excellent in Go-Girls) introduces herself as an anoraked amateur actor. How I hate good actors acting bad! She is the naive, innocent, lonely girl with fantasies. There are occasional brilliant flashes of her ‘clown’ but they quickly disappear under a world where I have no idea where we are or why. How I long for a solid scene between the actors in this strange world. It is an opportunity missed by not being pushed in a defined creative direction.
Tom Eason is a genuinely funny actor and here he gets to play a range of caricatures: the loud crass Kiwi Boss, the sexy obsessed female receptionist, the very strange embalmer woman and the air guitar playing hot hearse driver. He gets lots of laughs but there is no interaction of substance between the actors which is a pity.
Isolation is a great concept for actors to work with but something needs to happen to the characters to take us along the journey. Finally, late in the play, a great character does arrive and the play almost takes off with intrigue and mystery.
Some interesting concepts and ideas here in Balmy. I just want more exploration of the ideas, practice and skills.
Back to the actors lab with this one… sorry.
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