The Sunshine Hours
Wellington Performing Arts Centre, Wellington
16/02/2007 - 18/02/2007
Production Details
Written and Performed by: Shoshana McCallum & Elizabeth McMenamin
Directed by Adam Donald
“What? Serving drinks in hot pants isn’t a fulfilling theatrical experience for you?”
“He said that I’m hot, but I’m not the bogan he wants to bear his children.”
“Haha, yeah a play of our lives. At least it’ll be entertaining ”
Meet Bella and Sarah. They are actresses… sort of. They haven’t had paid work in a while. Well, not unless you call taking half your clothes off, serving drinks and being told their ‘characters’ are hookers. The only thing they can do at the end of the night is get really wasted and invent mysterious new food groups… like the cham-burger.
Wellingtonians: Shoshana McCallum and Elizabeth McMenamin headline this sexy, fun and based-on-a-true story style FRINGE show.
McCallum, an English student-cum-world traveler-cum-actress, and McMenamin, the loudest, funniest and most extravert out of a family of 10, are graduates of drama school and going back to their ‘stepping stone’ to perform a show about being on the verge of having a real acting job.
The Sunshine Hours is on at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre, 36 Vivian Street, from the 16th to the 18th of February. 8pm Fri & Sat; 7pm Sun. Tickets $15/$10. Fringe Addict $8. Book on 385 8033 or see your Fringe Programme for more details.
Theatre , Comedy ,
45 mins
Self-effacing humour
Review by John Smythe 18th Feb 2007
Okay so you’re two young women who have done school and drama school, got yourselves an agent, sat around waiting for the phone to ring, done demeaning jobs to pay the rent, begged from your parents when that didn’t work, got shit-faced at too many twenty firsts and woken up with only a hazy recollection of what – or who – you might have done …
What next? Get into something in the Fringe! Even better, create your own show so you will score the leads. Yes! So. A show about what? Here’s an idea: about two young women who have done school and drama school …
From this very unpromising premise Soshana Mc Callum and Elizabeth McMenamin, with director Adam Donald, have worked up a surprisingly watchable show which, at 30 minites, does not outstay its welcome.
Despite the stock standard shared flat setting, unimaginative staging and transitions – e.g. just standing and talking about the lives that brought them up to now; music bridging a blackout while they change costumes off stage – their largely predictable tale is told with an engaging truth, in natural tones and with a self-effacing humour that works.
I had a smile on my face a lot of the time and laughed outright more than once. And how does it end? With them getting the idea to do a show about themselves. Of course.
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