November 21, 2007

NEW ZEALAND’S LOST LITERATURE GOES TO PRINT

Some of New Zealand’s finest writing of the last 15 years is now in print. Five of our most classic works for the theatre from two leading playwrights – works that have changed the way we look at ourselves – are now available to read in Three Plays: Gary Henderson and Two Plays: Toa Fraser.

With the publication of these two outstanding books this month, Playmarket, the playwrights’ agency, launches the New Zealand Play Series, a new series that will get New Zealand theatre onto bookshelves. The Series will see the publication of at least 10 books over the next few years.

Three Plays: Gary Henderson and Two Plays: Toa Fraser include Skin Tight, No.2 and Bare, three plays that have put New Zealand theatre on the map.

"These are beautiful pieces of writing to be read, as well as to be seen and heard," says Playmarket Director Mark Amery. "Play publishing has been fragmented in New Zealand in recent years, and as a consequence, consideration of many works as outstanding pieces of writing in their own right has been lost. You will not read more vital examples of contemporary New Zealand storytelling, than Skin Tight or No.2."

Three Plays: Gary Henderson begins with one of New Zealand’s most beloved plays, Skin Tight, a sensual love story drawn from the classic Denis Glover poem ‘The Magpies’. A 1998 Edinburgh Fringe First winner, it continues to play to international acclaim. The winner of a 1996 Chapman Tripp Award for Best New Short Play, Mo & Jess Kill Susie is a taut and tense hostage thriller touching on racial tensions in New Zealand society that has strong resonance with current concerns about terrorism in the Urewera. The popular An Unseasonable Fall of Snow is a riveting whodunit with an unforeseeable twist.

Two Plays Toa Fraser features Bare and No.2, two sparkling contemporary classics that have toured the world to acclaim. No. 2, now a major motion picture, is as The Scotsman called it, "tantamount to a Fijian soap opera in one instalment – and it’s glorious." Time Magazine called it "a play which thinks local and acts global".

Bare "cuts to the heart of the personal and the political, revealing an appealing community of opposites" according to the Times, and Metro called it "an instant classic that is as much a homage to Auckland as Woody Allen’s Manhattan…" is to New York. Lauded for their actors’ performances, on the page these plays equally hold an incredible charge.

Three Plays Gary Henderson and Two Plays Toa Fraser are now available online from Playmarket’s new one stop play bookshop: www.playmarket.org.nz/bookshop , or from any good bookstore.

Three Plays Gary Henderson           RRP $24.95
Two Plays Toa Fraser                        RRP $22.95.

For further information on Playmarket please visit www.playmarket.org.nz.