Palmy students take to streets for explosive WWI show

Tuesday 2 October 2018
Massey University theatre students are preparing for an explosive performance of a multi-media, multi-dimensional exploration of WWI to be staged on the streets of Palmerston North this weekend.
Palmy students take to streets for explosive WWI show - image1

Student actors Sarah Angland and Cameron Dickons in a rehearsal of Firing Line, which premiers this weekend.





Massey University theatre students are preparing for an explosive performance of a multi-media, multi-dimensional exploration of World War One to be staged on the streets of Palmerston North this weekend.

Titled Firing Line, ​the performance – developed as part of the School of English and Media Studies’ new Creativity in the Community course – focuses on the impact of the war on the people of Palmerston North and is inspired by local history. 

Drama, creative writing, poetry and digital media come together under award-winning director Hannah Smith (​The Road That Wasn’t There, The Devil’s Half-Acre​) to perform an original piece of site-specific theatre for two days only as part of the first-ever Palmerston North Fringe Festival. 

“It’s powerful work – we’re looking at war stories through a fresh lens; and we’re looking at the city from a unique perspective also – literally taking the theatre to the streets of Palmerston North,” Ms Smith says.

Firing Line takes it audience on a journey into the past and onto the streets. Following a mute, amnesiac soldier known simply as Jack, the audience follows the cast around Coleman Mall, George Street and the Central Library, experiencing a life Jack can’t remember from people who claim to know him. 

The performance e​xplores New Zealand’s trauma during the Great War through individual stories, vaudeville sketches, marching songs and dramatic encounters with those who survived, fully immersing the audience in a world 100 years in our country’s past. 

“It’s a wild idea, taking an untold story out onto the street,” says cast member Sarah Angland. “It’s exciting to think how audience engagement will work in the space. I think the most effective shows are the ones you really feel a part of and I think this piece will really revolve around that feeling and experience.”

Students have been responsible for performance, dramaturgy, production design, music and publicity, with support and collaboration from Ms Smith, an internationally-acclaimed director, and award-winning playwright and course coordinator Associate Professor Angie Farrow, based at the Manawatū campus. 

“It’s explosive, funny and moving, but also a true inspection of how things were once all the noise of the war had stopped and those who were left behind had to face an uncertain future,” Dr Farrow says.

Also working with the students as part of the creative process is composer and experimental multi-media artist David Downes, in his role as Visiting Artist in Residence. The residency is sponsored by the School of English and Media Studies and Palmerston North’s Square Edge community arts hub. Mr Downes has been workshopping and helping translate the students’ ideas into visual, animated and sound projections.

Event details:

The hour-long performance runs this Saturday, October 6 and Sunday, October 7 at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, starting outside Pompeii Pizza, Coleman Mall. Koha entry.