ATTILA THE HUN
BATS Theatre, The Propeller Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
14/07/2017 - 29/07/2017
Young & Hungry Festival of New Theatre 2017
Production Details
A super-sized comedy where the shift really hits the fat.
Hello and welcome to Fat Burger, home of the fattest burgers can I take your order? – That’ll be artery clogging food, Tom Cruise, a large order of late night, outrageous customers, a new duty manager who wants to be loved and one of the most barbaric, bloody, burger-baristas in history. A super-sized comedy where the shift really hits the fat. (Wear protection.)
For 24 years Young & Hungry and BATS Theatre have been providing talented young people with a platform to perform, produce and create great theatre.
The Y&H Playwright Initiative producing three new kiwi plays a year and the annual Festival of New Works at BATS – Y&H feeds the theatrical hunger and quenches the creative thirst of younguns’ under 25.
Our 24th year will see a pop-tacular descent to hell, real reality TV, and an epic comedy about a Mongolian warlord flipping burgers!
BATS Theatre The Propeller Stage
14 – 29 July 2017
at 9:30pm
Full Price $20
Concession Price $15
Group 6+ $15
BOOK TICKETS
Season Pass
Why not save some pingers and fill your belly with a 2017 Young and Hungry Season Pass to see all three shows! See Attila The Hun, Fallen Angels and One Night Only for just $51 Full Price and $39 Concession.
Accessibility
*The Propeller Stage is fully wheelchair accessible; please contact the BATS Box Office at least 24 hours in advance if you have accessibility requirements so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Read more about accessibility at BATS.
Cast
Attlia: Adam Herbert
Jo: Freya Hope Higginson
Tom Cruise: Angus Long
Maryanne: Shania Lahina
Ian: Isaac Thomas
M1: Dylan Hutton
F1: Celia Macdonald
F2: Bella Cook
F3: Kate Norquay
Production
Assistant Director: Liam Whitney
Stage Manager: Katie Hill
Set Designer: Rebekah de Roo
Props & Special Effects: Imojen Faith
Costume Design: Meg Mann
Lighting Design: Kerri Nicholson
Sound Design: Aislinn Kelly
Youth , Theatre ,
1 hr
Steals the show – but only just!
Review by Margaret Austin 15th Jul 2017
Abby Howells, author of Attila the Hun, which opened at BATS’ Propeller Stage last night, is an award winning comedian and writer. And how!
This play amply and hilariously demonstrates a double whammy of a talent. It is deftly directed by Patrick Davies.
Set in a burger bar decorated in gold and red, and complete with a milk shake machine, Rebekah de Roo’s set design does full justice to an hour of the most extraordinary entertainment.
The staff of the joint are a weird enough bunch. There’s a newly created, self-important manageress, a nervous phone order guy, a till tender called Tom Cruise and an antagonistic hamburger maker.
And then there’s Attila. Dressed to character in bearskin cloak and hat, this character dominates, though at times with apparent deference. Everything from fixing the milkshake machine to fixing other people’s identity problems is his business, and his deep boom of a voice ensures he’s listened to.
As well as the staff, a plethora of weird and wonderful – and strangely recognisable – late night customers turn up with orders as strange sounding as their personalities. One insists that his eleven year old voucher should still be valid, while another gets force fed a hamburger to the accompanying chant of “Eat that meat”. The audience is sufficiently egged on to join in.
The humour springs from the characters, who are gorgeously well-delineated, and from situations. Dialogue helps. “The company mascot is to be erect at all times,” declares the manageress, carting a large cardboard figure into place. “Don’t drop your name badge in the deep fat fryer,” one character cautions.
It’s only gradually that the audience realises there’s more at stake here than a bunch of intriguing folk working a hamburger bar. Events lead to a slow-growing and hilariously absorbing crisis – the outcome of which is as unlikely as it is impossible to guess.
As the third play in the Young & Hungry 2017 line-up, Attila the Hun steals the show – but only just!
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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