Off The Tracks

Off The Tracks
  • Blog
    • Interviews
    • Miscellany
    • Special Guests
    • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • The Vinyl Countdown
  • Back Catalogue
  • About
    • About
    • About the banner image
    • On Song
    • Advertise
July 8, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Aliens: Theatre

The Aliens 
 
Direction: Cassandra Tse (written by Annie Baker) 
 
Te Whaea Basement Theatre (July 4 – 13) 
 
An Annie Baker play changed my life – and I’ve yet to see a production of it…you see, I was so blown away by hearing her interviewed, reading about her, seeing the works available that I took a chance on the script for The Flick. Read it in a single sitting and returned to it the next day. It was the keenest set of observations. It was bleak and beautiful all at once. A celebration of the beautiful losers I’ve been drawn to in the works of many great songwriters, visual artists and writers across theatre, short-stories, poetry and novels. 
 
The Aliens (produced by Red Scare Theatre Company) and performed at Te Whaea’s Basement Theatre (July 4-13) is, to my knowledge, the first professional presentation of Baker’s work in New Zealand. Let’s hope we see more as a result of this fine effort. 
 
Written in 2010 The Aliens takes its name from one of the bands that KJ (Jack Sergent-Shadbolt) and Jasper (Jonny Potts) spontaneously created. They’re two 30-year-old dropouts with big dreams inside their small lives; they know Bukowski and music and they care about art above all. They spend their days out back of a cafe in the staff area. They’re not mean to be there but the new kid Evan (Dryw McArthur) doesn’t have any power over them. He just wants to keep his head down and do a good job clearing tables and putting the rubbish out the back – until its time for him to return to his studies. 
 
KJ and Jasper have a stranger power over Evan though – almost instantly. He’s mesmerised by their knowledge – and by their shoe-scuffing life-knowledge.  
 
This is a Mountain Goats song come to life, it’s Richard Linklater’s best work without the desperate cling of a hip soundtrack.  
 
It’s writing so profound – so perfect – that to just deliver it would almost be enough. But director Cassandra Tse and the talented cast know that the real magic is in the spacing and phrasing; the placing of the words and the pacing of the lines. For as we find out more about each character we see and then feel levels of vulnerability.  
 
The humanity in and of this play all but bursts from the stage. It’s the finest kind of heartbreak. 
 
And it’s a must-see piece of local theatre. Truly a brilliant amalgam of the write cast and crew putting a genius-level script in to place. It’s a 21st Century Waiting For Godot – a play about nothing, and therefore everything; a play about the magic that resides deep within inertia; the story of multiple unlikely – crucial – friendships, a mirror held up to the struggle of just getting by. Beautifully created on the local stage, so perfectly realised. It stays with you for days after. 
You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron

Posted in Blog, Reviews and tagged with Annie Baker, Basement Theatre, Cassandra Tse, Dryw McArthur, Jack Sergent-Shadbolt, Jonny Potts, July 4 - 13, Play, Red Scare Theatre Company, Review, Te Whaea, The Aliens, The Aliens: Theatre, The Flick, Theatre, Theatre Review, Theatre: The Aliens, Wellington, You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron. RSS 2.0 feed.
« The Vinyl Countdown # 282 
Poem: Film Review – ‘A Star Is Born’ »

2 Responses to The Aliens: Theatre

  1. Pingback: Burn Her: Theatre

  2. Pingback: Sweetman Podcast # 190: Cassandra Tse

Popular

  • Charlotte Grimshaw: The Mirror Book
  • Janna Lapidus Leblanc: Four Years In Pictures
  • Neil Peart Was The World’s Most Overrated Drummer
  • The Sad Story of Bob Welch: Fleetwood Mac’s Most Undervalued Member
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 8 – Mark Knopfler
  • The Best Guitarist in The World: # 11 – Lindsey Buckingham
  • Revisiting Live at Knebworth (1990)
  • Little Feat: Meanest Blues of All (Live 1973)
  • Gig Review: Bill Bailey – En Route To Normal (March 14, Wellington)
  • Poem: Dear Ngā Mihi,

Archives

Tags

Album Review Auckland Book Book Review Chat Compilation DJ DVD DVD Review EP Film Film Review Gig Gig Review Guest Blog Guitar Interview Jazz Jon Mcleary Live Live Gig LP Movie Music NZ Podcast Poem Record Records Simon Sweetman Soundtrack Spines Spotify Stub Stubs Sweetman Podcast The Ghost of Electricity The Spines The Vinyl Countdown Vinyl Wellington Wgtn Writing You can support Off The Tracks via PressPatron [OST]

Categories

  • Back Catalogue
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Miscellany
  • Mixtapes
  • Playlists
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews
  • Scene Of The Day
  • Special Guests
  • The Vinyl Countdown

Off The Tracks is the home of Sweetman Podcast, a weekly interview/chat-based pod. It's also home to my reviews across film, TV, music and books and some creative writing as well.

Off The Tracks aims to provide quality reviews and essays, regular blog updates about the shows, albums, books and movies you should be experiencing.

It's a passion project. Your support will help to keep Off The Tracks online.

All content © 2021 by Off The Tracks. WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press