The Triumphants

Director - Abigail Greenwood
Producer - Celery Productions
Performers - Renee Lyons and Aidee Walker
Writers - Renee Lyons and Thomas Sainsbury

Q Loft, 9-18th August.

Two actors, two solo plays, two incredible stories directed by Abigail Greenwood (Young and Hungry COW, Height of the Eiffel Tower, Chalk), ...And Then You Die and Nick.

...And Then You Die is the darkly comic tale of the naïve, sweet Debbie Le Valient by award-winning New Zealand playwright Tom Sainsbury (Dance Troupe Supreme, Super City). Debbie (Aidee Walker, Outrageous Fortune’s TV Villain ‘Draska’, Nothing Trivial) wants the perfect life. A nice home, husband, children, beautiful body and loads of friends. But lonely Debbie only works at a humble shoe store. And friends, boyfriends and a family? Forget about it.

Debbie also has a voice in her head constantly reminding her what a useless waste of space she is, especially when she binge eats. Which is basically all the time. And then one day, Debbie snaps and decides to take what she wants from life. Husband, home and a great job, here Debbie comes! And who cares if there’s a little bloodshed along the way. Life’s a bitch and then you die? Maybe it’s time for Debbie to be that bitch.

Brought to life by Renee Lyons (Joseph and Mahina,Toys, Super City) and based on inspiring true events Nick follows one of Dunedin’s local heroes, sportsman Nick Chisholm. After enduring a major stroke on the rugby field in 2000 Nick went from adrenalin junkie to 22 months confined to a hospital bed. He had a condition known in the medical world as ‘Locked in Syndrome’, described by those who have experienced it as‘pure hell’. Unable to move or speak Nick experienced unbelievable frustration while those around him believed him to be brain dead. In the years to follow Nick learnt the hard way who his friends were and what really mattered in life.

Nick is a deeply moving and often hilarious story about this man and the people who have shaped his world - for better or for worse. It is a tale of triumph over adversity, of friendship and of love.

Inspirational, heart-warming, black and hilarious, The Triumphants is a celebration of the power of the human spirit to find joy in dark places.