New Zealand Gothic has always had a presence on the margins of New Zealand culture making regular appearances in our art, literature and music.
Bill Hammond’s paintings were infused with a Gothic brooding and there are other artists like Ronnie Van Hout who for a long time milked debased Gothic tropes and channelled impulses from other side and there are others like Seraphine Pick and Tony De Lautour.
Recently Jason Greig, one of the great Gothic artists the country has produced has had shows of his work at Wellington City Gallery, The Dowse and the Christchurch City Art Gallery bringing the Gothic images in exquisite chiaroscuro of brooding Heathcliff-like figures, ethereal women, and the grim reaper to new audiences.
With the publication of the book which accompanies his Christchurch show Blood Is Thicker, his images of Gothic shadows, werewolves and Old Masters collide.
Jason Greig, Viking U-Boat (Lemmy)
In this darkly luminous survey, Greig’s monoprints and paintings audiences were introduced to their ancestors – Goya, Redon, Kollwitz, Doré, Rops revealing a gothic lineage where printer’s ink flows like blood through art history’s veins.
Greig has long been the romantic, old soul of New Zealand art—a maker of haunted worlds and summoner of inner demons, both mythic and human. His work feels conjured from another century, yet belongs utterly to this one: a world where Lemmy from Motörhead sits comfortably alongside the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe.
The book also charts the tumultuous times of Greig facing his addictions and demons, periods in his life which are mirrored in his art of darkness and shadowy figures. These were times when he identifies with the characters of Robert Louis Stevensons “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mt Hyde”. As he says of his own road to rehabilitation, reading the book helped him gain insights into his own condition.
“I get the book and I start reading it, and this time it all makes sense because I’m taking it really personally was overwhelming, you know, this story about duality, and the duality is multi-layered in itself-good versus evil.”
The writers By Chelsea Nichols and Aaron Lister have spoken about the background to their writing the book. “There was a really important moment for us during Occulture: The Dark Arts, an exhibition Aaron curated at City Gallery Wellington in 2017, which included Jason Greig’s extraordinary series Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Chelsea was in the audience when Aaron and Jason gave a raw and deeply personal conversation about the battle between light and dark that exists in all of us. Blame it on the occult atmosphere of the exhibition, but in that moment she had a strange premonition that one day the three of us would work together on something much bigger.”
“It took almost a decade for the stars — or perhaps the dark forces — to align. The exhibition was originally intended for City Gallery Wellington, but the closure of Civic Square meant it eventually found its home at The Dowse. In hindsight, that turned out to be a gift. The project became much richer because it was shaped by two institutions, two curators, and one shared obsession with Jason’s work. Looking back, it feels less like we chose this project than that it had been patiently waiting for the three of us to catch up.”
“People often imagine Aotearoa art standing in bright, clear light, gazing thoughtfully at majestic mountains. But that’s only half the story. The other half has always been taking place in the shadows behind the shed, beyond the edge of town or just out of sight. Tony Fomison understood that saints and derelicts often wore the same face. Today, a new generation of artists in Aotearoa is pushing that lineage in multiple unexpected directions. Most count Jason Greig as a touchstone. We’ve always produced artists willing to confront death, violence, desire and the uncanny. Jason Greig stands firmly at the bleeding heart of that tradition.”
“This Must Be the Island” is an extraordinary book – part conversation, part visual diary, part poetry book and an exploration of artistic motivation.
The book follows the poet-artists John Puhiatau Pule and Gregory O’Brien from 2010 as they embark on a voyage of artmaking and travel around the South Pacific, making collaborative etchings, corresponding, writing poetry and immersing themselves in Moana Oceania.
The two artists enjoy and respond to each other’s visions with O’Brien noting “There is an incredible energy, vitality and momentum in John’s poetry and painting. I am in awe of it, rather than being exactly ‘influenced’ or directly affected by it. John is certainly a wise, knowledgeable person to travel with — particularly in the Pacific. One is lifted up.”
Sixteen years on, their collaboration continues to yield a mixture of dreams, memories and a pervasive sense of the joy and wonder of being alive in this part of the world. This Must Be the Island — Liga Hanai e Motu is the story of their creative friendship and an art project as expansive and all-encompassing as the Pacific.
In this diary they write about the mundane events of their daily lives, discoveries and their commitment to exploring their own lives, their writing and their art.
So, the book is a mixture of their drawings, etching and poetry and writings, creating a tapestry of the simple and the profound as they reflect on their journeys, art influences, the practicality of their project.
They also reflect on the 2011 expedition when they were part of a nine artist contingent artists including Phil Dadson, John Reynolds, Elizabeth Thomson and Robin White which voyaged, on the HMNZS Otago, through the subtropical Kermadec region, one of the few remaining near-pristine ocean sites on the planet.
The works they produced in response utilise an abundance of materials, methods, and ideas sourced from Pacific handcrafts, poetry, waiata, jewellery, maritime painting traditions, and scientific photography.
Gregory O’Brien and John Puhiatau Pule
The book has letters from the artists to each other as well as poems by each of them as well as collaborative poems. There are also a number of illustrations taken from each from the artist’s notebooks which add to the rich tapestry of ideas and reflections.
The book reveals an intriguing and complex dialogue between the two creative minds exploring the Pacific and their interconnected responses to their friendship and journeys.
Reflecting on the genesis and the development of the book O’Brien says “the shape of John’s and my book was entirely determined by the etchings we have made together. There are over 70 reproduced in the book. Once these collaborative images were in place, we both had a strong sense of other materials that would be drawn into the book. Firstly, there were the poems we had written together or separately during the period. Then there were the visual journals which we both keep all the time — those journals wanted to be part of our conversation too.”
“The last component in the book to fall into place was the correspondence, most of it in email form. We have written thousands of emails backwards and forwards. I started reading my way through them (yes, you’re right, I sensibly hadn’t deleted any of them). I soon realised that they told the story of our friendship and our creative work together. And they also tracked our movements — the many places we have been together over the past 16 years: Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Niue, Raoul Island, Tonga, Rapanui, Chile . . .”
The story of tapa across the Pacific – art, dress, culture and curation.
By Nina Tonga, Rachel Yates and Sean Mallon
Te Papa Press
RRP $95.00
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Tapa has a history spanning over 2,000 years across the Pacific, originating with early Polynesian and Lapita settlers who carried the knowledge and plant species mainly the mulberry tree across the Pacific.
The various Pacific, communities developed distinct regional traditions and terminology for barkcloth creating beautiful and functional tapa cloth from the inner bark of a range of tropical trees. It’s known by many names across the Pacific – aute in Aotearoa, siapo in Sāmoa, ngatu in Tonga, masi in Fiji, hiapo in Niue, ‘ahu in Tahiti, and kapa in Hawai‘i. It’s used for mats, clothing, hats, paintings, telling stories, and for Pacific peoples living in Aotearoa, observing the customs of their home islands.
Maile Andrade, Wauke dyed with palapalai fern, ‘ukiuki” berries, olena, hau flower, ma’o flower, noni
Tapa creation is deeply tied to women’s art, knowledge, and social status, passed down through familial bloodlines. Historically used for everyday clothing and bedding, tapa evolved into monumental display pieces and sacred items for weddings, funerals, births, and royal ceremonies.
The introduction of European cotton, combined with the influence of Christian missionaries in the 19th century, led to a steep decline in some Pacific communities
European travellers and scientists began recording examples of tapa from the time of Cooks’ voyages with one of the first publications being Alexander Shaw’s A Catalogue of the Different Specimens of Cloth collected in the Three Voyages of Captain Cook (1787):
Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, 19th-century tapa pieces were increasingly collected by Western voyagers, museums (such as the Auckland War Memorial Museum and figures like Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa, cementing its status both as a living art and an object of global ethnographic interest
In modern times, Indigenous artists, cultural practitioners, and institutions have worked to revive traditional techniques, preserve historical taonga, and connect Pacific communities across the diaspora to their heritage
Now after five years in the making, Te Papa has published “Tapa: Pacific Histories in Cloth” a monumental addition to publications about tapa by by Nina Tonga, Rachel Yates and Sean Mallon.
‘Suka Siti’ (Sugar City) Dame Robin White, artist, Leba Toki, artist, and Bale Jione
The book showcases the vast collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Featuring over two hundred tapa from 18 Pacific island nations, from Taiwan to Hawai‘I, the book explores the lineages of tapa making across the Pacific. placing artists and makers at its centre, the authors and contributors of Tapa explore the processes and cultural politics of contemporary tapa making alongside experiences of migration, art, dress, conservation and curatorship that reflect the complex social and cultural lives of tapa cloth.
Many tapa featured in the book have never been published or displayed before. Captured by specialist detailed photography these taonga are brought into focus, with the larger tapa cloths featured on foldout pages.
Co-author Rachel Yates says of the selections for the book, “We had to balance things like visual impact, provenance and style, while doing our best to be attentive to representation. It’s important to note that our choices were shaped not only by the cloths themselves, but also by the histories of collecting that brought them into Te Papa’s care.”
The extensive illustrated spreads of this book will invite any reader to delve deeper into the rich and varied world of tapa and will come away knowing tapa is much more than just a textile. Nina Tonga considers many tapa histories as, “living histories held in memory and practice by makers, families and communities.
Pre-treatment condition of Ngatu, 1940s, Tonga, maker unknown. Te Papa Collection
An unusual Tongan work from the 1940’s is of a Spitfire named Queen Sālote. The maker or makers of the ngatu have carefully depicted a view of the plane as seen from below, capturing the elliptical shape of the wing.
The book is filled with stories, images and information about tapa and those who have created them over many years.
The authors write about notable practitioners of tapa including individuals and groups such as the Pacific Sisters whose practice was often fashion centred in the1990’s. They also mention artists like John Pule whose paintings often referenced Niuean hiapo along with Sulieta Fieme’a Burrows and Tu Emma Gillies whose work has often used European art as subject matter.
Jackie Clarke Performer Penny Dodd Musician Jennifer Ward-Lealand Director Joanna Murray-Smith Writer Callum Brodie Producer Lachie Oliver-Kerby SoundDesigner Michael Goodwin LightingDesignerandoperator Rachel Marlow SetDesigner
Reviewed by Jonh Daly-Peoples
‘Songs for Nobodies’, could be billed as the five female singers who provided the sonic background to the twentieth century. We meet Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf and Maria Callas as their lives intersect with five “nobodies” whose lives are transformed by their encounters
The Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith comes with good credentials and Auckland audience will have seen her plays recently. There was “Switzerland” at ATC and “Three Little Words” at the PumpHouse and I have seen her brilliant play “Julia” in Brisbane which charts the political life of Julia Gillard
Jackie Clarke provides a sensational performance as the audience is taken on a musical journey with insights into the lives of some famous singers and their casual meetings with five “nobodies”. The songs which she sings include “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Crazy,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.”
Highlights of the show are her Edith Piaf singing “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” and Maria Callas singing one of Tosa’s arias from the eponymous opera.
This isn’t just five singers belting out their well-known hits, there is a sense of the “nobodies” having their lives changed by encounters with the singers in imagined settings, the songs, the singers and the environments acting as a backdrop to their changed world and lives.
Through the course of the play she creates characters ranging from miserable lavatory attendant who encounters Judy Garland in a bathroom and fixes he hemline to a fashion reporter trying to get out of fashion reporting by doing a piece on an taciturn Billie Holiday
Director Jennifer Ward-Lealand has kept the staging simple, with the focus always on Jackie Clarke and her remarkable performance in creating the characters of the five distinctive “nobodies” and four singers (she doesn’t try to tackle Callas). She moves effortlessly between the characters giving them personalities and presence along with singing their signature songs.
Pianist Penny Dodd, the sole musician on stage accompanies Clarke with skilful musical direction and just the right amount of volume, never intruding on the singers and providing a sense of being in a nightclub.
‘Songs for Nobodies’ is a theatrical gem with one of New Zealand great voices taking us on an musical journey with emotional depth.
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Curated by Joanne Snrech. Virginie Perdrisot-Cassan and François Dareau (Musée National Picasso–Paris) and Sophie Matthiesson (Auckland Art Gallery)
Auckland Art Gallery
10 Oct 2026 – 1 Feb 2027
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
With the new “Picasso: Designed by Paul Smith” exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery we actually get two shows – a survey of Picasso’s works spanning seventy years as well as an introduction to Paul Smith’s approach to design and his own take on the work of Picasso.
We encounter the crossover between the two artists in the first room of the show where Picasso’s “Head of a Bull” confronts Paul Smith’s sixteen deconstructed bulls head made of handlebars and bicycle seats. Whether this is an homage or just a witty response will colour your appreciation of Smith’s design interventions throughout the show.
His painted walls and others contrived aspects of the show have divided opinions similar to the divided response to the Tate’s “Theatre Picasso” exhibition which has just ended in London. Staged by the contemporary artist Wu Tsang and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca, they transformed the exhibition space into a theatre for displaying over 45 works by Picasso.
But as one commentator in the Arts Dispatch said of the show, “Still, this is Picasso and the works remain impressive, standing on their own merit without the failed framing”. It’s a comment which applies to Paul Smith’s design as well. The works do not really need someone else’s interpretation, in fact, the additions of Paul Smith can often detract from Picassos intent.
This is the first solo exhibition of Picasso’s work in New Zealand in more than 30 years with over 80 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and ceramics from the Musée national Picasso–Paris.
Sir Paul’s designs for the gallery spaces take inspiration from the colours, shapes, patterns and textures of Picasso’s artwork. His designs transform the gallery spaces, creating environments which add or detract from the viewers experience.
Pablo Picasso, Bust of a woman or sailor (study for “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”) Musée national Picasso-Paris
There are many of the spaces where we get a sense of the artist developing his art such as in the Pink Ladies section where “Buste de femme ou de marin” can be seen as a study for” Les Demoiselles d’Avignion” where he has broken down the face into shapes, so the nose, eyes, cheeks and background become geometric splinters.
Then in The Cubist Laboratory room there are several examples of how he and Georges Braque created Cubist abstraction and collage.
There is Picasso’s “Le Sacre-Couer,” the Paris church he lived near to. This is an early example of analytical cubism, where Picasso used sharp geometric shapes, fractured planes, and broken semi-circles to deconstruct the three-dimensional landscape of the hill and church into a flat, abstract composition.
Georges Braque, La Tasse Auckland Art Gallery, Julien and Rosie Robertson Collection
Then there is the more interesting Georges Braque “La Tasse” where the artist has deconstructed a simple cup into a web of intersecting vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. Rather than rendering a realistic object, the artwork focuses heavily on spatial relationships, shifting perspectives, and the compression of light and shadow.
This work comes from the gallery’s own collection having been gifted by Julien and Rosie Robertson and bought by the Robertsons in 2006 for $2,872,000 USD. This work and two Picasso’s from the collection are the most impressive works in the exhibition and are fine examples of the artist’s use of colour and makes a real impact.
Many of the works reflect Picasso’s biographical approach to his art. As he says ‘I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary.’ So, sometimes these diary entries are fulsome while at other times they are like brief notes.
In the Bullfighting Room there are several images of the horse and in “Bullfighting: The Death of the Bullfighter” we see the image of the distressed horse, a subject he had previously used and which would be a major element in his Guernica of 1937.
In the “Stripes” Room we encounter several of his portraits where the backgrounds are of stripes. The motif may have derived from the Breton striped shirt which was the standard navy and white stripes, of the French Navy uniform. It was adopted by Picasso while living in the South of France. The striped background in several of his paintings used both as a wallpaper and as a motif which connects many of his works.
Pablo Picasso Le Déjeuner Sur L’herbe après Manet, Musée national Picasso-Paris
One of the most impressive rooms is one devoted to his interpretations of “Le Déjeuner Sur L’herbe” by Manet. Picasso had long shown a great interest in the theme of the nude, and “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” relates in part to the theme of the artist and his model which figures often in his work.
In adapting” Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” to his own purposes, Picasso was playing with the history of art, with Manet’s legacy and that of the Italian Renaissance with the images of the Renaissance artists Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael whose work had inspired the Manet work.
Picasso likes the image which fitted in with his many depictions of the artist and his nude model. He produced close to 150 paintings and numerous other works featuring the artist and his model. With many of these works Picasso cast himself as a passionate, flawed creator or beast observing or interacting with female figures.
GMG Productions, Crossroads Live and Worklight Productions
Director Timothy Sheader
Set and Costume Design Tom Scutt
Choreography Drew McOnie
Music Director Hugh Hayden-Brown
Asst Choreography Courtney Arango
Assoc Director Alli Coyne
Sound Design Nick Lidster
Music Supervision Tom Deering
Lighting Design Lee Curran
With (Principals) Luke Street, Javon King, Hannah Richardson, Ethan Hardy Benson, Grant Hodges, Kodiak Thompson, Thomas McFerran, Eric W Scheeck, Will Silver
(Ensemble) Joshua Bess, Ashley Chafer, Filippo Coffano, Kalei Cotecson, Joshua Dormor, Savannah Fisher, Elizabeth Fullalove, Icis Hammond, Dominick Hubbard, Jake MacPhee, Thoman McFerran. Jessica Meegan, Caroline Perry, Sandy Redd, Henry Rollo, Erich W Schleck, Will Silver, Jordan Michael Todd
Civic Theatre, Auckland
Booking to 15 November
St James Theatre, Wellington, 18-21 November
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, 2-6 December
Familiarity Breeds Endearment
Someone once argued that being both familiar and comfortable can induce conflict so they counter each other out.
They were wrong. This Jesus Christ Superstar is both. It doesn’t judge. It doesn’t editorialise. And its basic premise isn’t even debatable. It simply entertains.
As such its very familiarity brings only a very welcome endearment.
Jesus Christ Superstar tells a story about a man and the legend that has shaped civilisations for more than two millenia – whether myth or not. And that’s what good productions are all about – telling a simple story (in this case a fairly well-known one), telling it well and leaving its audiences with happy, satisfied smiles on their faces. It succeeds.
This cast is rather well-credentialled, is drawn from many different parts of the globe, some going right back to this production’s birthplace at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London a few years ago now.
Rather than Jesus, JCS, presents Judas as the fulcrum. NYC and Melbourne based Javon King gives us a Judas of loyalty, happiness, greed, conviction and then ultimately confusion and even regret before his own death. He has light. He has shade. And, as an anti-hero, he shows us an awful lot in between.
He shares influence over Jesus with what I felt was a slightly under-played Mary Magdalene (London-based Hannah Richardson) although her carefully nuanced ‘I don’t Know how to Love Him’ was well-received.
Offsetting them is the humble, confused and, at times, angry central figure of Jesus (fellow-Londoner Luke Street). While Street has played Judas in other iterations, it wasn’t until Jesus’ big song (‘Gethsemane’ in Act 2) that I found him more convincing. So did this audience.
Supporting roles were everywhere. Standouts for me included the Annas-Caiaphus duo and their Pharisees as well as the brief appearance of the deliciously faux-cabaret Pilate. Don’t ask me why, but I found his idiotic and nonchalant antics to somehow echo a certain orange-haired contemporary American politician.
Above all though, it was a joy to see such a well-rehearsed cast laden with slick professionalism eliciting a wide range of emotional responses not to mention a final scene though it would be unfair to detail here.
The set is brilliantly conceived, the costumes fit the purpose and some of the choreography memorably outstanding. However, this IS a gritty rock concert rather than a vaudeville-inspired glammed-up musical and the band, cunningly buried in various parts of an industrial-quality set show it to be just that. An Australian colleague mentioned to me that some audiences across the ditch found this production unduly loud. Not so me ! This IS a rock-musical after all – the hand-held mics tell us that! Yet the strong baseline only managed to kick me in the sternum a couple of times towards the end.
Using the well-documented final days of Christ’s life, JCS of course uses music to connect with a generation that now has grey hair, along with many of their children and more than a sprinkling of grandchildren.
However, it is something of a shock to realise it is now more than fifty years since JCS was birthed. With Andrew Lloyd Webber’s driving rock score it broke new ground at the time and was eagerly awaited – but not entirely.
By the early 1970s we were a decade on from the Beatles and the Stones and a decade where popular music had taken a new direction. For some there were even more serious directions to take. It was a time for concept albums.
And just like The Kinks’s Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), or the Who’s Tommy, or Jethro Tull’s Thick As a Brick or even Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, creative musicians had paved the way for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to tell a well-established story from a book pretty much everyone knows, and found a new way to retell it – bringing Judas more into the scheme of things.
This particular concept album was eagerly awaited. I fondly remember sitting with a group of friends in a rather dingy flat just behind Sydney’s Kings Cross in 1971 and playing it over and over through the night when the long-due LP (remember them?) finally arrived.
But a staged production took a little longer. The Americans had a go but fell foul of dissenting voices – primarily over religious and racial divides (funny how some things don’t change) – and a rage of licensing issues. It took Australian impressario Robert Stigwood to take a punt, lock in the world-wide rights with the creators and convince fellow-Australian Jim Sharman to wave his magic director’s wand over things before it bounced onto the stage at the Westend’s Palace Theatre in 1972.
So while most other rock operas would tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of the man himself (the crossover between lead singer and preacher was a fairly well-trodden area even in 1970), JCS takes Judas’s point of view and throws some sympathetic light upon Mary Magdalene too.
Jesus might have been a charismatic leader, wise beyond his experience and adored by his sychophants. But they are only human. And it is Judas, manipulatively loyal and true, who misguidedly accepts the thirty pieces of silver, while Jesus becomes well aware of what is about to happen to him and resigns himself near-passively to his fate.
Perhaps cynically, I must admit I have always loved the closest thing Webber and Rice got to editorialising when the Apostles sing …
Anthony Byrt’s new book “Shane Cotton: Moerewa — Liquid Sleep” is more than a biography of one of the country’s foremost artists. Byrt’s Northland whakapapa links him to that of the artist with his documentation and analysis of the artist’s life making the book more of a personal survey and discovery.
Byrt dispenses with the usual early biographical history of the artist (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha) and his family, beginning the book when Cotton is an almost fully fledged artist.
He traces out the more than thirty years of the artist’s practice with Cotton developing an evolving visual language through which he has confronted his personal, tribal and national histories.
In this voyage into Te Tai Tokerau he deals with the relationships, landscapes and histories that are the basis of Cotton’s thinking and his art. We enter the world of Kororāreka and Hongi Hika, of mission stations and religious ideas which shaped Māori society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Byrt is skilful in providing insights and analysis which help us make sense of the paintings and the thinking of the artist.
He presents Cottons life through six chapters which hint at the artist as being some sort of latter-day prophet, dividing his life and work into six approaches – The Covenant, Mission Station, The First Book, The World Turned Over, White Hole and The Return.
He shows how Cotton has progressively mined the history and myth of Māori along with its intersection with European colonisation, with images that recall stories referencing historical and mythical figures, western and Māori knowledge as well as locations.
Byrt delves into the artist’s work showing the various influences, appropriations, inspirations and interests which have helped shape the artists’ works – artist such as Dick Frizzell and Gordon Walters and his diverse interests such as gaming and gang patches.
His early sepia-coloured paintings in which he linked landscape, symbols and history, Māori Folk Art, Op and Pop as well as Biblical texts explored his thinking about art and the early history of New Zealand.
Shane Cotton, Black Bird (Part I), 2005
Since then, his work has featured brightly coloured targets shapes, preserved heads dramatic cliffs and flower paintings, these works hinting at human and mythic histories.
More recently his works have connected with his living in Northland and revisiting some of his earlier work and the notions of colonialism and cultural exchange.
With his very recent work the artist could be seen as entering his Fauvist period with many of the paintings having the features of those early twentieth century artists who employed simplified shapes along with intense and juxtaposed colours.
Shane Cotton, Super Radiance, 2024
With works such as “Super Radiance” he has appropriated the Augusts Earle painting “Distant View of the Bay of Island”. Depicting a Māori with a taiaha who is acting as a guide through the landscapes of the North. These works connect with his (and the authors) living in Northland and revisiting some of his earlier work with the notions of colonialism and cultural exchange.
Shane Cotton, Things behind the Sun, 2021 (Left) Blue, Black Korona 2020 – 21 (Right)
There are several works of Cotton’s Toi Moko works where the tattooed and preserved Upoke Tuhtuhi Māori heads reference conflict, trade, and repatriations. The tattoo lines tracing out genealogy are linked to the notion of neural connections, knowledge links and computer networks.
Byrt writings about the artists’ iconography provide clarity and depth to our understanding of the artist’s work exploring how the artist adds many dimensions to our understanding to the art and our history.
The fully illustrated book provides an excellent visual history of the artist’s work with some double page spreads which all help in providing an appreciation of the artist’s work.
Giordano Bellincampi and Auckland Philharmonia, 2024 Opera in Concert production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the Auckland Town Hall. Photography by Sav Schulman.
Auckland Philharmonia 2027 Season
John Daly-Peoples
The Auckland Philharmonia has announced its 2027 Season along with the announcement that it will be Giordano Bellincampi’s 12th and final year as its Music Director.
Diana Weir, Auckland Philharmonia’s Chief Executive says of the season “There are so many highlights to look forward to in this upcoming season; from Mahler’s serene Symphony No.4 and Stravinsky’s exhilarating The Rite of Spring to a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle, and two Opera in Concert performances of Puccini’s sublime Tosca. It’s also very exciting to be the exclusive New Zealand orchestra presenting Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert in 2027, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original 1977 movie.”
Major international artists making their New Zealand debuts in 2027 include virtuoso pianist Nikolai Lugansky, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and conductors Anna Sułkowska-Migoń and Katharina Wincor. They are joined by pianist Paul Lewis and violinist Simone Lamsma, who make their Auckland Philharmonia debuts. Long-time friends of the Auckland Phil — violinist James Ehnes and pianists Alexander Gavrylyuk and Javier Perianes — make welcome returns in 2027, along with conductors Elena Schwarz, Samy Rachid and Pierre Bleuse, and violinist Chloe Chua.
Spectacular special events add extra star-power to this season, headlined by a 50th anniversary New Zealand exclusive screening of the multi-generational cinematic classic Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert, with John Williams’ original score performed live by the Auckland Phil. A blockbuster evening of Joe Hisaishi’s film scores hosted by popular podcasters Art of the Score, and Kāpiti Ice Cream presents Mānawatia a Matariki, an unmissable evening of waiata reo Māori and musical collaboration to celebrate the Māori new year, also join this sparkling line-up.
The 2027 season will culminate with a magnificent two-week BrahmsFest conducted by Bellincampi, one of the world’s leading Brahms interpreters.
Giordano Bellincampi says, “It has been a pleasure to be Auckland Philharmonia’s Music Director and throughout my final season in this role I’m delighted to share with you some marvellous music from many of my favourite composers. Opening with Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, followed by Nielsen’s mighty Fourth Symphony, through to the BrahmsFest in November, featuring all four Brahms symphonies, both piano concerti and his Violin Concerto, with Alexander Gavrylyuk and James Ehnes joining us as soloists.
“We will share with you many more wonderful masterpieces along our way, including a programme of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony paired with magnificent works by Schubert that feature exciting Kiwi-Danish soprano Louise McClelland Jacobsen, Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and sublime fourth symphonies from both Schumann and Bruckner.
Nikolai Lugansky, photo by Marco Borggreve.
“A pinnacle of the programme will be Nikolai Lugansky playing Rach 2, along with a complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle featuring renowned pianist Javier Perianes as soloist and director. It’s also wonderful to have Australian pianist Andrea Lam returning to perform the Auckland premiere of R. Strauss’ spirited Burleske and violinist Inmo Yang playing Bruch.
“A special highlight for me will be a concert in August featuring our brilliant Principal Flute, Melanie Lançon, performing Nielsen’s Flute Concerto, alongside two magnificent works — Mozart’s Symphony No.32 and Schubert’s Ninth Symphony ‘The Great’.”
The 12 concerts in the NZ Herald Premier Series The New Zealand Herald Premier Series will feature composers including Brahms, Nielsen, Schubert, Mozart, Schumann, Strauss, Bruckner, Ives, Mendelssohn and Mahler.
New Zealand talent will include the premiere of Salina Fisher’s new violin concerto written for Geneva Lewis, who features as soloist in this performance, this piece is a co-commission by Auckland Philharmonia, the Bortletti-Buitoni Trust and BBC Radio 3. In 2027, the orchestra also performs Auckland premieres of works from fellow New Zealand composers Lilburn and Gao Ping.
The concerts will feature some of the world’s most important artists such Nikolai Lugansky who has been hailed as ‘the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all’ he will perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2.
The British pianist Paul Lewis, makes his Auckland Philharmonia debut in 2027 playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23. Two exciting rising conductors will make their debuts -Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, the 2022 winner of La Maestra conducting competition, and Hungarian conductor Gábor Káli who will lead the orchestra with a programme of works by Enescu, Glazunov, Beethoven and Kodály.
Simone Lamsma, photo by Otto van den Toorn.
Outstanding artists returning in 2027 include conductors Pierre Bleuse, Elena Schwarz and Samy Rachid, pianists Alexander Gavrylyuk, Andrea Lam and Kiwi Sylvia Jiang, violinist Chloe Chua, and Auckland Phil’s own Principal Flute, Melanie Lançon, who steps forward as soloist.
The 2027 Classic Series features six concerts of best-loved masterpieces, including a special all-Beethoven double bill to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death. The superb Spanish pianist Javier Perianes returns to the Auckland Philharmonia to play Beethoven’s five piano concertos as this great composer intended, directing from the keyboard.
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is a splendid opener for the series in February, one of this great composer’s most popular works, led by master interpreter Giordano Bellincampi. This is paired with some wonderful Lieder by Schubert featuring Kiwi soprano Louise McClelland Jacobsen, who makes her Australasian debut in the dreamy Night and Dreams (Nacht und Träume) and the Auckland premiere of The Trout (Die Forelle).
In 2027, rising violin player Inmo Yang returns to play Bruch’s delightful Violin Concerto No.1, led by Giordano Bellincampi, alongside Schumann’s Fourth Symphony. Another highlight includes sensational cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras’ New Zealand debut in Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante, conducted by Katharina Wincor, who also makes her Aotearoa debut.
Lovers of Baroque music will appreciate the new Simply Baroque, two concerts held in June and September in the chamber music setting of Grafton’s Kāhui St David’s will feature works by Bach and Vivaldi, with Auckland Philharmonia.
Auckland Philharmonia’s annual Opera in Concert will be a semi-staged production of Puccini’s opera Tosca, with a two-concert run to meet high demand, will be no exception. With such a captivating story of love, lust, murder and political intrigue, accompanied by some of the most exciting and dramatic music . It will see Serena Farnocchia as the diva Floria Tosca, tenor Antonello Palombi as Cavaradossi, baritone Lucio Gallo in the role of Scarpia, along with New Zealand bass-baritone Edward Smith, singing the role of Angelotti.
Released in 1977, George Lucas’ movie Star Wars: A New Hope first introduced us to Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. Celebrating the film’s 50th anniversary in 2027, the Auckland Philharmonia brings this cinematic titan to the big screen performing John Williams’ Oscar-winning score.
Following their sold-out Aotearoa debut with Auckland Phil in 2025, charming Art of the Score podcasters Andrew Pogson and Dan Golding return to present The Music of Joe Hisaishi, a musical love letter to Japan’s great Maestro. From Studio Ghibli classics Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro to over 100 works for the screen and concert hall, Joe Hisaishi is one of the world’s most prolific and beloved contemporary composers.
Auckland Phil’s annual Matariki concert returns with Kāpiti Ice Cream presents Mānawatia a Matariki, inviting whānau and friends to celebrate the Māori new year with this night of uplifting music. This evening of exciting musical collaboration features a very special line up of guest artists joining forces with the Auckland Philharmonia to perform the best of waiata reo Māori.
The orchestra wraps the season with its annual Christmas Cheer featuring special guest vocalists and The Graduate Choir New Zealand.
In April, popular children’s concert series Tunes 4 Tamariki dives into Te Ao Moana, exploring the ocean world through music. In this lively interactive concert, talented singing duo Loopy Tunes Preschool Music, winners of NZ on Air Best Primary Song at the 2026 Aotearoa Children’s Music Awards, join the orchestra to perform music, songs and stories connected to the sea.
Then in December, charismatic entertainer Kevin Keys presents Tunes 4 Tamariki: Kevin’s Kirihimete, a concert for little ones and their whānau that’s filled with singing, dancing and holiday joy.
In 2027, the Community Classics series celebrates some of the best-known love stories. At each of the three performances of this family-friendly concert, the orchestra and special guests will play musical excerpts from beloved classics, including Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and traditional Māori love song ‘Pōkarekare Ana’.
In March, the popular In Your Neighbourhood series returns with a concert featuring Interim Concertmaster Max Tan and his fellow string section colleagues playing works by Strauss, Mozart and Martinů. Then in October, Principal Horn Gabrielle Pho leads a programme that showcases the lyrical qualities of the French horn, alongside the richness of strings. The series concludes with a fanfare to the holiday season, Principal Trumpet Huw Dann leading his brass section colleagues in a concert filled with treasured, classic festive favourites.
Auckland Theatre Company has just announced its 2027 season, with eight plays that run the full gamut of the theatrical experience. There are twists on beloved classics, a world-class psychological thriller, a picture of end-stage capitalism and a portrait of an unlikely but real man.
Alongside productions of audience favourites – Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, Twelfth Night and The King’s Speech – are exciting new works by New Zealand playwrights, including two world premieres by Arts Foundation Laureate Victor Rodger ONZM and many of New Zealand’s talented storytellers and theatre-makers back to the Company – Anapela Polata’ivao ONZM, Cameron Rhodes, Jennifer Ward-Lealand CNZM, and Michael Hurst ONZM.
“The nature of theatre is the gathering of people in the dark to enter a world created by artists. Spectators may learn, be challenged, be entertained. It could be all three,” says Auckland Theatre Company Artistic Director and CEO Jonathan Bielski. “Each show is made with aroha and manaaki by the actors, playwrights, creatives, builders and stitchers, crews and staff of Auckland Theatre Company. Each is a gift to you, our audience of theatre-lovers.”
MISERY
26 JAN — 20 FEB
By William Goldman
Based on the novel by Stephen King
In this isolated, snow-gripped cabin of 1987, there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
From the King of Horror, Misery is the ultimate psychological thriller: a tense game of cat and mouse between writer and reader, patient and nurse, fan and celebrity. From page to screen to stage, Misery brings two of New Zealand’s most recognisable actors, Michael Hurst ONZM and Morgana O’Reilly, together to play the roles made famous by James Caan and Kathy Bates.
She’s his number one fan. He’s living a writer’s nightmare. This ice-cold plunge into Stephen King’s twisted mind, directed by Simon Bennett.
THE BOY FROM VAIALA 2 – 14 MAR By Victor Rodger
Victor Rodger ONZM has written an affectionate love letter to his highly unlikely but utterly fabulous Uncle Pasi, Pasi Daniells Silva – father of three, maître d’ to the stars and founder of an iconic drag bar.
As Pasi approaches his 90th birthday, his nephew Levi presses him for stories from a life that has sashayed from Vaiala to Vegas, Hawai’i to Wellington. Full of sass and wit, featuring Grindr and God, this biography doesn’t shy away from the darker side of the mirror ball.
Directed by Anapela Polata’ivao ONZM and starring Semu Filipo as Pasi, this celebrates one of the most unlikely Samoan men of his generation.
A collaboration between Auckland Theatre Company, FCC, Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival and Creative New Zealand’s Festival Commissioning & Presentation Fund, managed by PANNZ.
THE KING’S SPEECH
6 APR – 2 MAY
By David Seidler
London, 1936. Albert must step forward and save his family. The Windsors are caught in a constitutional crisis as World War II looms. This is the inspiring story of how a man found a voice, got the words out – and saved a nation. Ryan O’Kane (Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express) stars as Bertie, the king who stutters, alongside Wesley Dowdell (North by Northwest) as speech therapist Lionel Logue.
Inspired by David Seidler’s experiences as a child with a stutter, the film won four Academy Awards, and the West End production was a four-star hit. Benjamin Kilby-Henson directs the production, which had an extended sell-out season at The Court Theatre in Christchurch.
Auckland Theatre Company presents a production by The Court Theatre. By special arrangement with Music Theatre International (Australasia).
HELEN CLARK IN SIX OUTFITS 14 – 30 MAY
By Fiona Samuel
The sold-out satire of gender and power was a talk of the town in 2026 – and now it’s back for another term. Fiona Samuel MNZM retraces the remarkable journey of a Waikato farm girl who became New Zealand’s first elected female Prime Minister and a global voice through her work at the United Nations and beyond.
Jennifer Ward-Lealand CNZM plays Helen the Elder, with Lauren Gibson as Helen the Younger, as they deconstruct her public image and private self through six outfits. The play examines social expectations, private compromises and public masks – and asks: if Helen Clark broke the glass ceiling, where are we now?
Last year NZ Art Review wrote about the play – “Helen Clark in Six Outfits uses the notion of tracking Helen Clark’s career through reference to the clothing she wore at various stages of her life. It is a concept which even the stage version of Clark rejects going on a rant about how she has always been judged by appearance – her hair, her teeth, her voice and her marriage. All those notions which are rarely used to demean male parliamentarians.
The play traces the life of Helen Clark from school kid through to the present as she climbs both the academic and the parliamentary ladders to her unsuccessful bid at becoming the Secretary General of the UN.
Along the way we/she remembers the fluctuating fortunes of National and Labour governments as well as encountering the major political figures of the time – Phil Goff, Jim Anderton, David Lange, Jonathan Hunt, Jenny Shipley, Judith Tizard and even Winston Peters -is he still alive.”
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
13 JUL – 1 AUG
By Jane Austen and Penny Ashton
When Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are rudely evicted from their childhood home after their father dies, their brother inherits everything – leaving romance their only route out of ruin. But should heart or head rule who takes their hand?
New Zealand playwright Penny Ashton gives Jane Austen’s iconic novel a uniquely theatrical spin, packed with her trademark mischief. An ensemble of six women, including Bronwyn Ensor (Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express),Lisa Chappell (Fallen Angels) and Jackie Clarke MNZM (Jackie Goes Prima Diva) play all 24 characters. Directed by Margaret-Mary Hollins, expect frocks, feminism, spice, hilarity and bold physical storytelling.
BECOMING JEFF BEZOS
20 JUL – 15 AUG
By Alex Medland
A young woman idealises the Amazon-founding billionaire so much that she’s changed her name. She’s tracking down someone who has lived in the Southern Alps for 30 years and is very keen to keep her location secret from the government. When they meet in a dystopian New Zealand, the culture clash couldn’t be worse – and the whisky doesn’t help.
Nī Dekkers-Reihana (Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking) and Nicola Kāwana (North by Northwest) star in this premiere by Alex Medland, the youngest-ever winner of the Adam New Zealand Play Award, directed by Jason Te Kare (Scenes from a Climate Era). When you’ve opted out of the world, what does success look like? How do you survive when you’re neck-deep in the system?
TWELFTH NIGHT
19 AUG – 29 AUG
By William Shakespeare
SPECIAL LIMITED SEASON
When shipwrecked Viola washes ashore with nothing but the clothes she’s standing in and a twin brother, she’s certain has drowned, she reinvents herself as a young man, as you do. As love-letter-driven hijinks ensue, a second survivor of the shipwreck arrives, looking a lot like Viola.
Created by a dynamic duo making their directing debuts with Auckland Theatre Company, Katrina George and Miriama McDowell , the production drops Shakespeare’s classic into a glamorous modern-day Illyria. In this dazzling South Pacific resort, the sun never stops shining, and everyone is a little lonelier than they look.
Alongside the strictly limited season of this work are two weeks of performances just for schools, made possible by Woolf Fisher Trust and the Douglas Goodfellow Charitable Trust.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S DEATH ON THE NILE
14 SEP – 10 OCT
Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig
After Murder on the Orient Express smashed every box-office record in Auckland Theatre Company’s books, the Company follows up with another mystery from Dame Agatha Christie, adapted by Ken Ludwig. In the searing heat of Egypt, a group of curious characters boards the steamer Karnak on the River Nile, little knowing their cruise will be beset by murder and mayhem. Famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot must investigate every passenger, unravelling romantic tensions, old rivalries and the influence of a spooky sarcophagus.
Cameron Rhodes returns as Poirot, leading a cast of 11 in this lush, sweeping and cinematic New Zealand premiere, directed by Eleanor Bishop and designed by Tracy Grant Lord.
NZ Arts Review wrote about the previous Agatha Christie production Murder on the Orient Express “The result is an actor’s piece to die for. And this cast do more than just deliver. The entire cast is let loose, projecting archetypes rather than convincing portrayals of real people. Each character is distinct, their backgrounds are as varied as their accents and the ensemble functions as a singular unit predominantly by using that essence of great comedy – precision timing and the credibility of relationships between them.”
With Stephen Papps, Alison Quigan, Brayden Cresswell, Shauntelle Jones, Ben Porter and Chloe Thomsen
Pumphouse Theatre, Takapuna
Until 18 October
Reviewer Malcolm Calder
8 October 2026
Dave Armsrong is a gifted satirist and this re-working of his The Surpise Party (2000) allows him to update the original and freshen much of the context in more contemporary terms. Six years can be a long time in politics – and on the stage too.
The play opens with chief protagonist Doug Morris (Stephen Papps), a long-suffering political nomad who has settled somewhat as leader of his own minority party – POP (Party of the People) – and sits as its sole member of parliament. No electorate though, POP is strictly a List thing. However POP has cobbled together a wide-ranging and diverse list of policies, opinions and hopes – most of them contrived in isolation and many in contradiction with each other. Nonetheless flickerings of public interest in each have grown and pre-polling suggests POP might even increase its parliamentary representation.
At an Election Night POP party in a small room of a motel no one has ever heard of, POP has attracted a similarly wide-ranging and diverse inner circle of followers, adherents and hopefuls to watch the results come through.
To their surprise, delight, joy and eventual apoplectic euphoria POP’s numbers grow and grow across the evening, exceed pre-poll predictions by far, and the party gains seat after seat before winning government in its own right – not a coalition sight. Leader Doug Morris has gone from humble, eccentric backbencher to Prime Minister – the most powerful figure in the land.
So he faints.
This is the context that Armstrong quickly establishes and it connects well with the audience. After all it has long been fun for those of us in the NZ electorate to giggle and poke fun at some of the wishlist-policies of minority parties. And the opening night audience didn’t disappoint in that respect.
The political ‘oldies’ here – Morris (Stephen Papps) and his long-suffering and rather world-weary political secretary/assistant (Alison Quigan) – provide a sound experienced base that we have come to expect from them.
They are offset by those with a more youthful outlook, but none are too strong on practical experience in the processes of government, nor even their individual areas of interest. They want lots of different things and want them now – as members of Cabinet of course. They range from a brewer of craft beer who has a strange relationship with Cuba (Brayden Cresswell) to a student cyclist who is 110% green and never had a job (Chloe Thomsen) to a bus driving bully who prides her herself on tactful diplomacy (Shauntelle Jones) and a non-numerate who has his eye on the Finance portfolio (Ben Porter).
As foils to Papps and Quigley, these four work well together. Their one-liner quips allow both nuanced and overt comedy to shine through with some occasionally exquisite comic timing.
But, in the second act, the policy contradictions and political complexities of government soon become apparent – some of them even having echoes of real contemporary MMP politics in Aotearoa (although Armstrong deftly avoids treading directly on too many toes). The job of governing soon results in internal anarchy and chaos for PM Morris and his band of merry men and women. The humour gradually becomes subverted by a darker side – the reality of politics – and, for me, the comedy became more and more forced as the second act progressed.
Although a comedic satire, there is probably a real message somewhere in this play. Armstrong’s viewpoint is a cynical one, albeit: about the complexities of government whilst negotiating an MMP landscape, about the reality of handing power to minorities, about the need for knowledge, experience and breadth in political decision-making and how aspiration can so easily become overriden by specificity.
So there we go. Some great laughs in the first act, but things became a bit s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d for me after interval and ultimately it’s “plus ça change…”
