An all-new work by gay playwright Patrick Graham has been confirmed to premiere at next month's Wellington Fringe Festival in the inaugural Auckland Fringe Festival a fortnight later. Post Gay is a multimedia production that tells the story of a "not-stereotypical" gay man searching for love over the internet. The playwright says the production could well be described as a "sex comedy", or even - one step further - as a "gay sex comedy". The story begins: After years of being single, Matthew is encouraged by his "sunny disposition" flatmate to take the plunge with internet dating. Matthew is played by Todd Morgan – a Unitec graduate whose credits include Les Miserables, Shortland Street, King Kong, Ian the Antichrist and several Smackbang Theatre projects. Cecilia, Matthew's flatmate, is played by Natasha Ross, who has performed in the London Fringe and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, appeared in several short film and television roles, and was recently seen in New Zealand in Beast by award-winning playwright, Thomas Sainsbury. The audience will follow Matthew's journey through the screen projections displaying his online interactions, and witness the resulting "physical" meetings with these characters - all played by Rudi Vodanovich, a fellow Unitec graduate who has appeared in the Auckland Theatre Company productions of Shrew'd and Equus. He has also appeared on Outrageous Fortune and the upcoming TV series Go-girls. After three dating disasters, including a mysterious event manager who forgets his own name and occupation frequently, and a Muscle Mary who tells Matthew he is good enough to give a blow job but that's about it, Matthew turns to traditional meeting places; clubs and even phone dating services. "The results are even more hilarious than the online dating, which leads poor Matthew to absolute despair," explains Graham. "Will he find love out there in the real world? Will he go back into cyberspace for another shot?" Graham's last production was White Trash Omnibus, a controversial and sexually frank play featuring toilet sex scenes, violence, incestuous liaisons, drugs and a friendly ghost. One critic has described the playwright as the "Tennessee Williams of New Zealand theatre," while Graham has dubbed himself the "Ed Wood of theatre." Post Gay will premiere at Wellington's BATS theatre as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2009 in from 25 – 28 February, and at Auckland's Galatos as part of the inaugural Auckland Fringe Festival from 10 – 13 March.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Tuesday, 27th January 2009 - 10:22am