COWBOY MOUTH AND LOVE IT UP
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Cowboy Mouth by Sam Shepard & Patti Smith Love It Up by Nisha Madhan) Directed by Nisha Madhan at The SNAKE PIT, 33 High Street, Auckland From 13 Sep 2012 to 16 Sep 2012 Reviewed by: Matt Baker (Theatre Scenes - Auckland Theatre Blog); Nik Smythe; |
THE TOWN CENTRE PRESENTS
AN ACID TRIP WITH PATTI SMITH
THIS IS THE THEATRE OF ROCK AND ROLL
The Town Centre is excited to present a double bill performance of Cowboy Mouth and Love it Up.
The long-buried theatrical writing of infamous rock ‘n roll matriarch Patti Smith and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Sam Shephard will storm the New Zealand stage and steal the minds of Auckland audiences on September 13th at the Snake Pit.
Cowboy Mouth is a take-no-prisoners rock and roll love-romp through the seventies, while its provocative and devised counterpart Love it Up promises a mind-bending, heart-thumping arrival into a landscape of LSD pyschedelia.
Originally performed in 1971 at American Place Theatre by Patti and Sam themselves, the play was written in the throes of a “real heavy passionate kind of thing” between the co-authors in the dim light of Patti pre-fame. Travelling forty years forward into the contemporary NZ performance of Cowboy Mouth coupled with Love it Up, the pairing is a twenty-first century evolution and revolution of the original offering peopled with rising stars of the NZ theatre industry as directed by Nisha Madhan.
“...every new generation translates for itself. And it's up to us to both embrace history, and break it apart. Blow it up even” Patti Smith, Dream of Life.
Cowboy Mouth is a filthy dialogue between Cavale (played by 2011 Best Performance AK Fringe Winner Josephine Stewart) and Slim (played by acclaimed theatre talent Ash Jones). Foul-mouthed and fallen, they're both as mean as snakes and living in the dream of too many morning-afters.
This hazy hyper-reality is the perfect introduction to Love it Up, an experimental choreographic study on the outer thought of LSD. Hold onto your beads and your beginnings to let this beautiful blur of space, light and text fling open your doors of perception.
“life isn't some vertical or horizontal line … it's not neat… we feel and sense and see things simultaneously – walking through the interior of your own mind which is another whole jungle” Patti Smith; Dream of Life.
An established performer both on screen and stage, Madhan has been collaborating, performing and making in the NZ theatre scene for over ten years. Creating modern performance in Auckland for the past three years, Nisha has worked collaboratively to explore new modes and methods of theatricality, as informed by her study in Paris under Philippe Gaulier in 2009. Her work deconstructs expectations, dismantles traditions and fertilizes new kinds of performance relationships. Now, Auckland is invited to navigate these new theatrical relationships with a brimming cast of performers and collaborators, including Lara Fischel-Chisholm, Josh Rutter, and composer Hermione Johnson.
Since the release of Patti Smith's autobiography Just Kids, in tribute to artist and dear friend Robert Mapplethorpe, women the world over have been hooked on Patti's unforgettable album Horses and bent on borrowing her image for their profile pictures. This is the moment for all these fans to get together in one big communal theatrical love-in.
This is your chance to inhabit the verbal and visual acid trip of a lifetime; this double bill is a double-vision, a doubly-troubled, and a double-edged thrust into the world of rock ‘n roll.
Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th September 2012
at the SNAKE PIT, 33 High Street
Time: 8.00pm
Price: $15
Bookings: Email thetowncentre@gmail.com
With Josephine Stewart-Tewhiu, Ash Jones, Josh Rutter, Lara Fischel Chisholm and Hermione Johnson