Late Janu­ary 2020 and the sum­mery weath­er is here. I finally feel like I’m wak­ing up in 2020  – which is a bit awk­ward giv­en I’ve been back at work for a few weeks…but enough about work!  Brace yourselves for a busy the­at­ric­al start to the year. We’ve got three Fest­ivals com­ing our way in the first three months of 2020 along with Sum­mer Shakespeare. 

Posed group photo

That fest­iv­al life starts with the Six Degrees Fest­iv­al on 30 Janu­ary. Mas­ter of Fine Arts stu­dents from Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity of Wel­ling­ton cel­eb­rate their year of learn­ing at BATS Theatre with sev­en diverse per­form­ances. Fea­tur­ing devised and scrip­ted work, the shows include a solo work about the power of women, a prom­en­ade party full of act­ors; a VR immers­ive exper­i­ence and a ver­batim piece about the Napi­er earth­quakes. The stu­dents come from a vari­ety of back­grounds – design­ers, writers, VR makers, pro­du­cers and impro­visers with a range of exper­i­ence in the per­form­ing arts industry. 

Man wearing a pink shirt with a pink flower where his mouth isWel­ling­ton Sum­mer Shakespeare is in the Base­ment Theatre at Te Whaea in New­town from 13 Feb­ru­ary. Fab­ulous Shane Bosh­er is dir­ect­ing A Mid­sum­mer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s most pop­u­lar plays. Young lov­ers, fair­ies and a don­key, oh my. I expect all sorts of phys­ic­al shenanigans and out­rageous scen­ari­os with Bosh­er helm­ing. You’ll be able to keep your energy (and your wits) about you dur­ing this multi-plot play with drinks from the Mock­tail Bar. (Yay! Some­thing to drink that’s not orange juice or lem­on­ade, or orange juice and lem­on­ade.)

NZ Festival logoHot on the donkey’s heels is New Zea­l­and Fest­iv­al of the Arts start­ing 21 Feb­ru­ary. Three weeks of per­form­ance and exhib­i­tion and dis­cus­sion cur­ated by three inter­na­tion­ally renowned per­formers – Lemi Pon­i­fa­sio, Laurie Ander­son, Bret McK­en­zie – and Fest­iv­al Cre­at­ive Dir­ect­or Marnie Karmel­ita. Along­side the tick­eted events there are a bunch of free events (includ­ing Con­cert for Dogs which I still  need to find a dog for.) The Writers events are on for three weeks. Grab a Take Five Pass and save 20% on all $19 Writers ses­sions (sub­ject to avail­ab­il­ity). Pori­rua City will be host­ing Te Ata, a fest­iv­al with­in a fest­iv­al, which “brings togeth­er artists from Aotearoa and around the world to exchange with young New Zeal­anders who wish to take a bold, brave and act­ive role in shap­ing the cul­ture of the place where they live.“ This year’s pro­gram­ming looks damn excit­ing to me.

Wellington Fringe Festival logoThen NZ Fringe kicks off on 28 Feb­ru­ary with a sig­na­ture eclect­ic mix of shows. There’s everything in this fest­iv­al from estab­lished per­formers to first-timers, from award-win­ning over­seas acts to loc­als test­ing new ideas. Top tip – get your­self a Fringe Addict card for $15 to get access to cheap­er-than-cheap tick­ets and bar dis­counts. You nev­er quite know what you’re going to be get­ting with a Fringe show (that’s the charm of it!) but I reck­on a show you love, a show you hate, and a bunch of shows that made you happy, makes a good fest­iv­al.

What are your picks, good friends?