FREE THEATRE CHRISTCHURCH
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      • Past Ubu Nights >
        • Ma Ubu Night
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        • Ubu Shows Us the Way to Brecht's Whiskey Bar
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      • Bluebeard's Castle credits
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    • The Marvellous Corricks >
      • Corricks - Credits
    • Distraction Camp
    • Remake
    • Ella and Susn
    • There and Back Again
    • Faust Chroma
    • Enigma Emmy Goering/Nico Sphinx of Ice
    • Change Proposal
    • Faust Feast
    • Diana Down Under
    • Philoctetes >
      • Production Credits - Piloctetes
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    • Christmas Shopping
    • Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
    • Achternbusch in the Antipodes
    • Caucasian Chalk Circle
    • Samson Airline
    • Antigone
    • Kabarett Kabul
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • The Well Intentioned Wife
    • The Last Days of Mankind
    • Bakkhai / Diotek
    • Krapp's Last Tape
    • Murderer Hope of Women / The Philosopher's Stone
    • Comrade Savage
    • Love on a Bicycle
    • Crusoe: A Lapsarian Mass in Twelve Movements
    • Medea
    • Songs to the Judges
    • Resolution Island
    • Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus
    • The Empire Builders
    • States of Shock
    • Robinson Crusoe or: I That Was Born To Be My Own Destroyer
    • Power
    • MedeaMaterial
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    • Electra
    • The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls
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    • A Respectable Wedding
    • Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
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      • double act credits
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    • The Mortal Pleasure of Wander Lust
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      • the meeting credits
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    • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
    • A Letter from L
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    • 1984: The Future Is Now
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    • Leonce and Lena
    • Court Case: Free Theatre vs The Arts Centre
    • The Almost Free Theatre Kabernette
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    • King Lear
    • Kabarett
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Ella and Susn

25-28 March 2009, Old Queens Theatre, Christchurch
1-4 April 2009, Globe Theatre, Dunedin Fringe Festival, Dunedin

Nominee, BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN, 2009 Dunedin Fringe Festival
Winner, BEST THEATRE, 2009 Dunedin Fringe Festival
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Originally presented in 2004 as part of Achternbusch in the Antipodes before touring to Wellington, in 2009 we restaged Ella and Susan in Christchurch before touring it to Dunedin following a successful North Island tour of the award-winning Faust Chroma.

Directed by Peter Falkenberg, these plays by radical German playwright Herbert Achternbusch present rarely heard voices from the margins of society. In Ella a man, dressed in his mother's clothes (á la Hitchcock's Psycho), tells the story of his mother, abused and institutionalised. In Susn a young woman confesses to her priest how her first sexual experiences have caused her to want to leave the church.

In staging these works, Free Theatre Christchurch continued a 25-year reputation for presenting rarely staged plays. As with Faust Chroma, Ella and Susn were translated by Peter Falkenberg and presented in English for the first time by the Free Theatre.

This production has received particular attention for its unusual narrative style and "rich, satisfying prose" (The Press), which is a feature of Achternbusch's unconventional and challenging work as a playwright, novelist, filmmaker, actor and painter. Despite being one of the most prolific artists of the past forty years, he remains largely unknown. His obscurity is primarily due to his unwillingness to adhere to the norms of art and society, most exemplified when he set fire to an art reward he received: a $20,000 cheque.
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Articles

Storytelling bender
The Press, 25 March 2009

On the fringe of decency
Otago Daily Times, 25 March 2009

Police warn performer after street promotion
Nigel Benson, Otago Daily Times, Thursday, 2 April 2009

Thoughts on Fringe Play
Grant Bryant, Taieri Herald, 7 April 2009 p. 5
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Reviews

From March/April 2009 season: ​
McCurdy is certainly impressive. A gestural, expressive actor, she shifts easily from the fanatical to the hysterical, from the petulant to the sardonic, from the enraged to the coquettish, from the flamboyant to the fragile.... Parker's performance is compelling, giving us what we have come for: theatre.... The Free Theatre is to be congratulated for creating such a coherent, accessible treatment.

Projections of hidden drama

Creon Upton, The Press, 1 April 2009
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Although this is a story of brutal exploitation and repression, the visual imagery conveys such delicate absurdity that it is at times both funny and charming....To remind one of the transcendent power of theatre to create images that ineradicable.

Surprises to stimulate and delight
Terry MacTavish, Theatreview, April 2, 2009
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These are both difficult pieces, full of broken sequences and awkward shifts, but both principal actors are spontaneous and fresh in their roles.... It is not for everyone, reality through the surreal, but if we accept that the main job of theatre is to be theatrical, to make us see freshly, Peter Falkenberg and his team are right on track.

Reality through the surreal

Lindsay Clark, Theatreview, March 26, 2009
See also reviews from 2004 season of Ella and Susn here:
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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Manifestos and Writings
    • A brief history...
    • Who We Are
    • The University Connection
    • Shirley Horrocks documentary
    • Training and Devising
    • Home, Space and Design
  • WHATS ON
    • The Passionate Puritan
  • EDUCATION
    • Kids Holiday Programmes
    • Schools Workshops
    • Adult workshops
  • PRODUCTIONS 1979 - present
    • The Cat Eleonore
    • The Deadbeat Opera
    • Babylon Berlin
    • Beggars Banquet
    • Woyzeck
    • The Axe
    • Endgame
    • Digitising Performance
    • Erewhon: Over the Range
    • A Summer Night's Dream
    • How Dare You
    • A Winter's Tale
    • Ars Acustica
    • Alice
    • The Black Rider
    • Frankenstein
    • The Mauricio Kagel Project
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • Kafka's Amerika
    • Ubu Nights >
      • Past Ubu Nights >
        • Ma Ubu Night
        • Ubu Through the Looking Glass
        • Ubu in Wonderland Ubu Night
        • Frankenstein Ubu Night
        • Casablanca Ubu Night
        • Faust Ubu Night
        • Not Hamlet Ubu Night
        • Punk Ubu Night
        • The Art of the Deal Ubu Night
        • Crossroads Ubu Night
        • Ubu Shows Us the Way to Brecht's Whiskey Bar
        • The Devil and the Blues Ubu Night
        • Bowie Ubu Night
        • Warhol Ubu Night
        • Berlin Kabarette
        • Beat Ubu Night
        • Twin Peaks Ubu Night
        • David Lynch Ubu Night
        • Kafka Ubu Night
        • Tango Ubu Night
        • Ubu Ubu Night
        • Lovecraft Ubu Night
    • Canterbury Tales
    • The Soldier's Tale
    • Bluebeard's Castle >
      • Bluebeard's Castle credits
    • I Sing the Body Electric
    • Big Heads Protest
    • Hereafter
    • Passion, Pulse and Power
    • The Earthquake in Chile
    • Don Giovanni Invites you to Dinner
    • Doctor Faustus
    • The Marvellous Corricks >
      • Corricks - Credits
    • Distraction Camp
    • Remake
    • Ella and Susn
    • There and Back Again
    • Faust Chroma
    • Enigma Emmy Goering/Nico Sphinx of Ice
    • Change Proposal
    • Faust Feast
    • Diana Down Under
    • Philoctetes >
      • Production Credits - Piloctetes
    • Fantasia
    • Christmas Shopping
    • Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
    • Achternbusch in the Antipodes
    • Caucasian Chalk Circle
    • Samson Airline
    • Antigone
    • Kabarett Kabul
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • The Well Intentioned Wife
    • The Last Days of Mankind
    • Bakkhai / Diotek
    • Krapp's Last Tape
    • Murderer Hope of Women / The Philosopher's Stone
    • Comrade Savage
    • Love on a Bicycle
    • Crusoe: A Lapsarian Mass in Twelve Movements
    • Medea
    • Songs to the Judges
    • Resolution Island
    • Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus
    • The Empire Builders
    • States of Shock
    • Robinson Crusoe or: I That Was Born To Be My Own Destroyer
    • Power
    • MedeaMaterial
    • Salome
    • Electra
    • The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls
    • Hamletmachine
    • Oresteia
    • A Respectable Wedding
    • Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
    • Cloudkiwiland
    • Double Act / Postponeless >
      • double act credits
    • Preversions
    • The Mortal Pleasure of Wander Lust
    • Red Cross & Takeaway
    • Lulu
    • Cowboy Mouth
    • The Meeting >
      • the meeting credits
    • Action / Tongues
    • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
    • A Letter from L
    • Dinosaurs and All the Rubbish / The Hunting of the Snark
    • Free Theatre Christmas Show
    • The Ride Across Lake Constance
    • Electra
    • In Three Minds
    • The Rapist Over Suzannah
    • 1984: The Future Is Now
    • Make-up Ground down / Texts for Decomposition
    • Leonce and Lena
    • Court Case: Free Theatre vs The Arts Centre
    • The Almost Free Theatre Kabernette
    • The Joffongract
    • King Lear
    • Kabarett
    • King Ubu
    • Black Cat Cabaret
    • The Gas Heart/Ox on the Roof/The Mirror Wardrobe One Fine Evening
    • Jazz Cellar Dada / Heavy Metal Cabaret
    • Round Dance
    • Woyzeck
  • Te Puna Toi
    • Past Te Puna Toi Projects
    • Artists in Residence
  • SUPPORT
  • CONTACT