DUALITY
ARTWORKS, 2 Korora Rd, Oneroa, Waiheke Island
01/03/2013 - 09/03/2013
Production Details
ESCAPE! TO THE WORLD OF YOUR OTHER SELF.
Dreamers! Take heed! What sayeth deep midnight’s voice indeed? March 2013 is the time to discover that we don’t live in one world – but two. Can you be at one with them both? Sail to Waiheke Island and the unique Artworks Theatre in picturesque Oneroa to experience a night of beautiful and deeply contemplative theatre.
A delicate and carefully constructed two-hander, Duality explores the light and darkness of this world and the other one. Science and art, faith and reason, man and woman all fight for their place in the paradox of existence as time runs short. Being in love has never seemed more important.
Keith Paterson, an experienced teacher of both Drama and Science, writes his eleventh full-length play for himself and young Waihekean actress Forrest Denize.
Both relatively new to this style of theatre, Keith has enjoyed twelve years in the comedy industry with performances throughout the country and Forrest is well established and admired as an actress on the Waiheke Island stage.
The dreamscape consists of original music composed by Rachel Brebner, in her second collaboration with the playwright, inspired by the final movement of Dvorak’s cello concerto in D minor – and a set inspired by an Escher drawing, the yin yang symbol and other artists who can only be described as ‘post-modern.’
This year, the creative spirit of the Auckland Fringe is exemplified in Duality. Don’t be in two minds. This is a journey you will want to take.
Auckland Fringe runs from 15 February to 10 March 2013. For more Auckland Fringe information go to www.aucklandfringe.co.nz
DUALITY plays
March 2013, 1st, 2nd, 8th 9th at 7pm and 3rd 9th at 2pm
Duration: 60 Minutes
Venue: Artworks Theatre, Oneroa, Waiheke Island
Tickets: Adults $20, Children $10 Bookings: 09 372 2941
1 hr
Like an Escher Drawing where the down staircase is really going up
Review by Johnny Givins 03rd Mar 2013
The Fringe Festival is an opportunity to let the imagination of our creative artists free to experiment and explore new territory. In the Art Space theatre on Waiheke Island Keith Patterson explores new territory in his eleventh play Duality.
Usually he works in comedy but this time it’s serious: the central duality of existence. He grapples with the duality of dreams and reality, science and art, faith and reason;even audience and actor and their interdependency. Wow big stuff!
It’s a huge challenge to make these big concepts work as a piece of theatre, and fascinating to witness as dark becomes light, dream become reality and then everything is turned on its head.
Duality uses the device of the doctor-patient relationship as the dramatic pivot. Patterson plays the doctor /scientific researcher trying to pin down the dreams and sparks of creativity of the marvellous, naïve and talented Forrest Denize’s Psych patient. She is a composer who sleeps on top of a white piano for inspiration.
The set is black on one side of the stage, white on the other. He wears black, she wear white. The relationship becomes heated; images, numbers, sounds create a web of unanswered questions. Suddenly the roles reverse. He is the patient in white lying on top of a piano in the black side of the stage and she is in black playing the doctor. The dialogue from part one is repeated but somehow it is all different. It’s a clever and intriguing twist.
Music is central to the themes in Duality. There is soaring Mahler, Romantic Rachmaninoff, and Dvorak’s Cello concerto all integrated into the action as the relationships develop and change. Rachel Brebner has composed an original piece based on the Dvorak for cello and violin. It’s a clever use of duality in sound and gives the show a kicker of a finale.
Duality is an intelligent ‘head-centred’ work that is intellectually challenging but when it touches the heart is at it most powerful. There are some excellent moments of real connection between the two actors, especially when Denize is the doctor and Patterson is the patient.
The secret panic most of us have experienced at least once in our lives – where we are alone, disoriented, lost in our dream or in life – is the emotional core of this show. Duality is at its best when we catch glimpses of this emotional potential. It’s a brave journey the team are taking us on: like an Escher Drawing where the down staircase is really going up, the actors are in that picture taking us along for the ride.
Duality is a creative exploration and perhaps has the potential to take the audience to new territories in future productions. Now that’s what a fringe festival does well.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments