Wed 12 Feb 2014 In: Performance View at Wayback View at NDHA
The Basement Theatre, 11 January An Auckland Pride Festival event The Legacy Project’s aim was to find a fresh Kiwi lgbt perspective and put it on stage. It’s nailed it. From coming out in the Wairarapa to a late-night city hook up, these are our stories. Cole Jenkins and Coen Falke in Locked Out (from preview workshop) The series of plays selected by Bruce Brown and his team range from hilariously funny, and deliciously awkward, to desperately painful, creating more of an up and downhill ride than some of the crazy skiing events at the Winter Olympics. But there were very few bumpy moments, with each play clearly well-loved and mostly very well-refined. Legacy Project opens with Sarah Daymond’s light modern day fairy tale Rainbows and Cobwebs where two people meet at a dress-up party, and of course all isn’t as it seems. While the actors could project their voices further in this piece, it’s cute, funny and sweet – and a nice gentle opening. Next is Michael Ciuchini’s utterly raggedly powerful Wairarapa Faultline. The exquisitely written play is among the most intense pieces. It has fireworks which are blown through the Basement Theatre roof by the performance of Michelle Leuthart as a mother who has already lost one son, and doesn’t want to lose another due to the prejudice of her husband (perfectly depicted by Steven Ciprian). This is a story which has elements which are likely to have played out it homes from Reinga to the Bluff – and while bigotry ripping families apart is a universal tale, Wairarapa Faultline is so very wonderfully Kiwi. Cole Jenkins steals the show as a confident young gay man meeting a hook-up in Bruce Brown’s hysterical Locked Out. Jenkins is utterly adorkable as a Pokemon lover who gets brilliant lines like “it’s not pancakes I want in my mouth right now”, and has the comic moment of the night with his hysterical ‘horny frustrated’ jiggle. He’s offset brilliantly by Coen Falke as the straight-laced nervous hottie he is supposed to be getting into bed with. This is a story which you can imagine happening on any Auckland street, on any night. It’s deliciously funny and so very real. Steven Ciprian and Boni Tukiwaho in Full Disclosure (from preview workshop) Nathan Joe’s Full Disclosure starts with a revved up encounter which slows into a painstaking look at two men who dearly care about each other, but have hit a barrier they just can’t seem to climb over when it comes to consummating the relationship. Steven Ciprian makes his second appearance as a character that couldn’t be more different than a backwards Wairarapa farmer – here he is a man who has fallen for someone, Toby, but doesn’t know how to be with him physically. Boni Tukiwaho is beautiful as Toby, in a love story for our times which will stick in the corners of your mind when you leave the theatre. Sadly the next listed piece Do You Remember was missing from the opening night line-up due to an actor not being well, but the word on the street is the ‘four dykes at a wedding’ tale is very good, and it’s hoped it will be in the show from tonight. Finishing it all off is Joni Nelson’s The Playground, where Cole Jenkins lights up the stage once more among a gaggle of queer teen misfits on New Year’s Eve. This witty ensemble piece will hurtle you back to your misspent, mismatched youth, and all the drama and excitement that entailed. The Playground is so teenage, and so brilliant. Bravo Legacy Project. Bravo. - Jacqui Stanford Get tickets to Legacy Project here Jacqui Stanford - 12th February 2014