Whose Memory Lights The Dark
BATS Theatre, The Stage, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
02/04/2025 - 05/04/2025
Production Details
Writer / Designer: Natala Gwiazdzinski
TuWaiLu Productions is a new company formed by Natala Gwiazdzinski and Adam Burrell for this project.
WHOSE MEMORY LIGHTS THE DARK is a journey of self-discovery for Eli and Faith – from teenage to middle age -navigating life after a tragedy forces them to manipulate their trauma through fantasy to survive.
Who do you love? Who wishes for your smile? Who gifts you hope? Whose memory lights the dark?
Featuring Natala Gwiazdzinski and Adam Burrell.
BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace
2-5 April 2025, 7.00pm
https://bats.co.nz/whats-on/whose-memory-lights-the-dark/
Presented as a Double Bill* with ESCAPING, a gay exposé about living, loving, losing and learning.
Featuring Natala Gwiazdzinski and Adam Burrell.
*Patrons can book for individual shows, or see both for a discounted price.
Natala Gwiazdzinski's theatre credits are predominantly in lighting design and small-scale set design. She also wrote/directed a short film Rage which was nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Oceanic Actor and Best Oceanic Actress at the 2022 Septimius Awards in Amsterdam. Whose Memory Lights the Dark is a first-outing as stage writer/director.
Production Management: Jason Te Mete
Adam Burrell / Adeena Delights is of Samoan descent and was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a highly regarded and experienced actor, singer and live entertainer with over 20 years’ of professional experience.
A career highlight is his performance in K’Rd Strip – A Place to Stand, an original, devised Māori contemporary dance work that toured to Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in 2015.
He has performed in over 20 professional children’s theatre productions, including several nationwide tours with Capital E. Some other theatre highlights include The Incredible and Glorious World according to The Fitzroys, City of One Hundred Lovers. King Lear (ATC), and the award-winning play An Act of God (Centrepoint).
Adam has had numerous guest roles on television including Shortland Street, and has extensive experience in the world of drag entertainment where the formidable Ms Adena Delights is known for her quick wit, raucous laugh, and flamboyantly precise performances.
Theatre ,
60 minutes
A wonderful use of space, sound and poetry to offer a peek into the pain of love …
Review by Claire Mabey 03rd Apr 2025
The BATS stage is set with low-lit hanging bulbs suspended like fireflies, with two chairs, and a poetic line written in chalk on the back wall. It looks clean, promising, moody and dreamlike.
This short piece has a fragmented structure of snapshot scenes of two people throughout their lives, together and apart. They both come from, and experience trauma that shapes who they are and how they relate to each other in the murky world of dysfunctional yet raw and rich love.
The soundscape is effectively used to plunge us deeper into the world of memory and yearning. I especially love the use of the back wall where each actor writes, in chalk, gut-punching lines that poetically-yet-sharply let us into the pain of their experience.
I would have loved to have seen a deeper look into the push-and-pull love between these two people. A variation in tone would also have really showcased the talents of Adam Burrell and Natala Gwiazdzinski, both of whom have the most amazing naturally-resonant voices. However, in such a short time (30 minutes approx.) I know that this is a tall order.
Overall, a wonderful use of space, sound and poetry to offer a peek into the pain of love, abandonment and loneliness.
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