Blowing It

European Premiere, Assembly Rooms , Edinburgh 2003
Presented by Guy Masterson & Company Gavin Robertson

Co-written & performed by Stephen Papps

Co-written & directed by Stephen Sinclair

Sensational NZ comedy-drama co-written by Lord of the Rings screenwriter.

Directed and co-written by one of New Zealand's most successful writers Stephen Sinclair, whose credits include the international hit stage comedy Ladies Night, and the film of 2003: Lord of the Rings II - The Two Towers, we follow an undercover cop who as he goes seriously off the rails. Witness Mike Fahey, police constable, as he penetrates the pub world of petrol-heads, perverts and pit-bulls'and loses the plot. Award winning actor (& co-writer) Stephen Papps takes us into the Queens Arms, Panmure, Auckland, where it's all goin' down: sex, drugs, violence,
Mike goes under, Cheryl goes down, Anal is fingered, and Satan the rottweiler gets CPR! One man's struggle with betrayal and loss of identity that is also an hilarious, affectionate satire on the New Zealand public bar.

Blowing It follows the tradition of some of the finest new Zealand work to be seen at Edinburgh: Jimmy Costello, Skin Tight, Krishnan's Dairy, Bare and Number 2

Reviews:

"Blowing It whips along at a cracking pace. Papp's one-man performance - energetic, yet tightly controlled - makes the show. His huge range of facial expressions and vocal nuances, combined with Sinclair's tight direction, make it a surprisingly undemanding comic experience and a very entertaining one." (Shona Craven - Metro Scotland August 7, 2003)

"This wonderfully funny show... splendidly captures the energy and eloquence of Kiwi idioms. The fifteen or so characters... provide the opportunity for a series of brilliant comic turns. This is rip-roaring comedy with broad commercial appeal." (NZ Listener)

"It's magic. Papps' characterisations of a multitude of sleazy characters -on both sides of the law- are stunning and the script is impressive. No props, no set, no sound effects, just magical theatre up close and in your face." (City News)

"Brilliantly realised. An outstanding theatre event." (Hawkes Bay Today)

"Powerful drama'a fine and memorable event." (NZ Dominion Post)

Biographies:

Stephen Papps (Performer /Co-writer) In 1992 Stephen landed the role of Firpo in Ian Mune's feature film End of the Golden Weather for which he won Best Actor at the NZ Film Awards. Since then he has worked extensively in film, television and theatre. Highlights of Stephen's theatre career are Equus performed at Bats theatre, Wellington, NZ (1993) and directed by Stephen Bain; David Geary's Lovelock's Dream Run at Centrepoint Theatre, (1993) directed by Alison Quigan; City of Hands, written and directed by Stephen Bain and performed at Bats Theatre (1994); Othello, performed at the Watershed Theatre (1995), directed by Michael Hurst; Saving Grace, performed at the Herald Theatre, Auckland, and the Century Theatre in Napier (1997 and 1998), directed by David Coddington; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2001), performed at the Maidment Theatre, Auckland, directed by Colin McColl. Over the last two years Stephen has extensively performed his one man play Blowing It throughout NZ, to rave reviews. This performance received a Nomination for Best Actor at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2000. Award winning short films include: Lemming Aid (1993), directed by Grant Lahood, which won Best Short Film at Cannes; Possum (1998), which has won several awards around the globe, written and directed by Brad McGann; The Waiting Room, written and directed by Ian Hughes. TV Credits: Stephen has appeared in numerous NZ television dramas and series. In 2000 he played the eternally peeved Captain Brogard in the half-hour television comedy series Jack Of All Trades, produced by Pacific Renaissance. The series screened in the United States and NZ to excellent reviews and ratings.

Stephen Sinclair (Playwright) Stephen Sinclair is one of New Zealand's most successful playwrights and screenwriters. In 1989 he co-wrote (with Danny Mulheron) The Sex Fiend, a seven door farce, which premiered in Wellington and went on to play return seasons in all the main centers. It continues to be performed by repertory companies around the country, and has been produced several times in Australia. Ladies Night (co-written with Anthony McCarten) has enjoyed international success with recent productions in Australia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Finland, Austria, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Canada. In France it won the Moliere Award for the Best Stage Comedy for 2001, and is currently showing in Moscow. Other plays include Blowing It (co-written with Stephen Papps), which was performed in Adelaide last year and will be showing at the Opera House in Sydney in July and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. Also the musicals Big Bickies and Braindead. In June last year his historical drama The Bellbird was produced as a main bill for the Auckland Theatre Company. Peter Calder of the NZ Herald called it 'a play of heart and soul and a valuable addition to our literature." Sinclair has had a long screenwriting partnership with Academy Award nominees Peter Jackson and Frances Walsh (Heavenly Creatures, The Fellowship of the Ring). In 1990, he co-scripted the feature film Meet the Feebles, and in 1991, Braindead (aka Dead Alive), which subsequently won Best Screenplay at the 1993 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. Most recently he worked with Peter and Fran on the screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and has a writer credit on The Two Towers. Sinclair's one-hour television comedy Love Mussel, starring the late Kevin Smith, screened in 2001. The NZ Listener cited it as the best one-hour television comedy-drama for the year. His children's novel Thief of Colours, was published by Penguin Books in 1995. His first adult novel, entitled Dread, published in July 2000, was described in the review in the New Zealand Listener as "an impressive debut." His collection of poetry, The Dwarf and the Stripper, will be published later this year. A recent article in the Auckland Metro referred to Sinclair as "New Zealand's finest comic writer."

Gavin Robertson (Presenter) Creator of the theatre hit Thunderbirds F.A.B. which has now had six West End seasons, and numerous tours nationally and internationally. As Company Gavin Robertson he has produced/written Fantastical Voyage, a comic spoof based on the film animation techniques of Ray Harryhausen, Spittoon - a cartoon spaghetti western, The Six-Sided Man, inspired by cult novel The Dice Man and I Am Who Am I inspired by memory-loss. These have toured variously and numerously to Japan, Oman, Lebanon, Brazil, Singapore, the USA, Taiwan, Ireland, Belgium, Finland and Holland. Previous productions: The Three Musketeers, Space Panorama, What Is All This Dancing? also toured in Hong Kong, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Chile, Tunisia, Senegal and many others! As a Live Literature promoter he irregularly produces and hosts Hear Here, a live celebrity-based chat show whose past guests have included Charles Collingwood from BBC Radio's The Archers, UK funk/pop band Level 42 and, most recently, in the 2003 Brighton Festival with New York author of The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart. He also tours Shorts (varying short stories). He has appeared on TV all over the world in interviews about his work and productions, most mystifyingly on Good Morning America in a T-shirt and jeans after set and costumes went to Minneapolis and not Memphis! Slightly less naff than this was his appearance on Japanese TV where he was invited to give his message to the Japanese people, at which point he was overtaken by giggles.