The Sinful Monologues

25/05/2010 - 27/05/2010

Production Details

“I SEE THE FIERY DOOR TO HELL HAS BEEN PROPPED AJAR …”

Wrath
Written by Vivienne Plumb / performed by Robyn Paterson
Vivienne writes poetry, drama and fiction; she is presently living between Sydney and Auckland while she completes a Doctorate of Creative Arts in Australia. Robyn is a graduate of Auckland’s Unitec Drama School & is presently working on her one woman show ‘Introducing Anna’ which placed second with both The Judges Choice and People’s Choice Award in the Short N’ Sweet festival.

Shenequa
Written by Dena Kennedy/ performed by Andi Crown.

Directed by Martin Wood
Dena is an actress, a film-maker, and for this is turning her hand to writing for theatre. When she’s not playing with toothpicks, Andi Crown can be found digging holes and fossicking hopefully through trays of assorted bone and shell. She likes nothing more than a heated game of Trivial Pursuit and randomly interposed factoids. Her recent theatre credits include, Cindy and Eric go to Hell, Autobahn, and Psychopaths.

Lilith
Written by Lily Richards/ performed by Beth Allen
Lily is capable of both writing and reading and so does both with relative frequency. Beth is currently on the telly playing Brooke Freeman on Shortland Street, where she gets to wear killer heels and say nasty things. She’s producing and acting in The Vagina Monologues at The Basement Theatre in August and doing the same for a Christmas show written by Natalie Medlock and Dan Musgrove in December. She loves Lamebook.com, new stationery and poached pears.

Low End
Written by Nic Sampson/ Performed by Gareth Reeves
Nic is a 23 year-old actor and writer who can occasionally be seen walking through the background of the Auto Shop in TV2’s ‘Go Girls’. Gareth went to Drama School. When he got out he became an elf. He left to go do theatre for 4 years. His friends who did telly were making more money so he tried it too. He met a hot chick who is still his girlfriend. Now he does telly, theatre and film. And gardening.

Pride and the Sin Tree
Written by Venus Stephens/ performed by Julia Croft
Venus is a socialite trapped in a house wife’s body, she writes to channel her inner Barbara Cartland.

Food for thought
Written by Morgana O’Reilly/ performed by Josephine Stewart-Tewhiu

Morgana is an actress who is known mostly for her work in the theatre. Most of her celebrated work requires her to talk to herself as numerous different people. Little do people know, it’s exactly what she does at home, in front of the mirror, and now they are paying to watch it. Josephine is a 2008 graduate of Unitec. Since graduating she has appeared in Ruby Tuesday, Awhi Tapu and the Short + Sweet Theatre Festival. Her favourite food is bacon and butter.

The Week
Written by Anders Falstie-Jensen/ performed by Ash Jones
Directed by Dena Kennedy.
Anders writes, directs and produces for The Rebel Alliance Theatre Company. Keep an eye out of ‘Heroic Faun No. One’ at The Basement in June. It’s "Unforgettable" – theatreview.co.nz

Te Karanga Gallery, 208 K Road
25 – 27 May, 2001
8pm
Pay what you think it’s worth after the performance

Review by Sian Robertson 26th May 2010

The format is the same as for The Awkward Monologues, which showed at Te Karanga Gallery in February this year: seven ten-minute pieces by seven different writers, played by seven actors.

These monologues are an evolutionary step in a very good direction. While Awkward had some juicy highlights and some, well, awkward moments – admittedly a tough theme to tackle – Sinful is an almost seamless buffet of tasty new writing, made flesh by some excellent performances.

Wrath

Wrath is written by Vivienne Plumb and performed by Robyn Paterson. A hitch-hiking teenager chats candidly and incessantly to the driver about the mundaneness and misfortune of her young life. I’m not entirely sure where ‘wrath’ comes into it… nevertheless, Paterson is very funny and it’s a well-written piece that kept me guessing to the end.

Shenequa

Shenequa is a Ukrainian prostitute who imparts her wisdom and experience to a somewhat nervous new girl on her first night at the brothel. Dena Kennedy’s gristly lines are chomped with gusto by Andi Crown in a slick and very funny piece. Directed by Martin Wood.

Lilith

Lilith gets to the fiery gates of Hell and has quite a lot to say for herself before she signs God’s contract. Beth Allen plays a feisty Lilith, in Lily Richards’ light-n-tasty treatise on the original battle of the sexes.

Low End

Writer Nic Sampson and actor Gareth Reeves got the most laughs in this wry piece about a jaded, faded rock ‘n’ roller looking back on the highs and lows of his days with the band.

Pride and the Sin Tree

A creepy little number, not as funny – but definitely as sinful – as the rest. Julia Croft is spine-chilling as a young woman who gets her own back at her childhood tormentors. Venus Stephens’ writing is a bit flowery at times (but then she does say in the programme that she ‘writes to channel her inner Barbara Cartland’, which I think is selling herself short). Pride wraps up nicely with a snappy, bloodcurdling ending, and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Food for Thought

Josephine Stewart-Tewhiu is masterful at the tragically funny. She had me in stitches with her melancholic monologue about how her eating disorder ruined her life. A pithy, grim comedy written by Morgana O’Reilly.

The Week

Ash Jones is delectable as an overly-suspicious, jealous friend who’s obsessed with reading between the lines of his best friend’s newfound happiness. Written by Anders Falstie-Jensen and directed by Dena Kennedy.

The Sinful Monologues are bitterly, laugh-out-loud funny and I unreservedly recommend going to see this short season while you can. I was still laughing on the way home.
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News.

The Sinful Monologues

Bitterly, laugh-out-loud funny

Comments

Make a comment Cancel reply