Following on from their sell-out season of Hippolytus Veiled, Theatrewhack present Patrick Graham's 'Lost Girls'...

Three young women wait in a room. They are guided through their final days by a mysterious Usher until they understand what has happened to them.

Developed following a series of brutal murders of young women in New Zealand in the late 90s, Lost Girls is the examination of the final memories of three young women (6, 16 and 18 years of age).

This new staging stars

Prema Cottingham (The Rover, Defensibility, Great Bellied Women),

Courtney Eggleton (The Seven Year Itch, The rover, End of the Golden Weather),

Renee Brierley (The Priory, Stella, Conversations of Karangahape Rd),

Turene Jones (Stage of Fools, The Shannara Chronicles, Mystery Play),

and is directed by Mark Oughton in his New Zealand directorial debut.

The play was performed in Wellington and Auckland in 2007 and 2013. This new production was initiated because of the prevalence of rape culture and rape apologists in social media, and as a reaction to recent rape cases such as Steubenville, the defending of sports personalities who are violent towards women, and the current national campaigns to reduce violence in families and relationships. 

The play is presented in a non-traditional format, and while it doesn’t give a naturalistic view of these girl’s last moments on earth - it does not have an easy ending. The play hopes to provoke the audience and leave people questioning their own moral compass.

Rehearsal stills from 2013 show
https://www.facebook.com/Theatrewhack/photos/?tab=album&album_id=484991588261928

Blog reviews of the 2013 show:
“Lost Girls has a point to make and it makes it in an uncompromising and brutal fashion. Not brutal like a bash on the head, but brutal as in a growing realisation that this is something we really need to collectively do something about. If our conscience had a guts this would be a necessary good swift kick in it.”
dykiegirl.wordpress

“I’m sure I’m not the only person in the room who felt a connection to the characters – the acting was superb, the story so believable. There were times when I laughed and times when the breath caught in my throat, as the tales of everyday life led to the unfortunate and heart-wrenching conclusion. The performances were haunting, and I left feeling a little shaken, but I have to say that this is a must see!”
thisismegankerr.com

“The actors perform well and in some cases with frightening or deeply touching results, a few times I was truly absorbed as if they were people I knew. The programme carries a warning about the end, and I was horrified, crying at one point. The play may have triggers for some people, but Lost Girls expertly shows what has happened to far too many people, particularly young women in vulnerable states, and the bewildering effects of neglect, abuse, isolation and the horror that drawing a veneer of faux-decency over crime inevitably produces.”
poeticjourneytoamerica.blogspot