Couch Soup

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Couch Soup is a small festival of one-page plays that started in 1997 in Hamilton, New Zealand, and in 2007 was held in Wellington as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival. Plays are chosen through an open call and are performed with minimal props, using a single couch as the main prop. The festival usually features about 30 one-page plays, performed by four actors (two men and two women) for about an hour. Each play must fit on one side of an A4 page, but the format is flexible; plays can last from under 30 seconds to over two minutes, with about a minute on average. The result is a performance that challenges actors while remaining energetic and accessible. The works are often absurd, satirical, or modest dramas of everyday life, and include comedic and dramatic monologues as well as homages to particular writers. Since 1997, well over a hundred playwrights have contributed.