Hire purchase, lay-by, credit cards, and overdrafts - all in a days work for Generation Y.  After a successful premiere season at Cross Street Studios last month as part of the Auckland Fringe, The Basement brings back The Needies for 5 nights 21st - 25th April. 

The Needies charts the downfall of three flatmates and their insatiable appetites for everything consumerist. The Needies by Thomas Sainsbury, was the first work written during his sojourn to London where he recently wrote, directed and produced a comic thriller A Simple Procedure, performed on the Pleasance Islington stage last month.

The Needies toys with ideas of consumerism - how twenty-somethings have become accustomed to living their lives outside their means leading to amounting debts, which they tend to ignore. The play makes use of Thomas Sainsbury’s fantastically dark and comedic sense of humour, using strong imaginative content to tease the audience.

Sainsbury is no stranger to the Auckland theatre scene, and has gained a reputation as a talented and prolific young playwright. His past work includes Caustic, The Feminine, The Mall, LUV, Gas, Loser and horror-play Beast.  Sian Robertson from Theatreview stated: "to say Thomas Sainsbury is an exciting new talent in New Zealand theatre is an understatement. He's the most challenging, down-to-earth, funny and refreshingly unsettling playwright/director I've come across in years.”

The play stars Isla Adamson, Roberto Nascimento and Blake Fraser. Roberto is an actor and producer, with previous experience in fringe theatre in Brazil, where he was born and raised. Blake, an actor, producer and filmmaker, has been a finalist in a recent short films competition. Isla, a recent UNITEC acting graduate has featured in Auckland Theatre Company’s Shrew’d, The Silo Theatre’s Threepenny Opera, and recently performed and devised the popular Auckland Fringe show Ruby Tuesday.

Abigail Greenwood is fresh from her directorial debut of The Height of the Eiffel Tower by Morgana O’Reilly - a hit in the Auckland Fringe - she now directs the cast of The Needies.