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Free Theatre Christchurch invites you to a House of Illusions. Inside, live music is performed by a pianist and cellist as actors tango together.

Between dances and songs, the actors move to dressing areas at the edge of the stage, and prepare for a series of performances, given for the audience and for each other.

A bishop hears the confession of a young penitent, and gives penance. A judge hears the testimony of a thief, who is consequently punished by an ominous masked figure. A camp commandant trains his “horse” – a young woman who must be disciplined and put through her paces. A woman sings soulfully in remembrance of times past. The thief sings for the camp commandant, and in reward is given the head of her torturer in a box…

This is DISTRACTION CAMP, the acclaimed follow-up production to Free Theatre Christchurch’s award-winning FAUST CHROMA (Montana Award Nominee for Most Original Production at the 2009 Chapman Tripp Awards).

Directed by Peter Falkenberg, DISTRACTION CAMP pays homage to Hamlet, The Balcony, films such as The Night Porter, The Tango Lesson and Frida, and the sentimentality and brutality of Argentine tango. 

“Unlike any other show you’ll see this year”

Steph Walker, Programme Manager, BATS Theatre

“Distraction Camp, Free Theatre's latest production, has at its heart a delicious contradiction whereby sensuous, bizarre, exotic and theatrical images uncover an arid, soulless world.”

Alan Scott The Press, December 2009.