By David Farrier & Angela Beswick
Next Friday some of New Zealand’s biggest stars will assemble to help raise money for Christchurch.
Celebrities including
Outrageous Fortune’s Antony Starr,
Xena’s Lucy Lawless and
Jurassic Park’s Sam Neil will perform the iconic play
Bare to raise funds for the Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal.
At the helm are theatre and No. 2 movie director Toa Fraser and actor Ian Hughes – of Shortland St fame – who got together two days after the earthquake realising they had to do something.
“I got on the phone to my mate Ian Hughes… I said, ‘Let’s chuck on a show, charge a few hundred bucks send it to Christchurch’,” Fraser explains.
The pair managed to pull together some of New Zealand’s top acting and musical talent, along with producers, technicians and designers.
That idea grew into what is now the iconic show Bare, dominating Auckland’s Civic theatre next Friday – March 25 - with a cast full of famous faces.
“I’m so excited that the play I wrote about 13 years ago is now going to be brought to life again with an absolutely incredible cast and for such a good cause,” says Fraser.
Originally performed by just two actors, this rendition, now with a full cast of 17, will feature an iconic line-up that has come together in support of Christchurch.
“We want Christchurch to know that people they don’t know care about them,” says Lawless.
“I just thought it was a good thing, to show that not all Aucklanders were twats,” Starr jokes.
Bare – a play about 15 Kiwis and what makes them tick - premiered in 1998, launching Fraser’s career.
“In Bare we see how our interconnectedness, even though not always immediately obvious, begins to surface when we share our stories and our secrets – a theme that is particularly poignant right now,” says Fraser.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the one-off performance will go to the earthquake appeal.
The full line-up includes Stacey Morrison, Mia Blake, Michael Hurst, Morgana O’Reilly, Ian Hughes, Sara Wiseman, Antony Starr, Ian Mune, David Fane, Curtis Vowell, Bronwyn Turei, Kirk Torrance, Lucy Lawless, Rhys Darby, Annie Whittle, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Sam Neill.
For more information or to purchase tickets visit The EDGE website
3 News