Director & Playwright's Note
Before We Slip Beneath the Sea is the culmination of many years' worth of artistic obsessions of mine. I've always been excited by the storytelling possibilities of Immersive theatre; the ways that the audience's relationship to the narrative completely changes when they are asked to navigate their own way through it. I've seen a lot of Immersive theatre that I've loved and a lot that has frustrated me, and Before We Slip is a response to all of those works. I didn't originally set out to make a 'climate change play' – I wanted to tell the story of a community, and the story of Eglantyne pieced itself together from there.
I have great affection for all seven of the Eggies, and have loved working with this very talented cast as they have made the characters their own. Thank you to Abby for her artistic and logistic support throughout the process, and Lucas for his design work. This play was developed with the keen guidance of my PhD supervisors, Nicola Hyland and Ken Duncum – thank you to Ken in particular for sitting down with me and talking through each of my characters like they were mutual friends of ours. And of course, thank you to Jamie, my forever first reader.
CAST
Bree – Charlie Potter
Carla – Hannah McKenzie Doornebosch
Clive – Ralph Johnson
Eden – Megan Connolly
Kip – Billie Deganutti
Maggie – Helen Jones
Marty – Craig Geenty
CREW
Director & Playwright – Cassandra Tse
Assistant Director & Stage Manager – Abby Lyons
Production Design – Lucas Neal
Marketing & Publicity – Jamie Cain
Intimacy Direction – Aimée Sullivan
Fight Choreography – Nina Hogg
Photography – Joshua Hopton-Stewart, Roc Torio, Alex Rabina
What did you think?
We are conducting an online survey of audience members who participated in this event. Your response will help our playwright, Cassandra Tse, in her PhD dissertation on narrative immersion in Immersive theatre.
Please click here to fill out this survey, which will take approximately 15 - 20 minutes. Survey participants can enter into a draw to win a $50 supermarket voucher.
This research has been approved by the Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee 0000031466.