Corey Spence
Image Description: A planner open with the phrase "THE ADULTS ARE TALKING" written and encircled. Beside it are a half-eaten banana, scrunched-up piece of paper, and a refill pad with the phrase "ON TODAY'S AGENDA: 12/05/02" written across it. A dirty coffee mug has had its contents spilled over the refill. An unironed white sheet is visible underneath these objects.
Nestled within BATS Theatre’ Studio is the intimate production of Squash Co. Productions’ The Adults are Talking, where the audience takes on roles as COMM121 students at Victoria University of Wellington in 2002. The tutor (Dennis Eir Lim) briefs us on our ‘assignment’ and we enter, sitting at a round table (courtesy of Ben Purdie, the scenographer, and Jack McGee, co-scenographer). What follows is a 40-minute political farce between a rather fractured Students Association; president Sasha Curtis (Phoebe Caldeiro) is desperately trying to manage her position, her safety, and arguably her sanity, while her male collaborators (if you could call them that) seem thoroughly uninteresting in anything that isn’t partying disguised as ‘student wellbeing’. She has the support of Amy Mills (Anna Barker), who, in contrast to Sasha, makes her disgust and disappointment in the rest of the team very bluntly known.
