WHY DOES THIS FEEL SO GOOD?
BATS Theatre, The Heyday Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
08/05/2018 - 12/05/2018
NZ International Comedy Festival 2018
Production Details
You’ll be consenting…to a night of laughter.
“A naughty, funny and energetic dynamo” – Theatreview
Brynley and Rhiannon are delivering the sort of “cool” and “fresh” educational show that today’s youth are crying out for.
These two washed-up drama school graduates are absolutely “DTF”, as they try to spread their limited knowledge of sex, puberty and sexuality to you, their class of high school students.
A parody of the sex education you received from the likes of Harold the Giraffe and that awkward high school health teacher who seemed to love talking about lube just a bit too much.
BATS Theatre: The Heyday Dome
8 – 12 May at 7pm
Full Price $20 | Cheap Wednesday $16
Concession Price $15 | Group 6+ $14
BOOK TICKETS
Please note: Why Does This Feel So Good? contains occasional bad language, adult themes and is rated R16.
This show is part of the 2018 NZ International Comedy Festival with Best Foods Mayo from 26 April – 20 May.
Accessibility
*Access to The Heyday Dome is via stairs, so 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.
Theatre , Comedy ,
1 hr
They come together to produce much more than the sum of the parts
Review by John Smythe 10th May 2018
If you are in need of remedial sex education, Why Does This Feel So Good? could be the show for you. Or not. Although if you’ve grown beyond the point where the Life Education Trust programmes were enough and you want something more down-and-dirty, this could well hit the spot.
We’ve been treated to on-screen social media memes about puberty, sex, gender, consent and hormones before we find ourselves at Kent Terrace High, in an assembly presided over by Miss Dowry with help from head girl Kate. It turns out the LyF Education team is in the hood and we are to be entrusted to Brynley and Rhiannon for the next period.
Whoa – they are full of beans, DTF (down to fun – what else?) and hey, no teachers are allowed! This shit is about to get real!
Despite being at least 10 years older than us 14-18 year olds, they insist they are #relatable and prove it with a variety of #recognisable dance tropes performed to a mixtape, producing shrieks of laughter from the many millennials in the audience.
The idea is to take us through five topics: Puberty, Sex, Birth, Sexuality and gender Equality. And of course they have to rationalise that it is OK for two cis-gendered straight white women to do this.
Rhiannon is boisterous, confident and delightfully challenging as she demolishes boundaries. Brynley tries hard to match her energy but something is troubling her – and we soon find out what: a truly poignant dimension in the skilled hands of Stent. Both bring a depth of truth to their characters that compels our belief in them regardless of the extremities of their behaviour.
Many elements, including the contrast between innocence and knowing, what is being ‘taught’ and the reality of the performer’s lives, are redolent of Who’s Neat? You! which wowed us in the 2010 Fringe. Why Does This Feel So Good? is much more focused on sex, however, and much more explicit in an hilarious, inoffensive and even insightful way.
There is interaction with audience members (choose the front row if you’re keen), song and dance, a special guest appearance, lots of terrific screen imagery – and the emphasis is dynamically on showing rather than telling. As for the final dance sequence, suffice to say they come together to produce much more than the sum of the parts.
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