Spotlight on night life
What turns an articulate and polite young person into a loud and drunken party animal at night?
Who are these young people and what are they looking for in this behaviour? That is the question posed by director Leo Gene Peters and Long Cloud Youth Theatre in Perfectly Wasted.
‘‘Courtenay Place is not out of the ordinary folk,’’ Peters said. ‘‘[It is] articulate and polite, curious and interesting young people. And then they go out and get hammered, trying to find meaning and have the best night possible.’’
Peters has collaborated with the Whitireia Polytechnic-based Long Cloud Youth Theatre to develop a theatrical piece examining the question in a reflective and nonjudgmental way.
The large cast and Peters have exchanged their own tales of the night and created an ensemble piece inter-leaving stories and characters.
‘‘It’s like a lot of different stories going along,’’ Peters said. ‘‘We follow some of them over the course of the show – relationships developing over a period of time.
‘‘We meet people now and then again further down the line,’’ he said. ‘‘You see this group of boys getting obnoxiously drunk and playing drinking games but then you see them caring for one another.’’
The play will resonate with everyone, Peters said.
‘‘These are young people’s con- cerns about their lives, but they are all the same questions that my father is asking in his mid 70s, they are all the same questions that I am asking in my mid 30s.
‘‘The night out is, in a way, a microcosm of life.’’
Wellington actress Rori Evans said young people will relate to Perfectly Wasted.
‘‘They will get it. They will feel they are part of it.’’
Evans hoped many young people will go to the play and get into theatre.
Tawa actor Mitchell Bernard said the play will give people some insight into the behaviour they see regularly on Courtenay Place.
‘‘You can sit there as an audience member and kind of engage in the moment without being threatened by it.’’
Perfectly Wasted