CENTRAL
23/04/2015 - 24/04/2015
Queenstown Memorial Hall, Queenstown
21/04/2015 - 21/04/2015
Production Details
World Premiere of Dave Armstrong’s new play
Aucklander Michael Caughey has it all: a successful US screenwriting career, a beautiful actress girlfriend Cherie, and a Central Otago vineyard. Now it’s finally time to do what he wants – make an art movie starring Cherie. But can Michael stay true to his dream or give in to temptations offered by a cut-throat Hollywood producer?
As Michael and Cherie struggle with the issue of money versus art, Brian, a local builder, completes the deck, and Karen, a young Invercargill housekeeper, keeps the household running.
Will Michael succumb to temptation? Will Cherie finally get a decent role? What are Brian’s mates building in Arrowtown? Surely Karen, a bright Southern Girl who can back a trailer and skin a possum, wants to do more in life than make beds?
Directed by Conrad Newport, Central is a hugely entertaining comedy /drama that has Central Otago at its heart. Written while Dave was on a ‘Wild Creations’ residency at Bannockburn, Central combines a human story of love, greed and ambition with contemporary issues of conservation and landscape.
When
Tuesday 21 April, 7pm, Queenstown Memorial Hall
Thursday 23 & Friday 24 April, 7pm, Lake Wanaka Centre
$38
80 mins
Theatre ,
Spot on insights
Review by Nigel Zega 24th Apr 2015
Prolific playwright Dave Armstrong’s second Festival of Colour offering [Anzac Eve being the other] is a sharply focused comedy drama raising thorny questions about conservation, development, and sticking with principles versus selling out.
Central, tightly directed by Conrad Newport, features carefully constructed and beautifully portrayed characters who poke barbed fun at attitudes and issues familiar to most people in Otago.
Armstrong skewers his targets as usual, referencing popular culture with topical, natural lines, some so good they earned individual applause.
Money talks, secrets emerge, positions change, and many a true word is spoken in jest. Central may feature its fair share of clichés, but as a primer for Central Otago politics, it’s spot on.
And as an insight into scripting and movie-making, it’s closer to a reality show than many might think. Good fun.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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