One beef role please | Auckland Lifestyle News | Health, Fashion, Food and Wine in Auckland

Jeremy Olds meets a serious student tackling a wacky, absurd play.

After hours of study in the University of Auckland Library, law student Phoebe Mason is releasing her tension on stage.

"I think I would spontaneously combust if I had to study all the time."

Miss Mason plays mum in the production of Cow, one of three plays in Auckland Theatre Company's annual Young and Hungry season.

She describes the characters as "absolutely wacky", and it has been hard to find a person to model her character on.

"The dad thinks he's a cat, the mum's a hyper-housewife and the daughter wants to build a cow out of leaves. My character is a cross between the mum from the movie Requiem for a Dream and the sitcom That 70s Show. It's bizarre."

Assistant director Katrina Wesseling says the play is an absurdist black comedy and much deeper than it appears on the surface.

"A girl, Bess, has this idea to build a cow of leaves and she's really passionate about it, but all these people intrude on her life and tell her she can't do it because it's abnormal and hasn't been done before. It questions who decides what is normal and how institutions and the things you learn shape what you think is normal."

Miss Wesseling, with the Young and Hungry season since it started in 2009, says the cast of 10 works to raise the surrealism, "push it to the extreme and make sense of the nonsensical".

Auckland Theatre Company youth arts co-ordinator Amber McWilliams says Cow embodies what the Young and Hungry season is all about.

"It is a really interesting play that is adventurous, moving and breaks the boundaries of typical theatre."

She says the festival gives young people the chance to be involved in all aspects of professional theatre.

"Participants in the festival have access to directors, mentors and technicians at the top of their game. The whole point is to show young people that theatre is exciting, important and relevant to them."

Cow, Basement Theatre, July 23-August 6.