2b or nt 2b and 4 Billion Likes!

Overview

Writer/ director Sarah Delahunty is renowned for retrieving ancient folk tales and successfully retelling them in a modern context. Her latest works, 2b or nt 2b and 4 Billion Likes! are testimony to this claim.

Her comedy, 2b or nt 2b, follows six of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen and Sophocles’ best-loved characters who are experiencing life as adolescents in the modern day. Hamlet, Antigone, Hedda, Irena, Helena and Masha from the classics, are now thrown into the present as 17 year olds each undergoing their own typical teenage woes.

Hamlet’s main issue is that his mother married his uncle far too soon following the death of his father.  Antigone hates her extremely dysfunctional family. Masha is one of those hair-covering-one-eye, only-wearing-black-and-spiky-things, kind of girls who just hates everything and everyone. Helena loves her best friend’s boyfriend without his knowledge. What’s more, she is lost in a forest and mega high. Irena hates her job in the post shop, but cant see a way out of the dead end job, and Hedda is being bribed by her father to ace NCEA. Each of the kids calls a helpline for some advice on the matter and end up either listening to holding music - one of life’s most painful experiences - or talking to an automated message, which they goes on to ask about life’s big questions. At the heart of the production is the societal issue of teenage suicide, although as depressing as this sounds, Delahunty manages to surround the problem with humour, whilst remaining entirely respectful.

Following this show is another of Delahunty’s works, 4 Billion Likes. The solo comedy once again features teenage angst, with the protagonist being sixteen year old Chloe Anderson form Hamilton. The girl starts up a blog to immortalise the inner workings of her adolescent mind, including her utmost priority that is winning New Zealand X-Factor.

Both of the shows are some of Delahunty’s best work, and are sure to get a few laughs out of you whilst subtly approaching some of society’s most pressing youth-centred issues.