A City Of Souls

THEATRE THAT EXPLODES WITH LASTING CONSEQUENCES.

Even the best of parties have to come to an end and the harsh light of day must come crashing in.

Five twenty-something friends are about to get a wake up call. Their personal dissatisfaction with their individual lives is about to explode with lasting consequences and once it does there will be no turning back.

Is there a light at the end of tunnel? Maybe for some.

Why is it, when all you want to do is abandon hope, you still fight for the future?

Dates: Friday 10th to Saturday 25th October 2008
Times: All shows at 8pm.
Venue: Basement Theatre (ex Silo)

Slow Train

ONE MAN, ONE GUITAR AND THE ROAD.

Sit down, relax, kick off your boots. Its snowing outside and we aint going no place. From the company who brought you A City of Souls comes the hot new one man show Slow Train.

Written and performed by Jonathan Hodge, Slow Train is a play with music which follows the fortunes of a back country balladeer, Max.

Max is a drifter. He’s always on the road. He carries little more than his guitar as he goes pub to pub across New Zealand. He plays some songs and he drinks too much but he’s still alive …

One night when the snow comes in hard on a southern road he takes refuge in a small cabin to ride out the storm. Max is left to ride the night out with a bottle of scotch, his guitar and a story to tell.

Jonathan Hodge will be familiar to Auckland theatre goers from most his recent work in Catalyst’s A City of Souls but he was also in Silo’s original Ensemble Project in Auckland Festival 2007. He has also worked for ATC, Smack Bang and Pandemonium amongst others.

Shannon Huse from the Auckland Herald said in her review A City of Souls “it will be good to see what Catalyst Theatre do next.” Here’s your chance!!

Slow Train is on at The Basement as part of Auckland Fringe 2009. It runs from the 19th to the 21st of March at 5pm.

Primary School – A Film By Ben Van Lier

STAND ASIDE OR GO DOWN SWINGING?

What happens when playtime for a group of friends goes desperately wrong? The answer is in Ben Van Liers debut film Primary School.

Hot on the heels of the successful show A City of Souls at The Basement in October 2008, the 2009 Auckland Fringe Festival sees the rise of Catalyst Theatre Company’s alter ego – Catalyst Films. In association with High Perspective they present their first film.

A group of friends from West Auckland meet sporadically at a local primary school. They hang out, they drink, they smoke... and they fight.

Primary School is a project two years in the making which takes a combination of 'found footage’ filmed by the characters themselves, and interviews with them after the fact and weaves them together to tell the story of one night and how it has affected 7 young men’s lives.

The fighting is more drunken play than serious competition but when rules are broken and drugs are taken, things spiral quickly out of control.

This is Ben's first film and he has written, produced, directed and edited it from scratch. The film features the actors Sam Berkley, Carl Dixon, Jonathan Hodge, Ora Simpson, Nathan Whittaker, Damien Avery and Ben himself.

Primary School will screen at The Basement during Auckland Fringe 2009 on Sunday 8th of March.