The Lunch Hour

(2012)

THE LUNCH HOUR is Chris Aronsten's full-length follow up to HUMAN RESOURCES and is every bit as ambitious, dark and hilarious.  This dark contemporary comedy is about what we all do to get through the day - the distractions we create and the games that we play.  We recognise that sometimes the hardest part about starting or finishing anything in life is being ready. …

 

Darlinghurst Theatre - September 7th - October 7th, 2012  

 

“This script is overtly innovative, multi-layered, jagged and crunched… not surprisingly Gaul's direction is confidant and thorough, and in this instance the action is very pacey and emotions high-pitched with an energetic and energised cast…it's a fun, smart, edgy…Indie gig”.   James Waites

 

SIX STRUGGLING ARTISTS

ONE CALL CENTRE..... 

 

A bunch of co-workers are secretly writing a play about Martin, their boss - and nemesis - in the hope of winning a playwriting competition.  But Martin has penned his own play about his dysfunctional staff and their thwarted lived, whch he leaves on their desks as a parting gift and wake up call.

 

See the teaser here: http://youtu.be/_FGZU_5c3Ss

 

CAST:

 

ANGELA BAUER

BRANDEN CHRISTINE

BRIALLEN CLARKE

BALI PADDA

SHAUN RENNIE 

GERRY SONT

SONNY VREBEC 

 

 

Director: by Kate Gaul 

Designer: Charli Dugdale 

Lighting Designer: Luiz Pampolha 

Composer/Arranger: Daryl Wallis 

Choreography: Kirby Burgess and Ash Bee

Fight Choreographer: Diego Retamales 

Assistant Director : Liz Arday

Observer: Elizabeth Gibney

Stage Manager: Elizabeth Rogers 

 

Chris Aronsten - WRITER 

 

 Chris is a graduate of the AFTRS (BA, Screenwriting) and the NIDA playwriting studio. His short film, Call Waiting, won the Best Screenplay Award at the 1998 British Short Film Festival. His television credits include Going Home (SBS) David Tench Tonight (Ten) and Comedy Inc. – The Late Shift (Nine). Between 2005 and 2007 Chris wrote a satirical advice column for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2005, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to research writers' theatres in the UK, Ireland and the USA. In 2006, his play Human Resources was staged at the Darlinghurst Theatre (Siren Theatre Co, directed by Kate Gaul) and was shortlisted for both the Premier's Literary Award and the Philip Parsons Young Playwright's Award. Human Resources was also staged at the Dog Theatre, Footscray in 2009 (Act-o-matic 3000, directed by Matt Scholten). Chris is currently in the final stages of development of his screenplay, Cargo.

 

 “THE LUNCH HOUR by Chris Aronsten is a wildly ambitious play. It begins as pell mell farce with characters, initially perceived as possible satiric types that move into the second act of the work to a dark psychological critique of a most challenging kind, to finally launch into one of the bleakest music theatre climaxes that I have seen since the last production of Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS”

Kevin Jackson’s Theatre Diary

 

 

THE LUNCH HOUR production photography by Alex Vaughan