Playlunch

Edited by Christine Prentice and Lisa Warrington

First published in 1996 and now updated, this book contains plays by established New Zealand writers that were written for lunchtime theatre. They are informal one-act plays, lasting less than an hour, requiring little in the way of stage equipment and props, and suitable for a wide range of audiences.

Their condensed form gave their authors an opportunity to experiment with scripting and characterisation. Together, they represent a variety of perspectives and performance styles.The plays offered small ‘adventures in theatre’ for the writer, and continue to do so for directors, performers, audiences and readers.

Plays featured in this volume are:

The Private War of Corporal Cooper, John Broughton
The Rosenberg Sisters, Michelanne Forster
An Illustrated Death of Eddie Fivetrees, Simon O’Connor
Tiggy Tiggy Touch Wood, Renee
Chook Chook, Fiona Farrell

The editors

Christine Prentice is a senior lecturer in the English Department at the University of Otago, specialising in New Zealand literature, postcolonial literatures and theory, cultural studies and theory, and indigenous literatures in English.

Lisa Warrington is an Associate Professor in the Theatre Studies Programme, University of Otago. She directed some of the plays in this collection.