Category: Reviews, News and Commentary

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Reviews, News and Commentary

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.

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

The “Follow button” at the bottom right will appear and clicking on that button  will allow you to follow that blog and all future posts will arrive on your email.

Or go to https://nzartsreview.org/blog/, Scroll down and click “Subscribe”

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.

The “Follow button” at the bottom right will appear and clicking on that button  will allow you to follow that blog and all future posts will arrive on your email.

Or go to https://nzartsreview.org/blog/, Scroll down and click “Subscribe”

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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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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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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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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.

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Dick Frizzell’s weighty exhibition of New Zealand landscapes

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Dick Frizzell, The Weight of the World

Dick Frizzell

The Weight of the World

Gow Langsford, Onehunga

Until October 25

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Dick Frizzell’s latest show  “Weight of the World,”  at Gow Langsford could well be a reference to Ringo Starr’s 1998 comeback single of the same name which uses the phrase to describe the struggle of letting go of the past and embracing the future. 

The exhibition is ambivalent in terms of the artist’s own life and work, linking the past with his history of breaking new ground. At times his work has seemed to be conservative, borrowing art of the past and outdated advertising images. But this reworking or appropriating images of the past can also be a way of charting new directions for his art.

The exhibition also alludes to his recently published autobiography “Hastings” with its references to growing up in small town New Zealand and the rural landscapes of Central North Island in which the young Frizzell’s encounters with the world of Hastings provide an almost heroic account of his life.

As the artist says “My landscapes occupy a special place in my affections because they define, more than any other of my endeavours, the most solid manifestation of my philosophy. Both the subjects and their manner of representation are chosen to emphasise my eternally optimistic faith in the physical universe that I believe we are ultimately destined to define. I hope… through my piles of hills, stumps, trees and land… to literally convey ‘the gravity of the situation’.”

While his paintings can be seen as simple descriptive works there is a complexity to their construction as well as their context and history. creating dense works about observation, contemplation and significance.

Dick Frizzell, Dirt Road

Several of the landscape images from the exhibition could have been illustrations to his autobiography such as “Dirt Road” ($27,500) and “Backtrack” ($45,000), images that are quintessential New Zealand scenes which link past and present with images which are both descriptive and metaphoric.

There is one work with the same title of the exhibition, “The Weight of the World” ($163,000). It depicts a large tree stump, a reference both to his own tree stump works of the 1980’s as well as those by artists such as Mervyn Taylor and Eric Lee-Johnson. These dead trees were both a symbol of modernism and change as well as an emblematic of the past and loss of identity. 

Much of the artist’s work is imbued with this sense of nostalgia and Frizzell has regularly depicted aspects of New Zealand – a series of local businesses, the huts at Scott base and the controversial series of hei tiki works which all helped define the nature of New Zealand culture.

There are a few signs of habitation or figures in his works mainly small insignificant buildings, “Whitebaiter’s Huts” ($27,500) and “Leaning Toilet” ($27,500) but there is also a painting of a Ratana Chapel “The Beginning and the End”  $27,500) displaying the words  ārepa (alpha) ōmeka (omega), and the large panoramic  “Autumn Morning Alexandra” $185,000).

Dick Frizzell, The Beginning and the End

The only paintings of a settlement in the exhibition are “Autumn Morning Alexandra, 2023 “($185,000) and “Alexandra Morning 2019” ($65,000) where the emphasis is on the natural aspects of the view, the distant hills, the colours of the sky and Autumn leaves as well as the surrounding vegetation. The largest work in the exhibition is “Milling Whakaangiangi” ($225,000), a celebration and recognition of the ever-changing face of the land.

As well as taking inspiration from the New Zealand artists of the early twentieth century there are acknowledgment of other artists – such as his Monet-like “Winter, Earnscleugh Road” ($55,000) and a nod to Winslow Homer’s lighthouse with his “Castlepoint”.

Dick Frizzell, Winter, Earnscleugh Road

As with much of the artist’s work there is a wry humour in many of the paintings both in terms of the subject and the titles. A small painting of a pie is titled  27/3/2025” where English and mathematics merge, similar to his Greek / English word play in “The Beginning and the End”.

The exhibition reveals an artist addressing conflicted personal and national histories around land, seeing the land as both a record of our history and a metaphor for our changing identity, seeing the future looming out of the past.

Dick Frizzell, Milling Whakaangiangi

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Exhibition of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel coming to Wellington for Christmas

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Michelangelo Creation of Adam

MICHELANGELO – A Different View 

Tākina, 50 Cable Street

December 22 – February 8

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican is home to one of the greatest artistic accomplishments in history. It was there in the early 16th century that Michelangelo created the brilliant religious frescoes on the ceiling telling the stories from Genesis. He also painted The Last Judgement on the altar wall, depicting the Second Coming and the Final Judgement.

While millions of viewers have visited the chapel in Rome each year it is not always the most pleasurable experience with the room  crowded with hundreds of people and a constant babble of voices. Having to crane one’s neck to see the ceiling surrounded by milling people is not the ideal way to see the work.

Now a new photographic exhibition attempts to replicate the experience with large reproduction of the Michelangelo’s ceiling and   The Last Judgement. The exhibition was shown in Auckland three years ago, attracting large numbers interested in the religious, art and historical significance of the works..

The exhibition has used state-of-the-art technology to reproduce photographs taken of the artworks following recent restorations

The printing techniques used have been able to  reproduce the colours, the details and  brushstrokes, even compensating for the curved nature of some of the paintings

The reproduction 4.6 metres by 20 metres –  about half the size of the actual ceiling but up close the images provide a new experience.

The image of the ceiling is laid out on the floor and adjacent to it is a viewing platform which provides a view which in many ways is better than the original. Even if you have seen the original this is a different experience as you can see the detail of the work and appreciate the overall design as well the juxtaposition of figures and colours.

Many of the smaller elements of the work which are hardly visible when standing in the chapel such as the small bronze-coloured medallions but these are clear now and add another level of complexity and  understanding to the work.

For many the work will be a religious experience seeing the stories from the Bible brought to life on a grand scale. For others it will be an admiration of the originality and skill displayed by the artist along with an appreciation of the working conditions he faced in creating the works.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgement

On the Sistine Chapel ceiling he painted his complex telling the story of the Creation according to Genesis, the beginning of the world. Then in the Last Judgment he presents the end of the world when the godly are separated from the ungodly. Here the scene is presided over, not by the old, bearded god of the ceiling but by a youthful dynamic figure. Michelangelo also included a self-portrait – a flayed skin  which is something of a metaphor of the artist who considered himself to have been eviscerated by the whole painterly journey.

The ceiling painting is a stunning example of trompe l’oeil with the painter creating an illusory architecture with marble putti supporting a cornice on whose regularly placed outcrops are stone seats on which, nude figures are seated along with images of major Prophets and Sibyls seated on monumental thrones .

Michelangelo, Delphic Sibyl

Michelangelo had a difficult task in reconciling the ideas of Renaissance Humanism with the theology of 16th century Christianity. This was because the Church emphasized Man as essentially sinful and flawed, while Michelangelo was focused on Man’s beauty and nobility. The  two views were irreconcilable and led to later problems such as the nudes of the Last Judgment having drapery painted over their testicles after the artists death.

For Michelangelo it was the creation  of the  human body which was paramount. In his depiction of the creation of Adam it is not so much the creation of a man but the creation of a body and this awe in the beauty of the human body is repeated in many of the figures both naked and clothed

Prior to the Renaissance images of God were rare and generally symbolic. In the early Renaissance such image depicted a patriarchal God the Father as an old man, usually with a long beard. Michelangelo’s image of God saw him with almost human qualities. In the second scene, the Creator is fully defined and heroic and we even see a rear view of him with his buttocks visible through purple drapery.

Also included in the exhibition are images of   the lower frescoes in the chapel. Often given less prominence these wall paintings by several artists including Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandio and Matteo da Lecce depict the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ. They were all  completed in twenty-five years before Michelangelo began work on the ceiling.

They are impressive  paintings but do not have the same power as those of the Michelangelo works Rather than just tell stories he attempted to create emotional responses through the power of gesture.

Many of these artists were showing off their draughting and painterly skills using the relatively new ideas of perspective with Perugino’s Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter being a fine example. Michelangelo does not use these techniques instead using his knowledge of anatomy to create tactile human figure in three dimensions.

When one compares the naked torsos in The Disputation over Moses’ Body by Matteo da Lecce. with those of Michelangelo’s one can see his consummate understanding of the human figure.

Important to an understanding of the paingtings is the role that the Pope Julius II played in commissioning the works. He was a warrior pope and he chose his papal name not in honour of Pope Julius I but in emulation of Julius Caesar. He was one of the great pre reformation humanists seeing links between the Ancient Greeks and this can be seen in other works he commissioned by Raphael  such as  The School of Athens (also in the Vatican) being painted at the same time as Michelangelo was working on the  Sistine ceiling

Like Julius the individuals faces portrayed are bold and dramatic and filled with energy. Compared to the figures in the lower frescoes these are strong personalities which speak of the need for militant Christians, not the softer versions of the lower frescoes.

Michelangelo’s inventiveness can be seen  in the figures he creates. He has used the faces of ordinary people. He probably used the faces of people he saw in the streets or in the church not the stereotypes normally used. These figures are men and women who walked the streets of the sixteenth century Rome.

Michelangelo’s masterpiece combines the worlds of art, religion, science, and faith in a provocative and awe-inspiring work of art.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Victoria Kelly and Rossini take different approaches to Stabat Mater

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Stabat Mater

NZSO
Auckland Town Hall

September 3

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The NZSO latest concert “Stabat Mater featured two works based on the image of the Virgin Mary standing at the site of Christ’s crucifixion which had led to numerous compositions and art works has which has added to the church’s iconography and rituals.

Rossini’s Stabat Mater complete in 1841 was based on the medieval Latin poem describing the Virgin Mary’s grief at the crucifixion of her son while Victoria Kelly’s Stabat Mater was a response to both Rossini’s work and the medieval text. Kelly’s work was less of a sorrowful meditation on to the event but rather a reflection on the misogynistic nature of the text.

Rossini’s Stabat Mater featured three New Zealand singers: soprano Madison Nonoa, mezzo-soprano Anna Pierard, tenor Filipe Manu along with Australian bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman.

The singers were joined by Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, which also performed during Kelly’s new work.

The orchestral opening of Rossini’s Stabat Mater was very operatic contrasting with the low, soft sounds of the choir, as though angelic voices were descending.

The Air that followed had a rather breezy tone and Filipe Manu finely nuance delivery was rich in emotion as he sang about the sword that pierced the Virgins heart. Jeremy Kleeman in a later Air displayed a fine tightly controlled voice with a luxurious sound.

The duet revealed the colourful voice of Madison Nonoa along with the more fulsome sounds of Anna Pierard. Together they were able to convey the torment and grief of the Virgen.

The Quartet which saw the four soloists elegantly interpreted the text, their voices complementing g each other. Their singing did highlight one of the problems with Rossini’s major failing with the work in not assigning characters at the crucifixion to the individual singer – The Virgin, Mary Magdalen, John, the two thieves.

In the Cavatina section Anna Pierard showed drama in her voice along with some terse vibrato and in her Air  Madison Nono started off with barely a whisper which was take up by the choir which turned inti a thunderous sound, her light, piercing  voice seeming to be the Virgin overwhelmed by the choir

In the final quartet the four soloists emphasised their individua voices, seemingly disconnected unfocussed somehow replicating the discord and cacophony which would have occurred during the time of the crucifixion. All this was brought to a conclusion with the chorus and their transcendental Amen.

Victoria Kelly’s response to the medieval text and Rossini use of it “provoked an overwhelming sense of rase and sorrow in me” she has written. Rather than see the texts and the event form a religious perspective she has seen the misogynistic and religious oppression which is tied to much of the church’s teachings. She has taken a revisionist approach and her text for the work is full of critical lines such as

“She wants no choirs castrated,

No congregation tithed,

no people bound and silenced.

no false priests fellated.

The work opening with a low electronic sound leading to the murmuring strings which created a sense of travel or /transition as though we were being transported back to an earlier time.

Much of the time the work sounded like a lament, the sombre singing of the choir and the music interwoven, the text reinforced by the tension and intensity of the choir.

The choir displayed a nice balance between singing and choral speaking their quality, pitch, power, tempo, effective in conveying the meaning and emotion of the work.

The phrase” She does not mourn” occurred several times through the work and was repeated at the conclusion as the words slowly and softly disappeared.

The dark brooding sounds of the final moments of the music contrasted with the angelic voices of the choir and rather than end with a b ang something triumphant like the Rossini it ended with a whimper.

Making her New Zealand debut was Italian conductor Valentina Peleggi whose lively conducting, sweeping gestures and close attention to the soloists and choir ensured an impressive performance.

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