Leon Wadham gives everything he's got in Giddy. Photo / Supplied
Leon Wadham gives everything he's got in Giddy. Photo / Supplied
Oneonesix is hosting two exciting solo works from Auckland next week in a double bill, meaning audiences can choose to see one show or stay for both.
Giddy is the latest treat/disaster from charming Leon Wadham (Milky Bits, handsome, amazing eyes).
Giddy is an effervescent nightmare comedy that asks: AmI doomed? Is it too late? Am I a wild animal? Should someone just put me down?
Described as an ecstatic delight and astonishing show you could only experience live in a theatre, it includes motor mouthed fretting, nagging heartbreak and a very sexy duck.
Directed by Jade Eriksen and adapted from a solo play Wadham created when studying at Toi Whakaari: The NZ drama School, Giddy has had a season at the Basement Theatre in Auckland and Bats theatre.
''I made 10 minutes of the show when I was falling in love, and the remaining 50 minutes about a year after we broke up. I didn't intend to make a break up show, and in many ways it isn't, but I think of Giddy is a comedy about living a life alone that you expected to be living with somebody else. Hilarious, huh!'' said Wadham.
The second solo work is Watching Paint Dry , a unique theatrical experience from award winning theatre company The Rebel Alliance.
Over 50 minutes (that's how long it takes the paint to dry) audiences are invited to join solo performer and lighting designer Sean Lynch as he watches paint dry. The catch? For the duration of the show everybody has to leave their phones on, and on loud.
Director Anders Falstie-Jensen describes it like this: ''At the beginning of the show there's always lots of giggles, cheeky comments about the quality of the paint job and what have you but after a while something weird just happens to the audience. People get really into it and it becomes quite meditative.
''I've never experienced anything like it. It swings wildly between being very funny and very moving. At the end people often ask if we can do a second coat. We always say no, though. We like leaving people wanting more.''
To keep things even more unpredictable Watching Paint Dry features a different colour every night.
The two vastly different, new solo works both celebrate the unique experience of live performance.
''We are stoked these two pieces are coming to Whangarei and want to encourage more new works of this nature to venture north to give people here a chance to see the kind of contemporary theatre that is being presented in Auckland theatres like The Basement.
''We hope there will be many more,'' said Laurel Devenie from Oneonesix.
The double bill, or single if preferred, is on at Oneonesix, Bank St, Whangārei, September 28 and 29.
Watching Paint Dry, 6.30pm Friday; 8pm Saturday; Giddy, 8pm Friday / 6.30pm Saturday. $20 for one or $30 for both, www.eventfinda.co.nz and 0800 BUY TIX .
