Fringe Festival (Familiar Strangers)

So on the night of 21/02/08, I went to an outdoor theatre production. Part of the film festival, hears a quick description of what it was all about....

"An entertaining promenade theatre experience of the people on Wellington's streets. Meet carnivalesque characters on an adventure through the pavements, alleyways and curbside philosophies of the inner city. Eight site-specific performances directed by Rachel Lenart ('Bouncing With Billie') and James Hadley ('Lovers Of Central Park')."

Basically I showed up at paramount theatre with my mates, we were split into 4 "communities" with the rest of those attending. From there we were given a map and a set of instructions to follow. We left the theatre with no clue of the performances to come.

Our first instruction was to walk down the alley between the Mermaid and St James Theatre and look for an old man who seemed lost. As soon as we saw him he greeted us and began talking about his life. Ranting about the cities problems and his 'Belinda' it seemed as if he was a crazed old man. But as we continued listening to him you became aware of how what his life was like, how he had survived on the streets for so long and the sights that he had seen.

His act was short and fun, which I thought was really good, keeping it short enough not to bore us but long enough to get our attention and make us think. So this meetings with strangers continued while walking everywhere in the greater Courtney central vicinity. Strangers included: a homeless bum, a crazy tree girl, rain jacket girl, schizophrenic woman and a French looking prostitute.

Personal highlights had to be the 'damsel in distress' by far one of the funniest acts she provided a detailed insight into the con life; 'your birthday is exactly one month after you the meet the guy alright?' 'oh shit I'm late for my 1st date with Jeff, remember you have to show up to the 1st one on time and then u can show up whenever the bloody hell you want'. Also the two backpackers, a Russian and German backpacker meet in Waitangi park, what follows is a comical dialogue and acting scene which finishes with the German chick proclaiming 'you shall cook me dinner for disturbing my chaos!' to which the Russian gent replies 'only if its at your place', before the two run off.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole production and would recommended anyone to see it if they need something a bit light-hearted and don’t mind a little walking. the great thing about this play is that if you were to walk past any of these actors, as they were waiting for there group to come and begin acting to them, you would not take any notice of them as they blend in to the Wellingtonian background and life.

(ignore the many grammatical mistakes I probably made)

cheers for reading