THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR
BATS Theatre, The Random Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
08/03/2019 - 10/03/2019
50Dundas, 50 Dundas Street, Dunedin
23/03/2019 - 24/03/2019
Production Details
A show about how we make friends, and what it means to be one.
Making friends isn’t easy. In this experiment, last year’s winners of ‘Best Directed Chaos’ are going to see if they can make friends with people in the audience in just one hour.*
Remember when the test of a friend was swapping a sandwich for one of yours? When you’re all grown up, making friends isn’t as easy as that. Making friends with someone you think you might not have much in common with is even harder.
The Hobson Street Theatre Company, in association with the Auckland City Mission, are back again with a challenging piece of theatre for their Wellington mates because that’s what friends are for.
Cementing a friendship takes longer than an hour, but let’s see what is possible.
*You can totally just observe from the sidelines too.
BATS Theatre: The Random Stage, 1 Kent Terrace, Wellington
Friday 08 – Sunday 10 March
6:30pm
https://nz.patronbase.com/_BATS/Productions/THAT/Performances
50 Dundas Street, Dunedin
SAT 23 & SUN 24 March
05:00pm
$15.00 – $20.00
GET TICKETS*
*Fees may apply
Theatre ,
1 hr
Touching finale brings it home
Review by Jorge Morales 09th Mar 2019
Beautiful, genuine, moving, and utterly touching. That’s What Friends Are For is a solid performance that celebrates, friendship, one of the most intimate human experiences.
In the space of an hour, it not only goes into the exposition of a predefined formula of friendship but it questions and constructs a shared concept. This ongoing process is done with the aid of the audience, who happily and gladly bond with the cast from start to finish.
The performance threads various stories of how friendship can be understood. One of the first sections contrasts the extent and limitation of friendship and family. It shows how both concepts, for all extents and purposes, can be legitimately equated when circumstances call for it.
Based on such a foundation, various stories throughout the show point to the tensions, breaking points and preconceived limits attached to friendship. Thus, the performance exposes various situations that test the boundaries of friendship and its true nature.
There is a considerable amount of participation from the audience. Both audience and cast sing along and bond from their seats (and maybe even beyond their seats for those brave who dare it).
A particular element throughout is the stories and personal accounts that background people’s views on the nature of friendship and how it plays a role in their lives.
The stage backdrop shows the Auckland City Mission and the Church, with which the audience has surprise involvement. Again, the cast does a wonderful and magnificent job of being very aware, sensitive and calibrated when interacting with the audience.
As if all of the above were not enough, WOSOSI (World Song Singers) lights up the stage with beautiful performances in which the cast and audience join. And it is with the fusion of the cast and the choir that the show ends on a very touching moment, bringing home the point which opened the performance itself.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
Comments