ORDERS :-
All orders & queries to theplaypress@gmail.com
Cast:- 4m (17 years old)
ISBN 978 1 877319 112
Teachers’ discount $17
RRP $22.50
The Cape
Vivienne Plumb
“I think young men communicate in different ways, but that contact, that camaraderie, is vitally important to them.”
Viv Plumb
The year is 1994. Kurt Cobain is dead; but Eb, Mo, Arthur and Jordyn are seventeen years old, on the road and very much alive. They are making a journey north to the leaping place of the spirits – Cape Reinga. A story about that moment in every young person’s life when they leave the child behind and are forced to accept adulthood.
“They tease each other, fight, argue, take drugs, and ponder life (Why do things change? Why do parents split?). They … fantasise about their futures …”
Dominion Post
“I left the theatre feeling really, really good – about myself, my life and my friends. It’s important to experience theatre like this once in a while, theatre which leaves you feeling satisfied, entertained and, most significantly, happy with your place in life.”
Salient
“Each of the boys has a secret which is revealed along the way … All the rashness, exaggeration, facile sarcasm and fragility of youth is stirred up in the course of this journey.”
Theatreview
“The Cape totally rocked at Circa, and proved that young people plus cool play equals box office success …”
Salient
“… a captivating and heart warming contemplation on culture, life and friendship. Its exploration of kiwi youth and the beautiful and complex ways kiwi males respond to that youth is welcomed …”
Capital Times
“Here I am, a nineties teenager, and here is a show that finally caters to my culturally broad, grunge-loving generation; when P was just a letter and it was still cool to have morals … “
Lumiere Reader
“The Cape ... is about all the journeys we make – mental, metaphorical, physicaland the final spiritual one we are prepared for, or not prepared for.”
Theatreview
Born in Sydney to an Australian father and an NZ mother, Vivienne has published many collections of poetry; a novella, a novel, short story collections, and two other playscripts, Love Knots and Fact or Fiction: Meditations on Mary Finger. Her work has also appeared in numerous N.Z. anthologies.
Love Knots was awarded the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 1993.
She has been the recipient of the Hubert Church Prose Award (Best First Book) and she has held many writing residencies including the Sargeson Fellowship and the University of Iowa International Writing Programme.
“After I wrote my play The Cape people kept asking me how I had been able to imagine the conversations and adventures of a four young guys… One thing I definitely knew from the beginning was that the play would be about four teenage males travelling north on a road trip. Because I’d had a son myself I knew a bit about boys.”
Viv Plumb