Overview
Silo Theatre have a reputation for staging cutting edge, contemporary theatre experiences, and if their 2016 programme is anything to go by, it’s not a status that’ll slip anytime soon. Artistic Director Sophie Roberts introduces the impending body of work as a celebration of ‘the anarchic, the wild and the beautiful fight in us all to survive in a troubling world’.
Kicking off the year will be two productions that enjoyed rave reviews at the 2015 Auckland Arts Festival and International Comedy Festival respectively. The Book of Everything flies the banner for enduring hope and courage in the face of oppression and ignorance, focusing on a young boy who uses his imagination to seek refuge from domestic violence. He sees things people don't; strange weather patterns; tropical fish in odd places; and is visited by Jesus, who commiserates with his own Father issues. The grim pretence may not shout 'family production', but its well considered treatments of darker realities like this, which finds weight with modern audiences of all ages, each attempting to reconcile life's experiences. No More Dancing In The Good Room is an autobiographical account of a young gay boy's struggle to express himself in a liberal, supportive household. A keen dancer, the protagonist faces protest from his Mother - not for his outlandish home productions and wild choreography, but rather out of concern for potential ruined carpets, furniture and a respect for the well behaved conduct that "the good room" requires.
Medea is a contemporary retelling of the Euripides' classical Greek play. Playing in their bedroom are two young brothers, whose relatively harmonious activities are interrupted by their parents, locked in a ferocious (and iconic) argument off stage. The boys are drawn into the conflict, collateral damage in a fight that is not their own, a nuanced look at how out most vulnerable are affected by the adult world around them. Boys Will Be Boys is one woman's attempt to hold her own on the trading floor - a biting satire of the long hours in the boardroom, at cigar bars and strip clubs that it takes to survive in a man's world, and sacrifices made for the privilege. Usually just out for herself, Astrid reluctantly turns mentor, after a naive job seeker appeals to egotistical inklings to leave behind a legacy. Convention-bending absurdist theatre is having something of a reconnaissance; the aptly titled Perplex sees a couple return from holiday to find something is not quite right. Household objects seem unfamiliar and a letter from the power company informs that they have been cut off. In a turn of events that sets the play in dizzying motion, the couple who were house sitting wrangle with words their rightful entitlement to the property. So begins the cycle of character morphing, and a deconstruction of identity itself as the couples helplessly react to the traps laid in their path.
2016 sees Silo Theatre take steps in developing its national audience, with The Book Of Everything set to undergo a touring season, and additional plans to take the enthusiastically received Hudson & Halls Live! on the road as well. The latter stars the sensational Chris Parker, who is the aforementioned young gay boy taking the stage in No More Dancing In The Good Room, a production chosen to receive support for an encore season by Silo Theatre. Partaking in Auckland Art Festival's RAW series for works in development is Chye-Ling Huang’s new script Black Tree Bridge. A Silo Theatre season pass for Christmas perhaps?
The Book Of Everything: 12 to 25 February, Q Theatre
No More Dancing In The Good Room: 3 to 13 February, Q Theatre Loft
Black Tree Bridge: 5 March, 2016 Auckland Arts Festival RAW Season, Q Theatre Loft
Medea: 16 June to 9 July, Herald Theatre for Auckland Live
Boys Will Be Boys: 8 to 24 September, Q Theatre
Perplex: 10 November to 3 December, Herald Theatre for Auckland Live