Women Drinking Hemlock

We are Koneizaomenai- a new theatre company putting on a brand-new play: Women Drinking Hemlock. It’s a fantastic sitcom-style comedy about two rival breweries, complete with humour and hijinks, and a dash of romance. We’re trying to raise $2,500 to be able to put this on for Fringe.

Our creative team is made entirely of new and emerging theatre practitioners, consisting of:

Sacha Acland, Writer and Co-producer (no preference)

Sam Lusty, Co-producer (She/they)

Bee Wilson-Kilby, Director (they/them)

Micah Nicolson, Stage Manager (he/him) 

Helen Oliver, Designer (she/her)

Charlie Hann, Assistant Producer (they/he)

Teddy O’Neill, Lighting Designer + Operator (he/xe). 

Our play is a new feminist comedy about two rival breweries. Written by first-time playwright Sacha Acland, this project supports many young and emerging theatre practitioners and tells a story relevant to Pōneke Wellington and Aotearoa New Zealand. The comedy is set in Wellington, and touches on themes such as the drinking culture in New Zealand and gender stereotypes in the hospitality industry.

The play starts with Maven and her best friend Freddy opening up a new brewery. Unfortunately, this move inadvertently peeves off their competitor across the road, a not-very-nice chap called Archie, who happens to think that women have no place in the world of beer. 

While Maven and her team deal with the teething problems of starting a business, including incompetent new hires, a frustrating lack of customers, and an awkward budding flirtation between Maven and the bartender Elle, the boys across the road cause relentless chaos in various attempts at sabotage.

Why should you back us?

Women Drinking Hemlock is a queer feminist play, which is directed at women and the queer community. We think this is very important, especially as the play includes incidental queer characters and queer romance. Queer plays, especially comedies, that are not just about queerness as an identity are less common than they should be, so Women Drinking Hemlock is filling an important niche in providing this. 

Additionally, all of the creative team for Women Drinking Hemlock are emerging Wellingtonian theatre practitioners whose involvement in this play is an unparalleled learning opportunity. Our playwright, Sacha Acland, and many of our team are under 25. Young voices, especially those from marginalised identities, are an important part of Wellington’s theatre scene and need funding so that they can be properly represented. Members of our team have already distinguished themselves as leaders and theatre practitioners within the University and will only continue to do so in professional theatre.  An investment in Women Drinking Hemlock is an investment in the future of diverse Wellingtonian theatre.

Also, it's a really funny play! Promise.

Where's the money going?

Most money from this campaign will go directly into supporting our crew and creatives. Artist sustainability is very important to us, and as a new theatre company, it's very difficult for us to pay our team fairly. We're very grateful to everyone who's worked on this project and we want to be able to compensate them for their time in some way.

$1000 will go towards marketing- graphic design (by the fantastic Callum Ma), printing and putting up posters, designing and printing programmes (including braille ones), photography, etc. A further $700 will go towards some admin costs- script printing, providing concession tickets for people who couldn't otherwise go to the play, and venue hire.

The rest goes directly to our cast and crew! We couldn't do this without them and we want to support them as much as we can in this.