A Relatively Uneventful Evening, written by Kiwi playwright George Arthur, opens at Arrowtown’s Athenaeum Hall next Thursday, and promises to be anything but.
The play tells the story of a group of highly-dysfunctional friends invited to a dinner party to celebrate the publication of Eleanor’s (Janey Bytheway) first book.
Following are are various disagreements, a sudden death, an attempted cover-up, a poorly-timed mechanic, chaos, panic, twists and turns.
"It’s this upper-middle class group of friends who’ve got to the stage in life where many of us want to be, but at the end of the day they’re all just a bunch of ... teenagers with hormones playing adults," Bytheway says.
To her mind, the other lead female characters — Kim (Dana Hamilton) and Addison (Victoria Mills) — show different facets of women.
"The way I see it, Kim is all hippy-dippy and free, and very sensual, and Addison is very organised and in charge and ... assertive and very structured.
"So it’s like how we pull those two sides of ourselves to become someone in between."
Bytheway’s lived in Queenstown 13 years, but only got into community theatre in 2019 when she was cast for Showbiz Queenstown’s Legally Blonde — which was ultimately postponed till 2021.
She’s since done three more Showbiz shows, and one for Cromwell’s Fine Thyme Theatre Company, while this will be her first for Remarkable Theatre.
"It’s definitely the funniest show I’ve been in, for sure.
"It’s hilarious ... it’s very fast-paced, very quick; people’s heads are going to be spinning."
Bytheway says it’s great to be part of another community theatre project, and reckons anyone who’s ever thought about getting involved should give it a go.
"Community theatre is such a wonderful place to be — I actually have made best friends from it."
Remarkable Theatre’s enlisted the talents of stage and screen actor and director Jay Simon to direct their adaptation, which runs till September 14.
Tickets are available via Eventfinda.
