Nuclear Family

Written by: Desiree Gezentsvey
Directed by: James Hadley
Circa Two
24 July − 04 August

Divided we fall apart, united we might blow up.

Winner of the 2011 Moondance International Fesitval Atlantis Award for Best Stageplay (Script), Nuclear Family features New Zealand actor Yael Gezentsvey in a tour-de-force performance as she takes on twelve multi-cultural characters in this riveting solo-show written 'with heart, tragedy and a fair balance of true comedy' by New Zealand playwright Desiree Gezentsvey.

Set in green New Zealand on the eve of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, Nuclear Family is a comedic drama that illuminates the journeys of a colourful bunch of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union and Venezuela as they swing between the shocks of delights of their new lives. If only Abi's in-laws could get out of the Soviet Union and be reunited with their family, she just might stop longing for her own in Venezuela. And if shrewd old Babushka could get her granddaughter Zina to sort out her own life instead of trying to manipulate everyone else's, she would fulfil a promise she once made. Longing to belong in this upside-down world of Kiwis and other quirky immigrants, they struggle with the realisation that although the grass is definitely greener on the free side, the fence is still there, and their loved ones are on the other side. Are freedom and control over one's destiny only illusions?

Nuclear Family premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2011, followed by the London Solo Festival 2011, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011, Etcetra Theatre London 2011 and Norden Farm Centre for the Arts 2012.

For more information, please visit the Nuclear Family website: http://nuclearfamily.co.nz/