A MOST OUTRAGEOUS HUMBUG Moves Indoors During Fringe At Downstage

Originally performed in Aro Valley's Waimapihi Reserve, Three Spoon Theatre's Fringe Festival show ‘A Most Outrageous Humbug' is making the transition indoors for Pick of the Fringe at Downstage Theatre.

2008 was a big year for Three Spoon Theatre. Their show March of the Meeklings won Best in Theatre and overall Best of Fringe at the 2008 Fringe Awards, and was then selected for a return season at Downstage Theatre as part of the 2008 Pick of the Fringe. They have done it again in 2009 with their new production A Most Outrageous Humbug, which has been selected for this years Pick of the Fringe.

Originally performed outdoors in Aro Valley's Waimapihi Reserve, director Charlotte Bradley is excited about making the transition to Downstage: "Being chosen for Pick of the Fringe for the second year in a row is a real honour, and an awesome challenge for Three Spoon Theatre. We learned a number of things during last year's translation of March of the Meeklings, and we will use this experience to inform this year's shift from our outdoor venue, the Waimapihi Reserve, into the Hannah Playhouse."

A Most Outrageous Humbug is a tale of the grotesque and arabesque from the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of literature's most moustachioed and mysterious figures. "We were initially going to present a show based solely one of Poe's short stories," says director Charlotte Bradley, "but once we started researching the man himself, we realised his own life was just as macabre and even more ripe with theatrical possibilities".

"He is a fascinating and tragic figure," adds Bradley, "the women in his life - his mother, and many love interests - were constantly dropping dead around him, at age 26 he married his 13 year old cousin, he had powerful and vocal nemeses, and he was increasingly enslaved to drugs and booze. The suffering artist Poe-sonified ".

A Most Outrageous Humbug will be part of Pick of the Fringe which is running from 29 April till 7 May. More information can be found on Downstage's website www.downstage.co.nz or at the Facebook group "Pick of the Fringe". Ticket Prices for each show range from $25 for a full price ticket to $20 for students and Fringe Addict Card holders; a season pass for all three shows is only $60 and can be used on different nights. For bookings call the Downstage box office on (04) 801 6946 or visit www.downstage.co.nz/book