As Russia’s political leaders and oligarchs struggle with how to commemorate the centenary of the 1917 workers’ revolution, Auckland actors and activists will be assembling in Karangahape Road on Guy Fawkes’ Day in November for a show that examines one of the most significant moments of the 20th century.
Reds is a two-hour play looking at the events and personalities that shook the world a century ago.
It will be given a reading at the Thirsty Dog, on Karangahape Rd, home of Auckland’s world-renowned Bloomsday show.
Top-line actors Stuart Devenie (Braindead), Jennifer Ward-Lealand (Dirty Laundry), Elizabeth McRae (Shortland St), Stephen Lovatt (Pleasuredome), Donogh Rees (Shortland Street) and Charlie Bleakley (Scarfies) will be joined by former Greens MP Sue Bradford, Unite Union organisers M Treen and Joe Carolan, and Mangere East Community Centre director Roger Fowler.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand will be playing the English Communist Sarah Pankhurst, one of a remarkable group of women we meet in the course of the show.
Union organisers Mike Treen and Joe Carolan will be playing Bolshevik leaders Trotsky and Lenin.
On piano will be Grey Lynn’s Hershal Herscher who has a special affinity with the show: his mother’s relatives were Bronsteins, Trotsky’s family. He will be playing the music of Prokofiev, Beethoven, Rossini, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, the Russian Red Army Choir and Blondie.
Reds is written by Dean Parker (Came A Hot Friday) and will be at the Thirsty Dog on Karangahape Rd on Sunday November 5, Guy Fawkes’ Day, 2pm.
Just an update — Robyn Malcolm and Rachel House have had to drop out but we’ve been brilliantly fortunate in getting top-line replacements: Donogh Rees (Shortland Street) will be playing the extraordinary Alexandra Kollontai who disputed the course of the revolution with Lenin and Stephen Lovatt (Pleasuredome) will be the explosive Bolshevik poet Mayakovsy. What a line-up!
Dean Parker
Just an update — Robyn Malcolm and Rachel House have had to drop out but we’ve been brilliantly fortunate in getting top-line replacements: Donogh Rees (Shortland Street) will be playing the extraordinary Alexandra Kollontai who disputed the course of the revolution with Lenin, and Stephen Lovatt (Pleasuredome) will be the explosive Bolshevik poet Mayakovsy. What a line-up!
Dean Parker
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