REVIEW: Young and Hungry Festival Auckland 2011

Cow, Tigerplay and Disorder. What a threesome! [by James Wenley]

Young and Hungry Zombies

If you haven’t already, rush to see the Young & Hungry Festival, there’s not much time left… there’s a Zombie apocalypse on don’t you know?

Under Auckland Theatre Company’s guidance, the third year of Young & Hungry in Auckland is arguably the strongest yet, containing two Young and Hungry classics – Cow by Jo Randerson (1997) and Tigerplay by the brilliant Gary Henderson (debuting in the first Wellington festival in 1994), finished off with a new play Disorder, a Zombie splatter-fest by Thomas Sainsbury, that has to be seen to be believed.

There’s a different energy at a Young and Hungry show. The young casts and crew radiate a hope, drive and a hunger to perform and put on excellent work. They work under an impressive mentorship team that includes Elizabeth Whiting, Simon Coleman, Brad Gledhill, and the shows are Production Managed by Andrew Munro. It’s a collective energy that puts many professional productions to shame – it’s immediate, exciting, sometimes raw, thrilling and unpredictable. It feeds and satisfies my theatre needs.