Category: Reviews, News and Commentary

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Daniel Muller-Schott’s elegant and expressive performance

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Daniel Muller-Schott Image, Uve Arens

Auckland Philharmonia

Schumann Cello Concerto

Auckland Town Hall

November 13

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Auckland Philharmonia’s Schumann’s “Cello Concerto” concert opened with Schubert’s “Rosamunde Overture”, a work which was written at a time when all of Beethoven’s symphonies (apart from his final – the Ninth) had been performed and composers made attempts at homages to the composer.

The opening features much of the drama typical of Beethoven with the dance-like passages caried along by the woodwinds. The joyous melodies are an ideal introduction to the play Rosamunde which tells of the adventures of a shepherdess in some idyllic settings.

Some of the dance-like music sounds like precursor of the later Viennese dance music which would come several years later. Conductor Giordano Bellincampi seemed to be inspired by the music, his arms performing arabesques as he responded to the passionate dance-like melodies.

The major work on the programme was Schumann’s “Cello Concerto”, a work which has some funereal tones throughout and is often thought of as foreshadowing his death. Cellist Daniel Muller-Schott opened the work with some melancholic sounds which slowly evolved into playing which was more ethereal and meditative with sequence which were supported by the strings.

With much of his playing he took a serious and studious approach as he explored some of the darker elements of the work which then morphed into more uplifting passages.

The second movement saw Muller-Schott playing in a more cautious manner and there was sense of apprehension before returning to the earlier theme as both he and the orchestra engaged in dramatic interchanges.

Muller-Schott played with a range of approaches. At times he was lethargic while at other times dramatic and towards the conclusion he took a more tentative approach as through trying to rediscover the main theme before producing a dramatic conclusion.

Overall Muller-Schott gave an elegant and expressive performance which showed him to be totally in control but also that he had an awareness of the orchestra and the emotional qualities of the music.

The final work on the programme was one of Beethoven earliest major works, “The Creation of Prometheus”, written for a ballet at the imperial court of Austria choreographed by Calvatore Vigano. The work has a similar theme to that which Mary Shelley explored in her “Frankenstein – a Modern Prometheus” – the implication s of man attempting to create life.

The ballet tells of Promethea creating a man and woman from stone statues, but they have no souls. Apollo helps Prometheus teaching them music, dance and drama. Through the series of dances Beethoven’s provides music which explores the qualities which make humans more knowledgeable and spiritual.

Each of the sections featured one of the orchestral sections – delicate music with strings harp and woodwinds, a brilliant cello sequence played by Ashley Brown, flute playing for a court dance sequence and a country dance by strings and woodwind. Beethoven seemed to have allocated certain instruments to characters in the ballet – Apollo the harp, Melpomene the oboe, the Male Creature the oboe bassoon.

While the music serves the ballet well it can also be seen as something of a calling card for Beethoven who had only written two of his symphonies at the time. With this work he showed his mastery of composition, his knowledge of the orchestra’s instruments.

With the various sections Beethoven also provided himself with melodies which he used in some of his later work with one of the sequences being used for his Eroica symphony.

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Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking. A significant milestone

Miriama McDowell as Te Tiriti o Waitangi Mahana
Photo: Andi Crown

Reviewed by Malcom Calder

Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking

He Kōpara: Haare Williams

By: Witi Ihimaera

Auckland Theatre Company

Dir: Katie Wolfe

Kaihapa Reo Māori & Translation: Maioho Allen

Mātanga Whakaari & Editor: Katie Wolfe

Set: John Verryt

Lighting: Jane Hakaraia

Costumes: Te Ura Taripo-Hoskins

Composition and Sound: Kingsley Spargo

Vision: Owen McCarhy

Movement and Assitant Director: Katrina George

With Miriama McDowell and Nī Dekkers-Reihana

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until 23 November

Reviewer Malcolm Calder

Witi Ihimaera’s original words inclined, as he has himself has said, towards a blast of frustration and anger. This stunning contemporary production 25 years later remains true to those same frustrations but Katie Wolfe has rounded and matured them. The result is a stunning, and brilliantly executed production laced with personality and humanity that never loses sight of its own message while addressing them with a 21st century appreciation of all things treaty – from a uniquely maori perspective.

A good friend has bemoaned that fact that there is no script. And there’s not. Rather Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking is a deeply-felt, personalised memoir delivered bi-lingually as a rather different take on mainstream history. It is filled with pride, with joy and with a sense of fun that never loses sight of its primary concerns – what lies in peoples’ hearts, just beneath the surface.

With significant input from rangatira Sir Haare Williams and nuanced te reo from Maioha Allen, coupled with a dramatic staging and a cast that more than just shines, the result is something profoundly remarkable.

As such it stands as something not only relevant to audiences in Aotearoa New Zealand today but, just as Neil Ieremaia has done with dance, so Katie Wolfe has now done with theatre – placed a stake firmly in the ground with a serious work that is exportable to the world at large. It is something of which all New Zealanders should be proud.

I happen to be a fourth-generation kiwi of Scots descent who claims no te reo at all. Yet I surprised myself at how many words and phrases I actually know and understand. That is New Zealand today.

In my own case too, I vividly recall as a child some very aged kuia who would sit, shrouded in blankets and smoking their long pipes outside the Te Awamutu post office back in the 1950s. Just as Tiri does in this production, they were sharing their own past memories and I recall being staggered to come to the realisation that many had actually been at the nearby Orakau pa and the retreat across the river – albeit as children at the time – nearly 90 years previously.

It is all about memoirs and the memories that fuelled those kuia. Just as it is popular today for many of increasing years to write their own personalised memoirs, that is precisely what those kuia were doing. And it is what Ihimaera borrowed and expanded as a device for Tiri – albeit over a rather longer spread of years of which she constantly reminds us with a warmth and an irrepressible twinkle in her eyes putting her own literary longevity down to regular bowel movements and sex. Sex every day.

Miriama McDowell is a truly accomplished actor with an ever-increasing number of roles and accomplishments to her credit. But, as Te Tiriti o Waitangi Mahana, she has moved to another level where stunning is to devalue her performance. Here she can only be described as magisterial. The eyes have it and say so much. One wonders where her career will lead – it has a long way to go.

Nī Dekkers-Reihana (Tilly) and Miriama McDowell (Te Tiriti o Waitangi Mahana)
Photo: Andi Crown

Offsetting her and drawing attention to Tiri’s strengths, weaknesses, and other attributes is Nī Dekkers-Reihana as her foil Tilly. Perhaps interestingly one definition of the word suggests it came from the practice of mounting a gem on a metal foil to make it shine more brightly. Nī does so irrepressibly.

Production values have been a feature of ATC’s work this year and this time around they can only be described as brilliantly understated abstraction. John Verryt’s set is simple, clean and cleverly focussed. It is enhanced by Jane Hakaraia’s dramatic lighting, and an ominous, murmuring soundscape created by Kingsley Spargo.

There were a couple of awkward moments on Opening Night –the introduction of the only prop, a stool, being one – but these very minor indeed.

Suffice to say that the audience response was celebratory. A haka indeed !

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New Zealand Photography Collected 

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Cover image, George Chance – The Storm, Wanaka (c1940)

New Zealand Photography Collected 

175 Years of Photography in Aotearoa

Te Papa Press

Written by Athol McCredie

RRP  $90.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

New Zealand Photography Collected illuminates New Zealand’s photographic history, from the earliest nineteenth-century portraits of Māori and local ‘scenic views’ to the latest contemporary art photography. The previous edition of the book published in 2015 went into two editions and this expanded version featuring 400 images from Te Papa’s collection of 400,000 works.

From the iconic to the previously unpublished, the selection includes outstanding photographs by the Burton Brothers, Leslie Adkin, Spencer Digby, John Pascoe, Brian Brake, Frank Hofmann, Ans Westra, Eric Lee-Johnson, Marti Friedlander, Laurence Aberhart, Ann Shelton, Glenn Jowitt, Anne Noble, Yvonne Todd – and many more.

The book not only provides a wide selection of images, it also introduces the reader to the photographic artists who have used photography to explore our history and environment. The photographs of the nineteenth century makes us realise that these images are often our only reference point for how the country, its people and events looked in the past.

Author and curator Athol McCredie provides a wide-ranging selection of images across portraiture, landscape, science, documentary photography and art with informative notes.

Ellis Dudgeon
Lake Hawea, c.1947
Hand-coloured gelatin silver print, coloured
by Elaine Watson, 1962, 404 × 500 mm
Purchased 2023, O.051365
It is almost unknown for a hand-colourist to be identified on a photograph, but this one has a handwritten label on the back reading ‘Hand painted photograph by Elaine Watson, July 1962.’ This records that Watson hand-coloured it, not that she took it, for we know from a 1947 book in which it was reproduced in black and white that it was taken by Ellis Dudgeon, a photographer who ran a studio in Nelson from 1930 to 1970. Dudgeon’s scenic hand-coloured photographs were widely seen. Indeed, this image appears in colour on the cover of the upmarket magazine Mirror: New Zealand’s national home journal in 1955. In that version, the colouring is quite different: there is much more yellow in the tī kouka (cabbage trees), there are red flowers on the bushes by the lakeside, and it is much brighter and sunnier throughout. It is a more upbeat, holiday image than Watson’s subdued and uniformly toned version, showing just how much interpretive room there was for colourists, who were rarely present when the photograph was taken.

Together these photographs tell stories about life in this country from almost the earliest days of European colonisation and about how the practice of photography has evolved here, reflecting the dynamic and increasingly diverse nature of the collection, allowing for previously unseen treasures, and enabling familiar works to be recontextualised with fresh insights.

In making the selection, McCredie, says “I looked for photographs that were evocative, resonant, ambiguous, entertaining, and most especially, that might say something about the nature of photography itself.”

Whie no collection of photographs can be comprehensive the book offers many threads which weave together a sense of the nation’s history and culture. It is more than a history of photography tracing out our responses to the landscape, the built environment, events and people.

Through the book we see the taming and changing of the landscape, the changing domestic and commercial architecture, the way we dress and there are images of the  citizens we valued for their contribution to our civic and cultural life.

There are portraits of Māori such as Tomika Te Mutu, as well as other history makers such as Peter Fraser, Ed Hillary and Mike Moore along with artists such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Tony Fomison and Yuki Kihara.

We also can see the way in which the photograph has changed from the need to simply record the landscape and people through to experimentation as well as viewing photography as a means of social and political change.

While there no comparative before and after images the book does have images of the changing face of the land as well as images of the major cities and the built environment from the nineteenth century and the twentieth which show the development of the urban areas. We are also able to see the changing nature of clothes, particularly those worn by females.

The inclusion of Frank Hofmann, one of the major modernist photographers is an example of the multi-talented artist who worked across the media providing many of the important modernist photographs as well as portraits. A photograph of the Christopher Bede Studio, which he founded also shows his ability to work across the commercial as well as experimental genres.

Frank Hofmann
Christopher Bede Studios, 1967
Gelatin silver print, 418 × 578 mm
Purchased 2016, O.044647
Christopher Bede Studios was formed by Frank Hofmann and Bill Doherty around 1950. It focused on home portraiture but also operated a studio, and this photograph was probably taken to promote its new premises being opened in Auckland in 1967. The image clearly sets out to demonstrate the varieties of photography the studio could undertake, from fashion and product photography to portraiture. It is pure advertising though, for it would be fanciful to imagine four photographers actually working simultaneously in the same studio space.
The studio had branches in other centres, and in 1970 it claimed to be New Zealand’s largest photographic organisation. In 1975 it became Bede Photography.

There are number of images of individual  Māori and Māori  society which changes over the  course of time from initially being of an ethnographic nature  with images by John Nicol Crombuie and Alfred Burton through to seeing Māori as an integral part of society with photos by Ans Westra as well as seeing the inclusion of Māori photographers such as Tia Ranginui and Fiona Pardinton.

There are several small suites of work such as Eric Lee-Johnson images of Opo taken at Opononi in 1956, Gordon Burt’s commercial works mainly of automobiles and the Burton Brothers for their extensive images of the country.

Then there are individual images such as Frede Brockett’s dramatic image of the wreck of La Bella, Theo Schoon’s Geothermal studies or Eric Lee Johnson’s image of a bike wheel and shadow which predate similar work by Bill Culbert who, surprisingly, has no images in the book.

The landscape work in the book range from the nineteenth century images of the Burton Brothers through the NZ Tourism images, the myth-like work “Peter Pan on Mt Eden” by J. W. Chapman-Taylor through to the revisionist work of Mark Adams.

Les Wallace
Napier after Hawke’s Bay earthquake, 1931
Gelatin silver print, 158 × 386 mm
Gift of Holden New Zealand Limited, 1998, O.005635
The Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 3 February 1931 remains New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster: 256 lost their lives, and the region was devastated. With limited water to fight the fires that ignited after the quake, eleven blocks of central Napier were completely gutted. According to an eyewitness, by evening the town ‘looked as if it had been subjected to a severe bombardment’:
The centre of it for over a mile was a mass of flames. Every concrete and brick building had collapsed. It was like an upheaval and there was a terrible number of deaths . . . A number of people were lying in the streets and buried under the debris. Some were terribly injured and some were dead. The town was all in darkness and that added to the horror of the situation.

While there are not a lot of photographs of dramatic historical events like Les Wallace’s “Napier after the earthquake” there are a few, like Paul Simei Barton’s images of the demonstrations about the Springbok 1982 tour as well as the Covid 19 demonstration in Wellington by Adrian Lambert.

Mark Adams
13.11.2000 Hinemihi, Clandon Park, Surrey, England. Nga Tohunga: Wero Taroi, Tene Waitere, 2000
Chromogenic prints, 1200 × 3200 mm
Purchased 2020, O.049055/A-C to C-C
Mark Adams has often highlighted cultural incongruities in his photographs, and nowhere more so than in this triptych of the meeting house Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito standing in a corner of an English country estate. The 1881 house was originally situated at Te Wairoa, the gateway village to the Pink and White Terraces. When Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886, the house was partially buried and subsequently abandoned. In 1891, the Earl of Onslow and Governor of New Zealand purchased Hinemihi and had it dismantled and reinstalled on his English estate as a sort of folly — something he probably didn’t see as incongruous himself, as he bought it as a reminder of his affection for New Zealand.
Adams took another equally dissonant triptych that pairs with this photograph. It shows the site where Hinemihi originally stood — now just a forlorn patch of empty land covered in long grass and thistles. Hinemihi will be returned to New Zealand (though probably not to this site), placing Adams’s photograph in dialogue with the future as well as the past.

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The Hanly House Residency. Preserving the legacy of Gil and Pat Hanly

John Daly-Peoples

The Hanly House Residency

A visionary plan to preserve, establish and maintain the home of Gil and Pat Hanly as an artist’s residency and museum at 7 Walters Road, Mt Eden was recently announced at the artist’s former home.

The house and extensive tropical garden located in the heart of Mt Eden, would operate as a social hub, gallery and museum as well as an education and research space for New Zealand art history, and a unique supported urban artists’ residency and studio for emerging contemporary artists locally and from across the world.

Iconic New Zealand artists Pat, a painter and Gil, a documentary photographer, contributed significantly to the social, political and cultural landscape of Aotearoa. Through the Hanly House project the family wish to celebrate Pat and Gil’s contributions to the cultural landscape of Aotearoa, and for visitors and researchers to enjoy and be inspired by it.

The Artist Residency Programme would support artist at a critical point in their career development by providing the house rent free for up to five years.

The residency would work with key stakeholders including Te Papa, AAG, ELAM and ILAM to achieve that goal.

Initial aims of the Hanly House would be to raise capital to purchase the house and garden from the Family. Once established it is intended that house would host regular arts focused functions and support public access to events at the house, support public access to the  garden and raise operational funds through events, endowment fund, and edition sales.

ARTIST RESIDENCY DETAILS

  • Long term (3 -5-year residency programme)
  • Open to national and international artists through an arts partner organisation.
  • Selection Process and Programme in Partnership with Te Papa, AAG, ELAM, ILAM
    • Artist to be between 30 and 40 years old
    • Artist’s family welcome to reside with artist
    • On acceptance of the residency, The Artist will be expected to reside and work at the address for the duration of the period, with standard holiday breaks.
    • The residing Artist participation and outcome expectations would include
      • Attend the Annual Garden Party Functions at the house.
      • Speak at quarterly In Conversation programmes at the house or another arts organisation.
      • Deliver a body of work or installation that responses to the region.
      • Produce and gift to the Trust a series of limited edition to the value of $20,000 for fundraising purposes.

The Hanly Family Trust is currently supporting the development of the Hanly House proposal and is calling on individuals for support. Supporters can make immediate donations of $5 or more and can pledge donations which will help offset the establishment costs and enable the commissioning of further development plans.

Supporters can register at various tiers:

  • Heart 1M+
  • Kowhai 500K+
  • Dove 100K+
  • Hope 5K+
  • Activist 1K+
  • Benefactors will be acknowledged, onsite, in print material and at functions.

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For more information – hanlyhouse.nz

Contact diane.blomfield@icloud.com to discuss your pledge.

To subscribe or follow New Zealand Arts Review site – www.nzartsreview.org.

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PĀ – Te Huarahi ki te Kāinga  Hiria Anderson-Mita’s continuing journey

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Hiria Anderson-Mita

PĀ – Te Huarahi ki te Kāinga Finding my way Home’

Tim Melville Gallery

Until November 15

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Writing about Hiria Anderson-Mita a couple of years ago I noted that she “has never had to look far for subject matter. She only has to look around the room, out the window or down the road. Her paintings are essentially documentation of her daily life, painting what she sees, the people she encounters and her immediate experiences.”

Her domestic interiors or local views of her local environment were both mundane and intriguing.

This incongruity in many of her works give the images both a simplicity and sophistication. One could compare her paintings to the simple French Impressionist paintings as well as the recent landscape paintings of David Hockney, in creating timeless views.

In her latest exhibition the  paintings and view points have been extended, broadening out from the local to the wider area of hers and her ancestors land  so the exhibition becomes for her “a return to the ancestral landscapes that have shaped who I am.”

In the catalogue notes she writes “The tracts of farmland in these artworks hold the DNA and stories of my ancestors. Their ridges and valleys are layered with the pā sites of my tūpuna; connections that survey pegs and ownership papers can never sever.
 
In fact those pegs and papers are reference points for rediscovery.  

Through researching Māori Land Court records and field books made by 19th Century Government Surveyor William Cussen – alongside maps, archaeological files, photographs, oral histories and the living landscape itself – I am tracing the footprints of my tūpuna.

Each painting in this exhibition describes and locates a site of history and connection within the rohe of Ōtewa, Rangitoto Tuhua and the surrounding pā of Ngāti Maniapoto and Rereahu.

The pā tuna, the kohatu, the maunga, and the awa I paint were once sources of sustenance  for entire communities. I want to make them visible once more; to bring them into the light. And to reinsert our knowledge and our presence into the whenua from which we have been separated by pen and politics.

I have been guided by ancestors who still reside within me. My paintings are my journey home.”

Central to the works is the large “Ōtuaoroa” ($11,500) which is the original name for the area. The artist calls the painting “A map”, so the image is like the chart of a mythical land or a treasure map found in a children’s book with each road, farm, bend in the river all bearing a history. Many of these places are then seen in a larger format in other paintings such as “Puketarata Rd No2” ($3500) which is the view from her childhood home or “Hikurangi Pa” ($3250) a  bend in the river where her ancestors had been born and which sustained the local population with food.

There are also links to the geomorphological qualities of the land which had intrigued Colin McCahon and his study of the landforms and their history.

Puketarata Pā

This idea of discovering the history and formation of the land is seen in Puketarata Pā ($7500) where the landscape is inscribed with other information such a pre-European name, survey number, the indication of tracks or landforms as well as the Google Earth Coordinates.

Turamoe Pa Otuaoroa (Te Kooti’s Lookout)

Most of the works have personal connection to the artist and their importance and significance is made clear from their titles of the catalogue notes. So, there is the obvious “Otewa – My Mothers Ancestral Home ($3500) as well as “Turamoe Pa Otuaoroa (Te Kooti’s Lookout)” ($3250) featuring the hill site where Te Kooti spent the last years of the Land Wars.

Otwea Pa – Into the Future

Most of the works in the exhibition are landscapes but there are a few are more emblematic. One “Otewa Pa – Into the Future ($5750), a portrait of a niece where the artist envisions the future and  there is the more abstract “Hinaki a Rautawhiri / Te Awa a Tane Pa Tuns” ($4750) which looks to the past with a design  featuring netting used to trap fish and fowl.

The paintings in the exhibition paintings along with a poem she has written, “her return Home” as well as many of her previous paintings build a visual biography of her personal connections with the land, a history which is both personal, tribal and mythological.

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Cirque Du Soleil – Corteo: The mystery and delight of childhood and the surrealism of adult dreams.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Cirque Du Soleil – Corteo

Spark Arena

Until November 9

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Cirque du Soleil shows are always elaborate gymnastic displays, but they are always imbedded with a story or narrative which looslye holds all the characters and the events together. There is also a circus elemnst running through the shows, an element which recalls the mystery and delight of childhood and the surrealism of adult dreams.

The story line for “Corteo” is that we are welcomed to the last minutes of the life of the famous clown Mauro and are then present as he reminiscences about his great days of his life on stage. He lies in his bed and his former colleagues visit him, bringing back memories and some of his acts which are repeated as the angles hover over his death bed.

After establishing the reason for being there the evening takes on a rather casual approach to the narrative which we are reminded of occasionally with angels making their appearance and in one scene providing  Mauro with a set of wings and then, with a nod to the film ET Mauro also rode a bicycle up high, above the stage

The cast of circus characters that parade before Mauro are reminiscent of the closing scene in Fellin’s 8½ – a mixture of standard circus folk – ringmaster, clowns and acrobat along with the characters from Commedia dell’Arte.

This show, is one of the earliest of the Cirque shows, originally made in 2005 and since then has been performed to more than 12 million people and still has all the elements which make the shows impressive – world-class acrobatics, whimsical romanticism,  some clever buffoonery and  comedy all overseen by the angels floating on high.

Corteo, Cirque Du Soleil, Credit: Johan Persson

Unlike most other Cirque show which are set in a big tent the audience was seated on either side of the stage  which featured amazing displays of ability and agility where technical expertise and extravagant design were woven together with fabulous costumes, amazing lighting, humour, and enchanting live music. The musicians tucked away at the sides of the stage displayed not only great musicianship but were remarkable performers themselves as they negotiate their various instruments – violin, drums, keyboard, bass, percussion and guitar.

Some of the performances were more spectacular than others with some not given the attention they deserved such as the Crystal Balls sequence where the subtly of the performance was probably lost on most. But there were more dramatic routines such as the young woman suspended from five balloons who floated around Spark Arena being helped by dozens of audience hands as drifted and bounced giving all her helpers a “thank, I love you”.

All the routines had something to offer whether the languid female performers swaying from the chandeliers, the beds transforming into trampolines where the performers didn’t try  for height but rather split-second timing  and there was the traditional balancing act which showed real agility as well as looking as though the body was being turned in on itself.

There was even a slightly confusing small theatrical work telling the Romeo and Juliet story which seemed to be closer to a Punch and Judy show full of the knock about comedy.

Then there was the clever duet between the Ringmaster and musicians with the Ringmaster whistling a Mozart melody before going into a ferocious duel with the violinist, backed by the orchestra.

This is a show packed with drama, comedy, colour and surprise to delight the whole family.

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What on at Auckland Arts Festival 2026

John Daly-Peoples

hi. Wehi. Mana

Auckland Arts Festival

5–22 March 2026

John Daly-Peoples

Next year’s Auckland Arts Festival brings together an inspiring collection of works from New Zealand’s major performing arts organizations as well as an impressive lineup of Māori and Pacific individuals and international performers from Australia, China and America.

The festival opens with a free, all ages celebration in Aotea Square Sau Fiafia! Boogie Down!, brings together the infectious rhythms of nine-piece Pacific funk collective Island Vibes.

La Ronde

The intoxicating, lavish and seductive La Ronde will take over The Spiegeltent for 21 performances, with a mixture of circus, live music and comedy. From the creators of Blanc de Blanc and Limbo, La Ronde exclusively premieres in New Zealand after a sell-out season in Australia.

The Samoan musician Fonoti Pati Umaga will present an honest and unapologetic humourous story, Music Portrait of a Humble Disabled Samoan​. Created with Oscar Kightley, Nathaniel Lees, Neil Ieremia and Sasha Gibb, this is a world premiere production of powerful and unfiltered reflection on resilience, identity and transformation.

Auckland Theatre Company and Tawata Productions, will premiere Waiora Te Ūkaipō  The Homeland​, a powerful story of family, culture and belonging. Written and directed by Hone Kouka, with waiata and haka composed by Hone Hurihanganui.

From acclaimed collective Binge Culture comes Werewolf, a thrilling, darkly funny horror-comedy exploring how we respond to crises. Theatre Scotland gave it a positive review “Werewolf does very well in setting the scene early and vividly. The audience truly feel a part of the experience and like we are trapped in a “safe house”. Impeccable performances from our three “wardens”, brilliant lighting and some incredible sound design create a perfect hour of interactive and immersive theatre. 

For one night only, internationally acclaimed American soprano Julia Bullock will be performing with the Auckland Philharmonia conducted by Christian Reif showcasing a repertoire blending classical masterworks, jazz and The Great American Songbook. A recent review noted “Bullock’s meditative mixtape ends in safe haven, with Odetta’s bluesy arrangement of “Going Home,” a song rooted in Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony. Bullock reaches into her burgundy lower register, and pianist Christian Reif depresses the soft pedal, to achieve maximum comfort.”

“These songs refract love in various colours and further illustrate why Bullock is one of today’s most discerning and expressive singers. Contemporary composers are particularly enamoured, including John Adam’s new opera Antony and Cleopatra.”

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Moana & The Tribe present ONO, a powerful live performance and video work honouring six Indigenous women worldwide – a stirring journey of hope and unity through te reo Māori, kapa haka and electronic-dub beats.

A flagship free event, Whānau Day brings together music, performance, kai and hands-on arts experiences in a vibrant celebration of community.

Duck Pond

Circa’s production of Duck Pond, reimagines Swan Lake as a spectacular circus, full of physicality and cheeky humour. In A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen, theatre-maker and musician Joshua Hinton weaves song, memory and mouth-watering aromas as he recreates his grandmother’s curry live on stage. Fresh off mesmerising Australian audiences and completing a 23-show season in Edinburgh, is The Butterfly Who Flew ​into the Rave, this award-laden crowd favourite returns home for a triumphant encore.

The Butterfly Who Flew ​into the Rave,

The Australian company Gravity & Other Myths, will present Ten Thousand Hours, with eight acrobats and one musician paying homage to the discipline and the joy of movement. 27 Club delivers a blistering rock concert celebrating the legends lost too soon – Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Robert Johnson.

Long Yu, Serena Wand and Jian Wang

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of its renowned Music Director, Long Yu, comes to New Zealand from China in an extraordinary cross-cultural celebration of Eastern and Western symphonic traditions featuring celebrated soloists Jian Wang (cello) and Serena Wang (piano). Across two evenings, the orchestra performs classical works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov alongside selections from Elliot Leung’s Chinese Kitchen: A Feast of Flavours.

Jane Harrison’s multi-award-winning play The Visitors reimagines the arrival of the First Fleet through the eyes of seven First Nations Elders. Directed by Wesley Enoch, this Sydney Theatre Company and Moogahlin Performing Arts production is a sharply written, deeply resonant piece of speculative historical theatre that challenges and educates​.

Built from the world’s apologies – famous, absurd and deeply personal – Sincere Apologies is a funny, awkward and unexpectedly moving participatory performance exploring how we say sorry and what we really mean.

Ihi. Wehi. Mana. reunites past and present members of Te Waka Huia with esteemed choral musician Karen Grylls and a bespoke invitational choir, for a stirring, celebratory event combining kapa haka, waiata and vocal talent.​

Additionally featured in the festival is a double bill of bold new writing, He Kākano showcases Becoming Jeff Bezos by Kai Tahu playwright Alex Medlan, a razor-sharp satire on capitalism and chaos, and Marmite & Honey by Rainton Oneroa (Te Aupōuri), a moving family drama unfolding over 24 hours at a tangi. Both works will be developed with Jason Te Kare.

Ten Thousand Hours,

The acclaimed Australian company Gravity & Other Myths, will perform Ten Thousand Hours, with eight acrobats and one musician pay homage to the discipline of mastery and the joy of movement. 27 Club delivers a blistering rock concert celebrating the legends lost too soon – Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Robert Johnson.

Closing the Festival with pure brass swagger, Big Horns is a high-octane, homegrown funk collective redefining the modern big band, led by guitarist Dixon Nacey. Featuring Jordyn with a Why, MOHI and Muroki, He Manu Tīoriori gathers the next generation of soulful voices for an uplifting evening of waiata in the Spiegeltent. Inspired by Dame Hinewehi Mohi’s Waiata Anthems project, this showcase of original te reo Māori compositions celebrates the beauty, depth and contemporary vitality of Aotearoa’s music.


2026’s programme also includes Bluebeard’s Castle which sees New Zealand Opera and Auckland Philharmonia reimagine Bartók’s haunting masterpiece as an intimate portrait of a couple confronting dementia. Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Macbeth, choreographed by Alice Topp, transforms Shakespeare’s tragedy into a gripping modern study of ambition and power.

Set in the heart of the Festival Garden, Rova Sound Stage offers a relaxed, social space to discover fresh talent and genre-crossing performances from neo-soul and alt-pop to hip hop, jazz and electronic music. Audiences can grab a beanbag and a drink, soak up the summer sun, and dance into the night with the resident Festival DJ.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Trent Dalton’s “Love Stories”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Trent Dalton, Love Stories

Based on the book by Trent Dalton
Additional Writing and Story: Trent Dalton and Fiona Franzmann
Adaptor: Tim McGarry
Choreographer & Movement Director Nerida Matthaei
Associate Director Ngoc Phan
Set & Costume Design Renee Mulder
Lighting Design Ben Hughes
Video Design and Cinematographer Craig Wilkinson
Composition & Sound Design Stephen Francis

Civic Theatre

October 17

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Before heading off to see Trent Daltons “Love Stories” a quick survey of what love is was in order. First stop would be Shakespeare, and he almost nails it with

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind” from a Midsummers Night Dream

The audience filled the Civic Theatre and on stage all we see is a panorama of the audience looking back at ourselves. All of those people who know about their own encounters with love. They are the mass of humanity who are hoping to find out the truth / answer to the eternal question. – What is love?. And each one of them knows what it is. Each one can tell their own story

And then scrolling across the screen are the answers we could give, all provided by previous audience members

LOVE IS

Lasting the distance. Even when you think you can’t do it.

The perfect coffee with crema on Sunday morning

Saying sorry and meaning it

Being confident in the silent moment

Magical; poetic, sometimes messy

And dozens more some profound, some very personal, some cliched

Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 gathering stories on his 1960’s blue Olivetti typewriter, on a prominent street corner in Brisbane’s CBD. He had sign which read “Sentimental writer collecting love stories. Do you have one to share” Speaking with Australians from all walks of life, he received hundreds of them.

The show opened with Jean- Benoit and his drumming as he introduced the show and it closes with his taking us backstage through to a simple doorway which led us back out of the theatrical world of make believe into the real world.

The dozen actors who swarmed the stage enacting the stories, some lasting a few minutes, other only a few brief moments created a topography of love with its range of, stories, anecdotes and remembrances.

Some of the stories are profound, some of them flippant, some of them might have been written by the writers at Hallmark Cards. Other could have been written by your partner, boyfriend, girlfriend.

Director Sam Shepheard wove the various stories together, the actors changing guises as they connected and parted. Sometimes cameras made their faces balloon up large on the screen as they addressed the audience. Many of the stories are moving, rich in compassion, witty, and full of allegories.

The entire cast created impressive range of characters and encounters and there were some clever sequences – a bit of a Juliet speech, a quote from Emily Dickinson, a scientist explaining about technical aspects of dopamine

Holding much of the performance together was Jason Klarwein (the Writer / Husband) and Anna McGahan (The Wife) where the actual world of the couple seems at odds with his accounts of the people from the street with their passionate, flawed and intermingled lives.

And there are several life stories all woven together such as a film segment delivered by Joshua Creamer, a barrister and human rights activist who not only tells his personal story but also the story of land rights, family, and his identity as an Aboriginal man.

There is also the Asian woman Sakuri Tomi whose story is trapped inside a nightmare is told in several vignettes.

The video montages combined with live video feed help create a dynamic flow and the choreography of Nerida Matthaei adds to this dynamism which works brilliantly in sequences like the State of Origin game.

While it’s not in the play they could have used Marilyn Munroe phlegmatic quote about love –  “If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Sylvia Jiang’s intense and vivid “Totentanz” at Auckland Philharmonia’s Fantastique concert

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Philharmonia Image Sav Schulman

Fantastique

Auckland Philharmonia

Auckland Town Hall

September 16

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The three works on the Auckland Philharmonia’s “Fantastique” programme to a lesser or greater extent reflected on the religious teachings and practices of the Christian churches many of which confused, condemned and persecuted people. These in turn resulted in isolation, banishment and often death.

Opening the programme was New Zealand composer Louise Webster’s “Proof against Burning” which was inspired by the historical witch trials and the tests used to judge the accused. 

The four sections – Cauldron and Stone, Floating on Water, Spectral Evidence and Ordeal of the Cross all related to methods of judging, condemning and execution of those charged with the practice of witchcraft. These would be boiling, drowning, crucifixion and evidence of magical or supernatural appearance.

The opening movement had a sense of oppression provided by the portentous sounds of wailing strings, sharp percussion and screaming brass where the second having a more contemplative sounds from the strings and wind instruments which suggest the notion of dunking of witches into water, the placid image of flowing water ends with some apprehensive sounds which suddenly stopped, as though death had come quickly.

In the third movement, the concept of the spiritual or spectral is suggested by the various instruments shifting tones and sounds, transforming the aural landscape. The Ordeal of the Cross section was introduced by blaring horns along with drumbeat accompanying the condemned in their final walk. Strings produced heart rending sounds of torment along with hints of birdsong including the sounds of a crow, the messengers of death.

Liszt’s piano work “Totentanz” was inspired by both “The Comedy of Death” a series of woodcut by Hans Holbein and “The Triumph of Death” a monumental fresco by Andrea Orcagna in the Camposanto in Pisa both of which depict religious myths concerning the fate of the damned and the saved at the end of the world.

Sylvia Jiang Image Sav Schulman

The work was played by Sylvia Jiang a Chinese born New Zealander who has previously played with the Auckland l Philharmonia. Last year she performed Prokofiev’s “Piano Concerto” and previously Liszt’s “Second Piano Concerto”

Liszt himself was fascinated by ideas of death and he incorporated variation on the Dies Irae throughout the work. The work transitioned from Webster’s work with more sounds of oppression. The  heavy brass and piano opened with a dance of death which introduced us immediately to the sounds of a nightmare.

With Jiang hovering over the piano, she attacked the keyboard with a series of arpeggios and runs based of the Dies Irae while the orchestra contributed savage bursts of sound.

At times it seemed as though Jiang’s feverish playing was creating a vortex of sound replicating the idea of bodies spiraling in their descent into Hell. Conductor Pierre Bleuse was equally feverish in some of his conducting, leading the orchestra with dramatic gestures. Generally, Bleuse was curt and crisp in his conducting, attentive to all the players in the orchestra, managing to bring out the subtleties of the music from them.

While much of the time Jiang’s playing was vivid and intense, she was also able to produce more delicate and nuanced sounds showing a pianist with a true understanding of the music and the composer’s intention.

Her assaults on the piano became more intense at the finale of the work where she joined with the violent percussion display.

For her encore she played a minimalist work by the Chinese composer Gao Ping.

The major work on the programme was Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique”, which through its five movements tells the story of an artist’s self-destructive passion for a beautiful woman. The work describes his obsession and dreams, moments of anguish and tenderness along with visions of suicide and murder, ecstasy, and despair.

Berlioz was obsessed with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, and the symphony was his mating call to the actress.  The music attempts to render the story of his own life intertwined with that of The Artist, musically and emotionally.

The piece begins with an impressive percussion sequence and the sounds of a reverie as though embarking on a spiritual journey. The orchestra’s free flowing melodies were a mixture of the dramatic and Romantic creating both dreams and nightmares.

There was also a description of The Artist and the object of his love with an elusive theme which recurs through the work. Then we encounter him at a ball, trying to gain the attention of his love and then in a pastoral setting possibly seeing his beloved with another suitor. This ballroom scene with its opening waltz also seemed to affect the sprightly conductor as he swayed to the music.  However, even in this ballroom sequence there was tense undertone of tension beneath the jollity

The serenity of the countryside was introduced by the woodwinds and strings with ecstatic sounds of dawn before darker sounds of the strings herald a stormy period before we return to sunnier moments with the sounds of birds returning to rest and sleep.

A fourth movement is a narcotic dream sequence where he sees himself led to the scaffold in the belief that his love has been rejected.

The final movement is another dreamscape, this time a vision of hell where The Artist is carried into the underworld watched over by the object of his craving.

Under the direction of an agile Pierre Bleuse the orchestra provided an energetic performance of the work ensuring the drama and intensity was expertly delivered. There were the thrilling violins and flutes which conjured up the image of The Artist’s beloved through the two harps leading the delicate ballroom scene to the military band escorting the prisoner to the scaffold and onto the final ominous bassoons and tubas roaring out the funeral chant of the Dies Irae. 

The final Dream of the Witches Sabbath has much in common with the Swiss Romantic painter Henry Fuseli with their shared interest in demonological fantasies, Gothic atmosphere of and a fascination with the supernatural.

Frightening outbursts alternated with moments of the greatest tenderness. Massive onslaughts by the percussion and timpani contrasted with the delicacy and melancholia of the ballroom and pastoral scenes

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Auckland Theatre Company’s 2026 season

John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Theatre Company 2026 season

John Daly-Peoples

The Auckland Theatre Company’s 2026 season will be the most varied and stimulating programme the company has offered for many years. It features seven productions which includes two world premieres, the return to presenting a musical, a revival of a beloved Māori work, a powerful Pasifika piece, and one of Shakespeare’s major tragedies.

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express

Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig

7-22 Feb

Adapted from the classic book that birthed an entire genre this was ATC’s fastest selling show ever and a highlight of the 2025 season. The play features Cameron Rhodes as the inscrutable Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s iconic whodunnit, supported by Jennifer Ludlham and Mayen Mehta. The play received great reviews with NZ Arts Review’s Malcolm Calder calling it “pure, unadulterated entertainment” from a “consummate, professional ensemble”.

Waiora Te Ūkaipo – The Homeland.  Presented during the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of Arts

By Hone Kouka

6 – 22 Mar

Originally presented over 30 years ago at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of Arts, Wairoa is a significant play in our cultural history as the impact of colonisation and urbanisation during the mid-60’s is challenged within one family unit. As disharmony surfaces the whānau are confronted with decisions between life past and future.

Helen Clark in Six Outfits

By Fiona Samuel

7-26 Apr

The world premiere of Helen Clark in Six Outfits is a satirical, humorous play fashioned on the life of former Prime Minister, Helen Clark (played by Jennifer Ward-Lealand) while the nation became equally fixated with her appearance and personal life during her rise as New Zealand’s first elected female Prime Minister during her term as one of the most powerful women on the political stage. The play follows on from the success of the Australian play Julia by Joanna Murray-Smith which traces out the life and times of Julia Gillard

RBG: Of Many, One

By Suzie Miller

20 May – 7 Jun

Presented by Auckland Theatre Company and Auckland Live.

Based on the life of US lawyer and former Associate Justice to the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, RBG: Of Many, One by Sydney Theatre Company comes direct to Auckland following a return season in Australia.

Ginsburg was a groundbreaker in the American judiciary and a fierce advocate for gender equality and reproductive rights. Her life is brought to the stage by Olivier Award-winning Australian playwright, Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) and played by the astonishing Heather Mitchell.

Sons of Vao By Vela Manusaute (World Premiere)

18 Jun – 5 Jul

Sons of Vao by Vela Manusaute is a powerful and moving Pasifika play that centres on the lives of three brothers who revere their father but equally seek to escape his formidable influence. Sons of Vao is directed by the extraordinary actor/director, Anapela Polata’ivao and stars lauded actor Beulah Koale.

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

28 Jul – 16 Aug

One of William Shakespeare’s most famous and critically acclaimed tragedies, Macbeth is known for its exploration of ambition, evil and fate.

Following recent hit revivals on the West End and Broadway, this new production by director Benjamin Kilby-Henson who directed this year’s quirky production of Romeo & Juliet.

The cast includes Mark Mitchinson as the tormented Macbeth and Sara Wiseman as the ambitious and manipulative Lady Macbeth.

Cabaret

Book by Joe Masteroff, Music by John Kander and Lyrics by Fred Ebb

22 Sep – 18 Oct

An Auckland Theatre Company and Auckland Live Production.

The world-renowned musical Cabaret has never been more apt to the times since its premiere 60 years ago than now. Produced in collaboration with Auckland Live and directed by Benjamin Kilby-Henson, the Emcee will be played by Matu Ngaropo who excelled as George Washington in Hamilton, together with Nomi Cohen who stars as Sally Bowles following her shining turn as Roxy Hart in the recent production of Chicago.