WE’LL DANCE ON THE ASH OF THE APOCALYPSE
Te Auaha Cinema, 65 Dixon St, Te Aro, Wellington
11/03/2021 - 13/03/2021
Production Details
New play about the ethics of having children in the climate emergency screening at Te Auaha Cinema for NZ Fringe 10 – 13 March 2021
Described by audiences as ‘original and moving’ and ‘an outstanding piece of theatre’, this evocative play by Australian playwright Melissa-Kelly Franklin, filmed live in December 2019 and shortlisted for the National Theatre of Iceland’s 2021 season, tells the story of a young couple living in a world ravaged by climate change. They face a terrifying prospect: an unplanned pregnancy. Together they must decide whether they can bring a defenceless child into a seemingly hopeless world.
This one act play explores the ethical and emotional implications of raising children in a precarious world, a dilemma facing more and more couples around the world. Using a mix of text and elements of physical theatre, the story weaves between the past and present; exploring these broad themes through the microcosm of one couple’s relationship.
We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse has screened at digital Fringe Festivals internationally, including Adelaide Fringe, Reading Fringe, Reykjavík Fringe, and Melbourne Fringe, where it was nominated for the People’s Choice Award.
In 2021, it will be showing at NZ Fringe, Auckland Fringe, Dunedin Fringe and Brighton Fringe.
We’ll Dance on the Ash of the Apocalypse
Te Auaha Cinema
10 – 13 March 2021
7pm
Tickets: KOHA (Suggested donation: $10 – Gen., $8 – Conc., $5 – Fringe Addict)
Booking details: https://fringe.co.nz/show/we’ll-dance-on-the-ash-of-the-apocalypse
CREATIVES:
Playwright - Director: Melissa-Kelly Franklin
Movement Director: Pau Aran
Composer: Tom Sochas
CAST:
Young Woman: Maite Jáuregui
Young Man: Danny Horn
CREW:
Director of Photography: Richard Mockler
Editor: Marina Dulepina
Sound and Lighting Technician: Ed Currie
Image Credit: Richard Mockler.
Theatre , Film ,
40 mins
Well crafted at all levels
Review by John Smythe 12th Mar 2021
Forty minutes are well spent at the Te Auaha Cinema watching two excellent international actors perform Australian playwright Melissa-Kelly Franklin’s We’ll Dance On The Ash Of The Apocalypse (7pm, koha admission, tonight and tomorrow, 12 & 13 March). It is a digitally recorded stage play which premiered in 2019, directed by Franklin, and is being screened at festivals around the world.
Maite Jáuregui and Danny Horn play a young couple (un-named) in their first very modest home who manage to celebrate her birthday despite severe austerity measures in place where they live – somewhere in England, I’m guessing. He reports seeing hordes of boat people who have arrived at the docks from Australia, fleeing a desolate land ravaged by wild fires: a clever inversion to focus the minds of a country well known for its poor treatment of refugees. As for the UK in that regard …
Given it is disclosed in the publicity, and visually flagged within the first minute, it’s not a spoiler to reveal her just-discovered and unplanned pregnancy is the catalyst for their taking stock of the state of the planet, and their right or otherwise to bring new life to it; to sentence an innocent child to life in a world that is increasingly unable to accommodate human life as we know it.
While the dialogue exchanged about their dilemma is predictable, the way Jáuregui and Horn inhabit their characters compels our empathy and makes us confront what we would do in the same circumstance.
Prompted by what they are thinking and feeling right now, the present action is adroitly intercut with flashbacks that reveal their backgrounds and how they first met. Although born in LA, Jáuregui grew up in Spain, so her accent contrasts with Horn’s cultured English to help spread the idea that this could be any of us.
Without preaching, this play also reminds us that before Covid 19 our primary concern was Climate Change – and we really do need to take collective action to ensure future generations can have lives worth living.
Movement Director Pau Aran enhances the action with stylised transitions abetted by the music of Composer Tom Sochas and the tech operation of Ed Currie. The unobtrusive skills of Director of Photography Richard Mockler and Editor Marina Dulepina help us feel we are part of the intimate theatre audience whose heads are seen in the wide shot.
We’ll Dance On The Ash Of The Apocalypse is well crafted at all levels and well worth watching.
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