Fractious Tash
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HeadSand
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Something has happened.
A violation. An attack. An abuse of power.
And now it’s raining and it won’t stop. Everything is flooding.
Or is New Zealand just sinking?
Either way we’re drowning in neurosis…
Acid… Parasites… Rain.

HeadSand slams together a powerhouse cast of some of New Zealand’s most experienced actors (Michele Hine, Sheena Irving, Sam Snedden) with industry game-changers (Saraid Cameron, Mel Odedra, Johanna Cosgrove, and Conan Hayes) to unravel an apocalyptic, surreal new play lampooning an apathetic world.

Fractious Tash.
Ferocious Cast.
A gut-punch new play by Benjamin Henson
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Cast
Conan Hayes
Johanna Cosgrove
Mel Odedra
Michele Hine
Sam Snedden
Saraid Cameron
Sheena Irving

Words & direction by Benjamin Henson
​Lighting Design by Brad Gledhill &
Rachel Marlow of Filament Eleven 11
Set & Costume Design by 
Benjamin Henson, Brad Gledhill, Rachel Marlow
Sound Design by Robin Kelly
Produced by Nicky Vella
                                     Jason Hodzelmans
Operated by Amanda Tito
Marketing design by George Wallace
Trailers shot & edited by
Two One One Three Creative

With thanks to
Basement Theatre, 
Auckland Theatre Company
The Actors’ Program, 
Lokesh and Janette from Omnigraphics, Michael Trigg, Gabrielle Vincent,
Lynne Cardy, Elaine Walsh, Cherie Moore,
Jack Buchanan, Thomas Press, Anna Bennington, Andrew Furness, 
Emily Campbell, Emma Newborn
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Conan Hayes
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Johanna Cosgrove
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Mel Odedra
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Michele Hine
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Sam Snedden
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Sheena Irving
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Saraid Cameron
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The Effect

Revel-makers Fractious Tash grow up to bring you the exclusive New Zealand premiere, celebrating this astounding play from           "one of the UK's hottest new playwrights"                 (The Telegraph) with their off-kilter vision and unstoppable cast.

Connie sees Tristan. Tristan sees Connie. Hearts pound. Pulses soar. Thoughts race. Pupils dilate. Palms sweat. Balance reels. Lips burn. Is this the side-effect of only one thing...
...Their dangerous, electrifying, first-sight love...
...Or the explosive, experimental drug surging its way through them?
Severed from the world as test subjects for a revolutionary new drug, it is Connie and Tristan's chemistry that comes under the microscope - their laser-like connection cannot be denied, but what's causing it? Is it ethical? Is it real and can it ever last?
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Cast
Jessie Lawrence
Daniel Watterson
Sheena Irving
Will Wallace 

Direction by Benjamin Henson
Movement Direction by Lara Liew
​Lighting Design by Rachel Marlow

Stage Design by 
Filament Eleven 11 & Fractious Tash
Sound Design by Te Aihe Butler, Robin Kelly
Stage managed by Ahmed Youseff
Produced by Jason Hodzelmans
Assistant produced by Kate Barnes


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Titus 

Award-winning Theatre Company Fractious Tash bring their smash hit rework of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy back to Auckland audiences after selling out in 2013. TITUS will be unleashed at the Pop-up Globe for five public shows only from 13th – 20th March 2016. Prepare for a carnal, boundary-breaking ride when this explosive all-male cast of seven take to the stage once more under the neoteric direction of Benjamin Henson.
 
Set within a wasteland where power is brutality, a tribe of scavengers clamber among the debris to find anything that will help them retell the story of a legend – Titus Andronicus and his mutilated daughter, Lavinia. These lost boys invest their toys with the fervour of abandonment: in their fantasies of war and revenge teddy-bears bleed but boys do not. As scruples are abandoned and the stakes grow dizzily higher, Titus encapsulates the one thing we all know but fail to learn from – revenge is a childish pursuit.

Directed by Benjamin Henson
Musical direction by Tish Viljoen

Cast
Cole Jenkins
David Sutherland
Eli Matthewson
James Roque
Jason Hodzelmans
Jason Wu
Paul Lewis

Musicians
​Tish Viljoen
Sano Schuster
Camille Nakhid
Julian Carnow
Jeremy Hantler
​Ros Mackenzie

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Not Psycho

It's slippery, isn't  it, the truth? But nevertheless, it must be told. He’s awoken in limbo, trapped in a world built through an obsession with film. A knife. A blond. A vicious scream. 
It's all sounding so familiar, yet not at all. 

In constant danger, in persistent confusion, in desperate pursuit of trust in a realm without rules - how can escape be found if you're the guiltiest of all?
From the company that brought you the dark in Titus, and the light in Earnest, comes an altogether different experience: a devised re-edit and mash up of the slasher film trope with a real-life story too twisted to be true.

Reality blurs - the film is the truth - the truth is a fiction - at stake are the lives of two young women.

Compulsive but unnerving - Hitchcock but not - this is Fractious Tash's most ambitious experiment yet.  

Directed by 
Benjamin Henson
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Cast
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Bryony Skillington
Donogh Rees
Edwin Beats
Julia Croft
Kevin Keys
Virginia Frankovich
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Ghastly Dash Grimm

There is a tapping, a rapping at the door...

Enter an intriguing world where nothing is what it seems and darkness cannot be trusted, as we descend into the pulp-fiction depths of Hitchcock-Style horror, in this twisting mystery of scare-filled suspense.

Shhhh...keep very still and we might just find out who's there!

Words & Direction by Benjamin Henson
Stage Design by Ben Anderson
Sound Design by Thomas Press
LX Design by Brad Gledhill with Rachel Marlow
Technical Operation by Brad Gledhill

Cast
Eli Matthewson
Emma Newborn
Jason Hodzelmans
Jordan Mooney
Naomi Cohen
Paul Lewis
Pheobe Mason

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Earnest

The lights are low. The gin is in great supply. 
The band is playing your favourites...

In the smokey depths of a 50's London gay bar, the tipsy regulars loosen their dinner jackets to ask - who the f*ck is Ernest?
Under the beady eye of top-bitch, Lady Bracknell, two dandy fops clamour over the love of two dreamy sweethearts, and the name 'Ernest' seems to matter an awful lot... 

Brimming with vivacious wit, bravo and downright silliness, Fractious Tash and Last Tapes Theatre Company are proud to join forces to blast the cobwebs from The Importance of Being Earnest in this audacious reimagining - featuring a sprightly all-male cast and sexy live band to provide the soundtrack - the greatest hits of Cher. Yes, Cher. The perfect marriage of much loved songs like Turn Back Time and The Shoop Shoop Song with classic one-liners, explodes this devilish farce to open our eyes to all of the cheeky in jokes Oscar left for us to find. 

Rebooted and revamped, this is Oscar's quintessential comedy as you've never seen it before! 

"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness!"

Directed by Benjamin Henson
Musical direction by Robin Kelly
Designed by John Parker
LX Design by Rachel Marlow

Cast
Andrew Ford
Cole Jenkins
David Sutherland
Eli Matthewson
Jordan Mooney
Oscar Wilson
Stephen Butterworth
Zinnie Selwyn
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"…sassy, energetic and irreverent" - Theatre Scene

Titus

Cannibalism and...cupcakes!

In a barren wasteland where only brutality equates power, a tribe of scavengers clamour among the debris to find anything that will help them recount the story of a legend - Titus Andronicus and his mutilated daughter, Lavinia. 

In this lost boys' fantasy of war and seduction, all repercussion is abandoned in a struggle for power - encapsulating the one thing we all know, but fail to learn from - that revenge is a childish pursuit. 

This explosive, all-male adaptation of Shakespeares' most acidic work is told at break-neck speed by seven courageous actors.

This is Shakespeare as you have never seen.

Directed by Benjamin Henson
Designed by 
LX Design by Rachel Marlow


Cast
Cole Jenkins
David Sutherland
Eli Matthewson
James Roque
Jason Hodzelmans
Jason Wu
Paul Lewis
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"...shocking, violent, gripping and haunting" - Theatreview
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