patrick

patrick graham graduated in 2005 from the University of Auckland with a masters of Creative and Performing arts. As part of his masters degree patrick directed a production of Georg Buchner's Woyzeck at the Musgrove Studio theatre, which is part of the Maidment theatre in Auckland, to critical acclaim.
Woyzeck by Georg Buchner, directed by Patrick Graham at The Maidment Studio Theatre 27 May – 5 June 2004. Review by Raewyn Alexander.
"Graham has daringly directed the actors towards the grotesque and unexpected, yet elements like plain costumes pull the experience down to basics. The results are tense with room to imagine more, a clever move to pare everything else back with such strong deliveries."
Prior to that patrick gained an undergraduate degree from Unitec School Performing and Screen majoring in writing for live performance.
Patrick has worked in the field of theatre as a writer director and actor. Most notably he directed the 2006 production of the University of Auckland's Outdoor Summer Shakespeare The Comedy of Errors.
Summer Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors at Auckland University Quad New Zealand Herald 13.02.06. Reviewed by Paul Semi-Barton
"By dealing with a little known work, the director is liberated from the constraints that accompany more revered texts and Patrick Graham makes the most of the chance by conjuring up a dreamlike space where Kiwiana meets Monty Python… "
Comedy of Errors: Fred Drag does Shakespeare! 24FEB06 - Chris Banks GayNZ.com
"There's something about the outdoor summer evening atmosphere and setting that allows a director to really go to town with material like this, and go to town Graham has, crafting a version of the play that manages to be absurdist, energetic, innovative and rib-tickling…"
Patrick has had scripts performed at the Silo theatre(2001) and the Wellington Fringe festival. Recently his script Lost Girls was a finalist in Smakbang Theatre company's PlayWright competition held at the Herald Theatre. Patrick was also dabbled in the medium of film two of his short films having been part of festivals. His short films Stag Night (1997) and Welcome Home (1999) have won several student film awards. Welcome Home has been screened as part of Outakes Film Festival and a Horror festival in Sydney. His latest production iS - an existential musical comedy received critical praise for the recent season at the Herald Theatre.
"In every aspect of the production of iS, there is something beautiful and something unsettling.... it is also a groundbreaking and genre-defying work filled with possibilities. Truly theatre for young people, iS is also Patrick Graham's best work to date, and bodes well for his future as a writer and director. " Kathryn Van Beek www. theatreview.or.nz
His latest play lost Girls toured to this years Wellington Fringe Festival garnering praise for it’s brutally frank telling of three young women who are abducted and murdered.
Remembering Lost Girls
What a great play! The three actresses in this play, Lost Girls, do a great job of portraying three different girls during the day before they all went missing. Brought to mind a few big news stories of years ago of certain young girls who had been taken by someone unknown Mike Norman from fringe.org.nz
“Lost Girls is a play with a message: 'we need to look out for ourselves and each other'.… a worthy play..”
Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson, 3 Mar 2007 originally published in The Dominion Post
Lost Girls has also toured to The Herald theatre in Auckland.
reviews for my recent play iS
as well as a few slideshows of images... more will be uploaded soon
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------iS—An Existential Musical Comedy: Review ,p Existential, musical and comedy. I was hoping that playwright Patrick Graham had simply devised a dumb name for his new work.
These three words, when put together in the title of a play, as they are in Graham’s iS—An Existential Musical Comedy—would seem to indicate one of two things: an inspired and entertaining evening at the theatre, or a couple of hours suffering through dull, try-hard rubbish.
The set is the first sign things are going to be okay; it’s a luscious mish-mash of everything you would expect to find in a regular Grey Lynn flat: cluttered bench, sinkful of mucky brown water, bottles of Bombay, sparkly cushions on a sheet-covered sofa. You get the picture.
Thankfully, it’s not just the environment that is identifiable; it’s also the central themes of friendship, sexuality, identity and safety that really resonate.
Issy (Madeleine Hyland) lives with gay Josh (Xavier Hornblow) and goth Jordan (Eve Gordon) and their talking stereo (Nisha Madhan). She gets sucked in to doing a solo show under the direction of pushy and moral-free Joan (Kirsty Hamilton).
When the graphic and disturbing script begins to turn Issy into a self-hating wreck, her flatties are there to variously support and unwittingly undermine her, having their own mini crises about love, looks and sexuality along the way.
Although the play suffers from slight clumsiness at times (note to Hornblow and Gordon: please don’t forget how important it is to deliver your lines clearly, even if you are wearing a mic), this is also what makes it so enjoyable.
Neither the characters nor the actors take themselves too seriously and Graham has treated some of life’s more delicate and tricky problems with humorous sensitivity, couching them in hilariously raucous songs.
The funniest number is also the most morbid: a rousing and joyous gospel song with the single lyric, “I hate myself and I wanna die.”
The actors have a warm chemistry and neatly encapsulate the unique dynamic of a group of young creative types finding their way in a grotty Grey Lynn flat.
As it turns out, Graham has named his play exactly for what it is. It’s funny, there’s plenty of music and it certainly deals with aspects of existence most of us can find within our own lives.
Well worth seeing for an evening of inspiring entertainment.
Lydia Chamberlain
Story from VIEWAUCKLAND.CO.NZ: http://www.viewauckland.co.nz/is_an_existential_musical_come dy_review_auckland_herald_theatre.html© ViewAuckland.co.nz 2006
GROUNDBREAKING AND GENRE-DEFYING iS
Director/Writer: patrick graham
at Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, The Edge, Auckland Until 25 Nov 2006
Reviewed by Kathryn van Beek, 23 Nov 2006
In every aspect of the production of iS, there is something beautiful and something unsettling. Depending on your viewpoint this is either a distraction, or proof that iS truly is a work of art.
Writer/director Patrick Graham has successfully created a world for his characters to inhabit. From the quirky set and costumes to the often hilarious songs that accompany the performance, each detail is distinctly iS.
The walls are beautifully painted with Misery-esque figures by artist Marie Kyle. The bright clutter that fills the rest of the stage is a welcome antidote to the pared-back deign that currently seems so fashionable in theatre.
From our first glimpse of the set and the shock of the opening song, which warns "don't expect a three-act structure", we know that iS is going to be something different.
Themes of longing, depression and the barren emotional landscape of modern life are played out against the backdrop of the central character's breakdown. Anyone who has read 'Crave' by Sarah Kane may be interested in how an actor might react to rehearsing such an intense piece, and in iS, vulnerable young drama school graduate Issy (Madeline Hyland) takes the dark themes too much to heart. Her plight isn't helped by the irresponsible director Joan (Kirsty Hamilton), who believes that great theatre can only spring from cruelty, and actively assists Issy's gradual loss of identity.
There is a warmth beneath the dark themes which is well communicated by the engaging actors. The raw, cringingly clingy Jordan (Eve Gordan) and the endearing Joshua (Xavier Hornblow) who goes into way too much detail about his sex life, are both achingly real. Kirsty Hamilton really gets to shine as the deranged Joan in some great scenes in the latter half of the play, notably the 'seduction' scene.
Through the madness it is ironically the damaged Issy who grounds the action. Hyland's convincing performance and outstanding singing voice are highlights of the show. (Another highlight is 'the radio', played by the very talented Nisha Madhan.)
Although iS has its flaws, it is also a groundbreaking and genre-defying work filled with possibilities. Truly theatre for young people, iS is also Patrick Graham's best work to date, and bodes well for his future as a writer and director.
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