Put reality out of your mind.

A surreal cocktail of light, sound and mask where the stage is everywhere and the audience is the action. With the shifting logic of a dream, Binge Culture mix deadpan humour and reckless improvisation while “taking audience participation to a whole new level (Capital Times).”

Surprising, absurd and immediate, Wake Less is investigation of our need for entertainment as escape and the people employed to provide it.


From the risk-taking company that brought you Drowning Bird, Plummeting Fish; Animal Hour and This Rugged Beauty, Binge Culture Collective continue their trademark deadpan, playfully chaotic style in this dangerous two-hander.


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Devised by Binge Culture Collective: performance by Simon Haren and Isobel MacKinnon, lighting by Marcus McShane, music and sound by Stephanie Cairns, and audio visuals by Johann Nortje and Angus Woodhams of Interrupt Collective. Dramaturgy by Ralph Upton. Directed by Joel Baxendale.

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Part of STAB 2011: commissioned by BATS Theatre with funding from Creative New Zealand. STAB originated in 1995 from BATS Theatre’s desire to initiate a commission that allowed theatre artists to experiment in a supportive environment. The STAB commission is an essential part of the BATS annual programme and can be accessed by all performance media: dance, theatre, opera, music, film, interactive media and magic! 

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WAKE LESS
By Binge Culture Collective

next shows at 
New Performance Festival 
THE EDGE, Auckland
24-25 February

Bookings here

An adaptation of Shakespeare's narrative poem "The Rape of Lucrece"


Text by William Shakespeare
Text Adaptation and Direction by Fiona McNamara
Produced by Binge Culture Collective

Film by Fern Karun
Performed by Ally Garrett (MINGE) and Isobel McKinnon (WAKE LESS)
Music by Gareth Hobbs (This Rugged Beauty)
Costume by Josephine Hall (MINGE)





Toi Poneke Gallery, Abel Smith Street, Wellington
Thursday 19 April - Saturday 12 May 2012

The Rape of Lucrece is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s narrative poem, combining audio-visual installation with live performance. Two courageous women re-tell this story in a performative installation that explores the role of the female body in live performance and reclaims Lucrece’s story for women. 

Binge Culture’s previous work has been described as “more a performance art installation than a play” (Theatreview) and this innovative work moves the collective into a gallery space for the first time. It marks a new direction for the award winning company, known for their image-based devised performances, using a classic text as a starting point. 

The Great New Zealand Story. Join as we journey through triumph and despair, victory and disaster, wild storms and sunburnt summers…

A young couple return to a desolate  beach to confront a terrible secret. A pair of “golden days” museum exhibits rebel against the stories they are meant to tell. A friendly little man quietly invokes a childhood which, if we haven’t directly experienced, we’ve certainly seen advertised by tip-top. Somewhere, outside the theatre, a pod of whales moves dangerously close to shore…

This Rugged Beauty is a huge, doomed ad for New Zealand, a hymn to childhood, and a sharp parody of attempts to sum up and sell our nation.  As it leads towards its interactive, bold climax, This Rugged Beauty tip-toes on a knife-edge between real longing and targeted marketing, between emotional truth and blatant manipulation.

This Rugged Beauty is a warm, innovative, immersive experience which playfully speaks to our nostalgia and longing for childhood, while interrogating the way our national identity is constructed and commercialised.

Nominated for "Most Original Production" at the 2011 Chapman Tripp Wellington Theatre Awards.


First presented as part of NZ Fringe 2011 with support from Creative New Zealand and in partnership with the VUW Theatre Programme.

With Rachel Baker, Joel Baxendale, Simon Haren, Claire O'Loughlin and Eli Kent.
Designed by Kattral Lee, Jessica Sweden, Gareth Hobbs and Andrew Simpson.
Publicist: Fiona McNamara. Production Manager: Kate Clarkin. Directed by Ralph Upton. Produced by Rose Guise. 
 
"As an audience member my imagination was engaged in a totally surprising and unique way. It was impossible to view the work passively – I was drawn into the piece as an active participant in a way that was genuinely moving. “This Rugged Beauty” somehow managed to embrace and subvert all the cliches of being a Kiwi, in a way that provoked feelings of national pride and nostalgia – cultural cringe has never been so entertaining. It was a challenging, dynamic experience and (in the way the site was used specifically) often delightful."
Martyn Wood, BATS Theatre

"What I like with this company and this work is the active sense of an intelligence at work. You can feel the company actively searching for content that resonates; and us in the audience alongside them searching in response. It’s a while since I've felt this so immediately in the professional theatre. Add to that beautifully  modulated performances and the sense that we are “live ‘ is truly captivating.”
-Christian Penny, Toi Whakaari