“The world’s most famous boy band, FourEver, is nearly ready to take the stage for their only New Zealand show. All that stands in their way is each other, their fans, the media, and the ghosts of their dodgy past.” Stella Reid directs this Young & Hungry play by Finnius Teppett. In her Director’s note she describes […]
You possibly couldn’t get more Wellington than heading to the theatre, regardless of the weather, to watch a musical about politics. Last week, I went along to Destination Beehive: 2017, written by the clever and witty duo of Lorae Parry and Pinky Agnew. The seat of Tinakori Heights is highly contended this election as every […]
For 24 years Young & Hungry and BATS Theatre have been providing young people with a platform to perform, produce and create great theatre. With the Playwrights’ Initiative producing three new kiwi plays a year and the annual Festival of New Theatre at BATS – Y&H feeds the theatrical hunger and quenches the creative thirst […]
Layered with myth and fable, The Mooncake and the Kūmara is a moving story about a mixed-up, Māori-Chinese love affair that sprouts among rows of potatoes. Told in a mixture of English, Māori and Cantonese, the play is showing in Wellington as part of the Kia Mau Festival. Māori-Chinese playwright Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen talked […]
Told through movement, dance and text, this is a modern statement on climate change, colonisation and Christianity across the Pacific Rim. It’s an untangling of the greatest collision to have affected the Pacific – western imperialism. Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky has various performance times during the mornings. It shows in Tangata Le […]
The Purple Onion peeps into the world of Wellington’s infamous burlesque parlour as part of the Kia Mau Festival. Established in the mid 1960s, the Purple Onion was Wellington’s premiere strip club which attracted some of New Zealand’s social elite as well as its fair share of dubious characters. Combining text, dance and a live funk […]
Riverside Kings opens in Upper Hutt today and plays in BATS Theatre next week as part of the Kia Mau Festival. The creators Sarita So and Natano Keni, describe it as “a physical weaving of brotherhood, nostalgia and change.” Their new company, I Ken So Productions, aims to create, diverse works of a high quality. They […]
Set against the backdrop of 1850’s Russia. Serfs (aka slaves) still work the land under the estate holder’s control. Reform is coming and the country is restless. Rakitin is visiting his friend Arkady at his country estate. Arkady’s wife Natalya is recovering from her illness. Their son Kolya, and their ward Vera, are spending time […]
New Zealand’s only contemporary indigenous theatre and dance event Kia Mau Festival returns to Wellington from Friday 2 – Saturday 24 June. It’s a unique and innovative opportunity for whānau and communities across the Wellington region to engage with today’s tangata whenua and First Nations artists from across the globe. Led by Wellington’s own Māori and Pasifika theatre […]
BATS is bringing the “audacious theatrical experiment“ White Rabbit Red Rabbit to Wellington for a fundraising season. Written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, the play premiered in 2011 and has since been translated into 20 different languages. There are no rehearsals, no director, a different actor each performance, and a script waiting in a sealed […]