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Auckland Theatre Company’s 2027 Season

John Daly-Peoples

Cameron Rhodes as Poirot

Auckland Theatre Company 2027 Season

John Daly-Peoples

Auckland Theatre Company has just announced its 2027 season, with eight plays that run the full gamut of the theatrical experience. There are twists on beloved classics, a world-class psychological thriller, a picture of end-stage capitalism and a portrait of an unlikely but real man.

Alongside productions of audience favourites – Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, Twelfth Night and The King’s Speech – are exciting new works by New Zealand playwrights, including two world premieres by Arts Foundation Laureate Victor Rodger ONZM and many of New Zealand’s talented storytellers and theatre-makers back to the Company – Anapela Polata’ivao ONZM, Cameron Rhodes, Jennifer Ward-Lealand CNZM, and Michael Hurst ONZM.

“The nature of theatre is the gathering of people in the dark to enter a world created by artists. Spectators may learn, be challenged, be entertained. It could be all three,” says Auckland Theatre Company Artistic Director and CEO Jonathan Bielski. “Each show is made with aroha and manaaki by the actors, playwrights, creatives, builders and stitchers, crews and staff of Auckland Theatre Company. Each is a gift to you, our audience of theatre-lovers.”

MISERY

26 JAN — 20 FEB

By William Goldman

Based on the novel by Stephen King

In this isolated, snow-gripped cabin of 1987, there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

From the King of Horror, Misery is the ultimate psychological thriller: a tense game of cat and mouse between writer and reader, patient and nurse, fan and celebrity. From page to screen to stage, Misery brings two of New Zealand’s most recognisable actors, Michael Hurst ONZM and Morgana O’Reilly, together to play the roles made famous by James Caan and Kathy Bates.

She’s his number one fan. He’s living a writer’s nightmare. This ice-cold plunge into Stephen King’s twisted mind, directed by Simon Bennett.

THE BOY FROM VAIALA
2 – 14 MAR
By Victor Rodger

Victor Rodger ONZM has written an affectionate love letter to his highly unlikely but utterly fabulous Uncle Pasi, Pasi Daniells Silva – father of three, maître d’ to the stars and founder of an iconic drag bar.

As Pasi approaches his 90th birthday, his nephew Levi presses him for stories from a life that has sashayed from Vaiala to Vegas, Hawai’i to Wellington. Full of sass and wit, featuring Grindr and God, this biography doesn’t shy away from the darker side of the mirror ball.

Directed by Anapela Polata’ivao ONZM and starring Semu Filipo as Pasi, this celebrates one of the most unlikely Samoan men of his generation.

A collaboration between Auckland Theatre Company, FCC, Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival and Creative New Zealand’s Festival Commissioning & Presentation Fund, managed by PANNZ.

THE KING’S SPEECH

6 APR – 2 MAY

By David Seidler

London, 1936. Albert must step forward and save his family. The Windsors are caught in a constitutional crisis as World War II looms. This is the inspiring story of how a man found a voice, got the words out – and saved a nation. Ryan O’Kane (Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express) stars as Bertie, the king who stutters, alongside Wesley Dowdell (North by Northwest) as speech therapist Lionel Logue.

Inspired by David Seidler’s experiences as a child with a stutter, the film won four Academy Awards, and the West End production was a four-star hit. Benjamin Kilby-Henson directs the production, which had an extended sell-out season at The Court Theatre in Christchurch.

Auckland Theatre Company presents a production by The Court Theatre. By special arrangement with Music Theatre International (Australasia).

HELEN CLARK IN SIX OUTFITS
14 – 30 MAY

By Fiona Samuel

The sold-out satire of gender and power was a talk of the town in 2026 – and now it’s back for another term. Fiona Samuel MNZM retraces the remarkable journey of a Waikato farm girl who became New Zealand’s first elected female Prime Minister and a global voice through her work at the United Nations and beyond.

Jennifer Ward-Lealand CNZM plays Helen the Elder, with Lauren Gibson as Helen the Younger, as they deconstruct her public image and private self through six outfits. The play examines social expectations, private compromises and public masks – and asks: if Helen Clark broke the glass ceiling, where are we now?

Last year NZ Art Review wrote about the play – “Helen Clark in Six Outfits uses the notion of tracking Helen Clark’s career through reference to the clothing she wore at various stages of her life. It is a concept which even the stage version of Clark rejects going on a rant about how she has always been judged by appearance – her hair, her teeth, her voice and her marriage. All those notions which are rarely used to demean male parliamentarians.

The play traces the life of Helen Clark from school kid through to the present as she climbs both the academic and the parliamentary ladders to her unsuccessful bid at becoming the Secretary General of the UN.

Along the way we/she remembers the fluctuating fortunes of National and Labour governments as well as encountering the major political figures of the time – Phil Goff, Jim Anderton, David Lange, Jonathan Hunt, Jenny Shipley, Judith Tizard and even Winston Peters -is he still alive.”

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

13 JUL – 1 AUG

By Jane Austen and Penny Ashton

When Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are rudely evicted from their childhood home after their father dies, their brother inherits everything – leaving romance their only route out of ruin. But should heart or head rule who takes their hand?

New Zealand playwright Penny Ashton gives Jane Austen’s iconic novel a uniquely theatrical spin, packed with her trademark mischief. An ensemble of six women, including Bronwyn Ensor (Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express),Lisa Chappell (Fallen Angels) and Jackie Clarke MNZM (Jackie Goes Prima Diva) play all 24 characters. Directed by Margaret-Mary Hollins, expect frocks, feminism, spice, hilarity and bold physical storytelling.

BECOMING JEFF BEZOS 

20 JUL – 15 AUG

By Alex Medland

A young woman idealises the Amazon-founding billionaire so much that she’s changed her name. She’s tracking down someone who has lived in the Southern Alps for 30 years and is very keen to keep her location secret from the government. When they meet in a dystopian New Zealand, the culture clash couldn’t be worse – and the whisky doesn’t help.

Nī Dekkers-Reihana (Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking) and Nicola Kāwana (North by Northwest) star in this premiere by Alex Medland, the youngest-ever winner of the Adam New Zealand Play Award, directed by Jason Te Kare (Scenes from a Climate Era). When you’ve opted out of the world, what does success look like? How do you survive when you’re neck-deep in the system?

TWELFTH NIGHT 

19 AUG – 29 AUG

By William Shakespeare

SPECIAL LIMITED SEASON 

When shipwrecked Viola washes ashore with nothing but the clothes she’s standing in and a twin brother, she’s certain has drowned, she reinvents herself as a young man, as you do. As love-letter-driven hijinks ensue, a second survivor of the shipwreck arrives, looking a lot like Viola. 

Created by a dynamic duo making their directing debuts with Auckland Theatre Company, Katrina George  and Miriama McDowell , the production drops Shakespeare’s classic into a glamorous modern-day Illyria. In this dazzling South Pacific resort, the sun never stops shining, and everyone is a little lonelier than they look.

Alongside the strictly limited season of this work are two weeks of performances just for schools, made possible by Woolf Fisher Trust and the Douglas Goodfellow Charitable Trust.

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S DEATH ON THE NILE

14 SEP – 10 OCT

Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig

After Murder on the Orient Express smashed every box-office record in Auckland Theatre Company’s books, the Company follows up with another mystery from Dame Agatha Christie, adapted by Ken Ludwig. In the searing heat of Egypt, a group of curious characters boards the steamer Karnak on the River Nile, little knowing their cruise will be beset by murder and mayhem. Famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot must investigate every passenger, unravelling romantic tensions, old rivalries and the influence of a spooky sarcophagus.

Cameron Rhodes returns as Poirot, leading a cast of 11 in this lush, sweeping and cinematic New Zealand premiere, directed by Eleanor Bishop and designed by Tracy Grant Lord.

NZ Arts Review wrote about the previous Agatha Christie production  Murder on the Orient Express “The result is an actor’s piece to die for.  And this cast do more than just deliver.   The entire cast is let loose, projecting archetypes rather than convincing portrayals of real people.  Each character is distinct, their backgrounds are as varied as their accents and the ensemble functions as a singular unit predominantly by using that essence of great comedy – precision timing and the credibility of relationships between them.”

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Peter Boggs: Transfigured Realities

John Daly-Peoples

Peter Boggs, The Fountain

Peter Boggs

Peter Boggs who was born in New Zealand is one of the leading contemporary painters in Australia, with a career spanning over 50 years and 70 solo exhibitions. He trained at the Elam School of Fine Arts where one of his tutors was Colin McCahon. He taught at Mt Albert Grammar and had several exhibitions in New Zealand before moving to Australia.

 He has been an award-winning painter and is at home painting the mysteries of Italian Renaissance Gardens – most notably the Boboli Gardens in Florence, as well exploring the secret and forgotten aspects of the rural and urban landscapes. After coming across a strange empty room in a building in Italy in 2013, interiors began to dominate his interest – continuing to the present. Dreamscapes of remembered interior settings often only briefly seen and experienced, have become transfigured and re- imagined enigmatic spaces of stillness and silence

His paintings have been referred to as quiet works with a restrained magic and are subtle and dreamlike evoking deep moods, sensations, and atmospheres without relying on explicit storytelling or literal narratives. Rather than demand attention like some expressionist art, his pieces are described as quiet and seductive, drawing the viewer into a personal, deeply felt experience.

The spaces he paints seem entirely real yet slightly out of reach, forcing the viewer to engage intuitively rather than just visually. It is this bitter-sweet quality, where the known and that which is slightly eerie and edgy meet, that characterises many of Boggs’s paintings. Boggs can be an exquisite literal draughts man who can capture precise likenesses and surface textures, yet in his paintings he creates ‘memoryscapes’. All of the locations that he has painted he has visited, frequently on numerous occasions, and he knows them well, yet he recreates them from memory and reimagined.

Peter Boggs Shadowed Walkway

In the Boboli Gardens views and the alleys and streetscapes of Venice there is a quiet reverence for the painters Walter Sickert and John Singer Sargent. Paintings, including Shadowed walkway (Venice), is an examples of his strangely transfigured spaces, rich in their spiritual associations. All of his scenes are depopulated, rather than deserted. It is as if the human presence has been removed, perhaps only temporarily, although signs of habitation are omnipresent. It seems that at any moment, someone will appear from around the corner or walk down the alleyway, but for the moment all is still, tranquil and caught within a dream-like reality. The light is filtered, subdued and the tonal harmonies are beautifully balanced.

In a review of his interior paintings the reviewer Sasha Grishin wrote, “Many of his paintings deal with gardens, deserted landscapes and cityscapes and earlier were preoccupied with still life compositions. He had already been hinting at facades of buildings and looking into windows and open doorways. In this new body of work the focus is entirely on interiors of usually unspecified structures. They seem European, quite grand, possibly museums, but seen from odd angles with open curtains, windows and doorways exposing glimpses of the outside world.

Peter Boggs Reflections in an empty room

In his paintings nothing much happens, there is no dramatic narrative for us to engage with, but everything is charged with an inner tension where the anticipation is immense. There is so much that can happen, but nothing actually does. The viewer is provided with privileged access to these scenes, but there are relatively few clues provided as to what we are actually witnessing. We are invited to contemplate a passage of sunlight in the hallway, a painting hanging on the wall as a silent witness, a glimpse of a street through an open doorway or the play of shadows on the floor.

Boggs exploits two very deliberate artistic strategies in his work. The first is the use of a very subdued tonal palette, there are no screaming bright colours or sudden contrasts. The second is the total depopulation of the settings and the general sparseness. There is no movement and although there are signs of human habitation, there is no one present at the moment, and we are invited into the spaces in the manner of voyeurs. When there is no human presence, we tend to populate the space within our imagination, we invent narratives.”

Peter Boggs, Evening shadows,
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An Enemy of the People: Ibsen’s drama set in rural New Zealand

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Peter Stockmann (Sam Bunkall), Thomas Stockmaan !Fraser Hofmann. and Katherine !Grace Cullen) Image: Lucie Everett-Brown

An Enemy of the People

By Henrik Ibsen

Flyleaf Theatre Production

Q Theatre

Until 22nd August

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In this new version of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” adapted by Aaron Richardson, Dr Thomas Stockmann (Fraser Hoffman) has discovered that the local spa, Te Wai Puia is poisoned from rural runoff and industry. He attempts to inform the local residents and civic leaders through the local newspaper and its sympathetic editor.

Initially he has some support but then there are attempts to cover it up, and the local people turn against him. However, Stockmann still pursues the truth which leads to him being discredited, losing his job and wife. He is also faced with an interfamily drama as his brother Peter (Sam Bunkall) who is also the mayor is opposed to his comments and opinions.

This modern reimagining relocates the story from nineteenth-century Norway to present-day Aotearoa and our own water crisis. This emphasis on water, the commercial and rural use as well as the concern for safe drinking water becomes a real issue. This is emphasised by the large water pipes surrounding the roof of the stage with water dripping into buckets and a small flood in the final act.

As the sole beacon of truth Fraser Hoffman gives a great performance with speeches which are filled with crusading zeal and inspirational lines – “You can’t ignore the truth” and “the public has to hear the truth even if they don’t believe it”.

While he is the hero of the play, he ultimately becomes the lone voice crying in the wilderness. His standing for truth and his zeal is not sufficient to convince everybody, so even his wife Katherine (Grace Cullen) who gives a fine performance as the conflicted wife is forced to leave him.

There is also a well-judged performance from Sam Bunkall who plays Peter Stockmann the brother of Dr Stockmann. Sam Bunkall and Hoffman complement each other wonderfully as they argue on what is best for the town and their onstage physical fight was wonderfully orchestrated.

Joseph Wycoff as Hobson the editor of the local newspaper gave a polished performance as did Matt Chamberlain as Martin whose Everyman approach to was convincing.

Director Grace Augustine has created nuanced production where the characters take on the subtly of real-life politicians as they take up their positions in their investigations of the truth / facts / opinions. Even the audience is left with conflicting views on who is best at protecting the town and the environment.

The minimal set (also Aaron Richardson) works well especially the final scene where the audience becomes the onlookers at a Town Hall meeting, and we feel we are part of the cast.

The ambient sound designed by Laika Rountree initially seems to add to the plays emotional impact but used throughout becomes something of an irritation, detracting from the emotional power of the play.

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The Queen’s Nanny: Broken confidences

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

The Queen’s Nanny
By Melanie Tait
Tadpole Theatre Productions
Director Simon Prast
Set John Parker
Lighting & Sound Gareth Evans and Geoff Evans
Costume Robyn Fleming
With Anna Julienne, Laura Hill, Jack Buchanan

Pumphouse Theatre, Takapuna
Ends 24 May

Reviewer Malcolm Calder
15 May 2026

I had a lovely little evening out at The Queen’s Nanny last night.

But first a very brief history lesson.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, initially Duchess of York, became King’s Consort in 1936 when her husband the Duke of York – known as ‘Bertie’ to intimates – ascended to the British throne as King George VI.

Throughout her life, she became an increasingly popular figure with the British – she and Bertie cutting a dashing swathe through English society when younger, Elizabeth devising outrageous cocktails and an impeccable dress sense, while her husband did his best to keep up as he somewhat trepidatiously stuttered his way to the throne. Elizabeth’s seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public during WW2 and took on a life of its own afterwards. Privileged, eccentric and outrageous on occasion, she somehow connected with the people. I have never quite worked out why – but she did. No question.

Australian playwright Melanie Tait spans much of this period with The Queen’s Nanny, a tale of young Scots child psychologist Marion Crawford who became a governess to the royal couple’s then young two daughters initially for six months and eventually in a tenure that was to last seventeen years.

Crawford, or ‘Crawfie’ as both knew her, became the intimate companion of the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. She become a trusted servant of the family and her service continued until Princess Elizabeth’s marriage in 1947, two months after Crawford’s own wedding that she had postponed for 16 years to serve the family.

So she then wrote a book about bringing up the two royal princesses, used her own name and was rather well paid. The Great British Reading Public loved her words and they sold rather well. Extremely well in fact. So did American readers who lapped them up like hot cakes. I mean to say … sensational revelations, how could they not!

But Crawfie had made something of a colossal blunder. She had omitted to ask permission from the now Elizabeth Queen Mother to do so. Who took exception to them. And that sets the scene for Tait’s play.

Crawfie was cast aside. Ignored and ostracised by the royals and treated like some kind of highly contagious, self-seeking, colonial leper. Y’know, the kind that feature in tabloids or in social media everywhere these days. How outrageous. How dreadful. How could she !

These events are explored with impressive economy by playwright, Melanie Tait, with a cast of only 3. Or maybe 15 or so if you include all the characters played by Jack Buchanan. He slides easily and quite believably through them : everything from an Australian journo (‘you’re assigned to the royals desk, son’), to a butler, to Crawfie’s husband and even to a 7-y-o Princess Eizabeth. Importantly, his characters provide an essential element in the structure of the play – giving the two prime protagonists something to bounce their lines off and providing both context and location. He does so admirably.

However the true strength of the play lies in what is not said. And Simon Prast once again handles this with subtlety and nuance. Backed up with John Parker’s simple set that uses projected moving visuals to convey location, time, space and movement. Quite effective on the small Pumphouse stage I thought.

Anna Julienne gives us an entirely believable Crawfie. Humble, dedicated and loving although childless herself, living a life that has been shaped by the family she has spent so many years tending and caring for. Selfless one might say. She aged the character remarkably well and her and her command of accents matched the say she aged the character.

I think I was looking for a little more bitterness in her Crawfie towards the end but perhaps her ritualised daily preparation of the afternoon tea and then waiting by the window on the road to Balmoral sure in her own mind that the young Queen would stop her landrover and partake of the scones said that far more poignantly.

Many years later my own father used to describe the time he met a somewhat bewildered older woman on an upper floor of a New Zealand hotel, asking in a stentorian voice when the lift was going to be fixed, where the stairs were located and was the bar open. Yes, slightly bumptious he said, with a definite presence and sense of entitlement, but he was more concerned she had addressed him as ‘boy’. That recollection probably coloured my view of Laura Hill’s Queen Mother (Elizabeth if you will).

She was exactly the Queen Mother I have always imagined, with an inimitable on-stage presence, an impish sense of humour and a superior view of the rest of the world with never a hint that she was anything but right in everything she did, thought and said.

For a time I wondered what Melanie Tait was trying to say with this play. Was she having a go at those with a worldview that is one hundred percent insensitive to others? Was she endeavouring to comment on the entrenched (to this day) British class system? Or that wealth speaks (perhaps one might substitute contemporary American attitudes and behaviours today)? Or maybe that there are social iniquities and we should simply accept them? Or personal loyalty? Or maybe the vastly changed mores of contemporary society? Or was Crawfie actually the saint many apparently believed ?

Perhaps all of these and a few more tossed in as well.

The Queen’s Nanny is not a world-shattering play, but this production is definitely a lovely little evening out.


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Zines: a comic version of NZ subculture’s history

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Zines NZ: From punk to present

Bryce Galloway

Massey University Press

RRP $55.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

One of the almost unrecognised literary / artistic areas of New Zealand culture has been the zine.

Zines, a corruption of magazines or fanzines are non-commercial, self-published, small-circulation booklets, often produced by hand or photocopied in limited editions of often only a few hundred copies. They are derived from anti-establishment, punk-rock music, and other activist cultures, providing a platform for personal expression, niche topics, and marginalized voices.

Chris Knox, Jesus on a stick

Even though the zine in New Zealand has been widespread there has been no serious writing about the form. Until now. Bryce Galloway’s “Zines NZ: Punk to present” is written by a zine devotee and is packed with hundreds of images of zine covers and spreads, most of which charm with lopsided collaged energy and all of which possess a singular vision. Zines are so often ephemeral and elusive, and this book’s tribute to so many rich and distinctive voices ensures that their history is not lost.

Some of the early names like Barry Linton and Dylan Horrocks who were major forces early on are mentioned along with others who helped establish the numerous outlets which has seen a plethora of voices over the past forty years.

Galloway says the impetus for the book was largely personal, having been a zine creator himself

“I was interested in finding the thread from today’s plethora of zinefests back to the punk rock zines of early 80s Aotearoa. In 2015 I wrote a rather subjective history of 21st century zines in Aotearoa. I released this as issue 56 of Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People, also presenting it at pop culture and bibliographic conferences. I was thinking, who’s qualified, who could I commission to research and write the earlier part of Aotearoa’s zine history? Eventually I decided I should just take the job on myself.”

He acknowledges that the zine has been side-lined by the art/ publishing/ library world. “I’m sure they’ve been looked down upon, but many in the zine scene wouldn’t have it any other way. For all those who celebrate the growth in this media, there’s others who see the shift from scrappy punk zines and zinefests in community halls to zinefests in major galleries and the like as evidence that zines have lost their edge. I don’t think that’s true but there’s something to be said for the aesthetic challenge made by your scrappy punk zines versus your well-crafted Risograph-printed chapbook for example.”

While Galloway has written this history of the zine, he has also included extensive quotes from around fifty other zine creators who expand the history with all the various personal motivations behind the various concepts and designs.

The book is packed with information along with dozens of illustrations from the zines produced by authors / designers who are well-known such as Chris Knox and David Tulloch to lesser known, but prolific names like Sarah Laing and Indira Neville.

Indira Neville, An Incompetent Girl

Along with being a history of the zine in New Zealand Galloway has provided a personal political and social history of New Zealand featuring significant events and individuals who have helped create change in New Zealand over the last forty years.

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Helen Clark in Six Outfits : The politician her career and her clothes

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Image Andi Crown

Helen Clark in Six Outfits

By Fiona Samuel

ATC

Until April 26

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Helen Clark in Six Outfits uses the notion of tracking Helen Clark’s career through reference to the clothing she wore at various stages of her life. It is a concept which even the stage version of Clark rejects going on a rant about how she has always been judged by appearance – her hair, her teeth, her voice and her marriage. All those notions which are rarely used to demean male parliamentarians.

The play traces the life of Helen Clark from school kid through to the present as she climbs both the academic and the parliamentary ladders to her unsuccessful bid at becoming the Secretary General of the UN.

Along the way we/she remember the fluctuating fortunes of National and Labour governments as well as encountering the major political figures of the time – Phil Goff, Jim Anderton, David Lange, Jonathan Hunt, Jenny Shipley, Judith Tizard and even Winston Peters -is he still alive.

We also hear the voice of Brian Edwards who acts as a voice-over Narrator and was one of her early media advisors / image consultants. We also get to encounter her more recent media consultant, Maggie Eyre.

Studded though her career we get the major achievements of her and her governments – paid parental leave, free early childcare, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.  legalized prostitution and civil unions for same-sex couples. 

Loooming over the stage is a clever set designed by Dan Williams which features a mountain-side which Clark ascends from time to time. It acts a a metaphor for her ascent to power as well as her physical/ mental / political struggles to reach the summit of her career.

As the older Clark Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand gives an impressive account of the politician, at time managing to capture the sound and intonation of her voice as well as her stare. Lauren Gibson as the younger Clark while not quite getting the voice manges to give an astute sense of the earlier Clark with her aspirations and self belief.

Ward Lealand also does a reasonable job of some walk-on parts such as Clark’s father a farmer who was at the other end of the political spectrum but still supported his daughter.

While this play is about serous stuff of politics Fiona Samuel takes a comic approach to the material which had the audience appreciating the political and personal witticisms such as the reference to Clark’s early page boy haircut – her “Joan of Arc” look

The play concluded with Ward-Lealand delivering a Clark speech. I couldn’t remember it all, but it went somewhere along the lines of –

“Let me note now the great importance of empowering women, including through education, to be part of leadership at every level. Equality between women and men at decision-making tables ensures that the perspectives of both get full consideration. As women, we are fully justified in asserting that there should be no decisions made about us without us.

When women are at those decision-making tables, they have the power to change priorities to what matters for the health and well-being of families and communities.

Empowered women become the architects of better health and well-being, making informed decisions for themselves and their communities.”

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Shane Foley, Time and Tide: Looking at Auckland’s past

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Shane Foley Campbells Point at Judges Bay

Shane Foley, Time and Tide

Artis Gallery

Until March 30

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Shane Foley’s “Tide and Tide” exhibition is based of archival images of Auckland‘s waterfront from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. They are of images of foreshores, beaches and building, most of the which have disappeared,

Several of the works make reference to Auckland’s history so “Campbells Point at Judges Bay” ($7500) includes `Kilbryd’, the large Italianate home of Sir John Logan Campbell. In this painting the artist has shaped much of the view making the foreshore beach a series of flat planes while the cliffs below the house have been sculpted with gentle curves of lawn.

Shane Foley Heaphy’s View, St Georges Bay, early 1860’s

In her “Heaphy’s View, St Georges Bay, early 1860’s” she has carefully constructed two houses in the foreground while two background houses owe much to Braque’s “Houses at L’estaque”.

Shane Foley Settlement, St Georges Bay 1867

With “Settlement, St Georges Bay 1867” ($3800) the houses seem like surreal addition, the boxlike shapes placed in the carefully formed landscape consisting of folded landforms, where the fence lines are made from abstract curves.

With “Trees at Shelly Beach, Pt Erin 1914” ($1900) she has depicted one of the now forgotten buildings which could be found on Auckland’s waterfront. This was the salt water, tidal baths at Pt Erin which were demolished for the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Other buildings from the period include “West End Rowing Club at St Mary’s Bay 1914” ($4800) and ‘The Jetty, St Mary’s Bay. 1950’s’ ($4800) where the eerie white buildings stand out from the background.

There is a slight tension in viewing these works, as the past and present merge and the abstraction the artist uses distances our view, giving them a dream-like aspect.

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Bluebeards Castle: NZ Opera’s & Auckland Philharmonia’s inspired performance

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Judith (Susan Bullock) and Bluebeards (Lester Lynch) Image: Thomas Hamill

Bluebeards Castle

By Bela Bartok

NZ Opera & Auckland Arts Festival

Aotea Centre

March 13th & 14th

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In Bela Bartok’s original staging of Bluebeards Castle, the newlywed Judith enters her husband’s dark, foreboding castle where she is faced with seven locked doors that she is forbidden to open. In this version by Daisy Evans, it is a single trunk which holds the memories of the couples past lives which Bluebeard remembers while Judith herself seems to become lost to him.

For this production director Daisy Evens created a new Judith who is somewhere between an older woman with dementia and a woman facing her own psychological breakdown and who along with her husband can be seen as displaying the Freudian concepts of sexual trauma.

The castle can be seen as symbolic of Bluebeard’s soul; a dark mind filled with secrets that threaten to reveal his true nature. The opera itself can be seen as an allegory for the loneliness of the human soul, the impossibility of truly knowing another person, or the conflict between rational and emotional.

Bartok was writing the opera at the same time that Freud was engaged in studies into psychoanalysis and elements of this have seeped into Bartok’s thinking which aligns with Freud’s theories of exploring the unconscious mind, hidden sexual desires, and psychological trauma.

Bluebeards Castle like other Symbolist art works, replaced traditional dramatic narratives with dark, subjective internal journeys, mirroring the Freudian focus on repressed emotions and dreams.

Despite Bluebeards protests she removes the symbolic items from the chest and in doing so she discovers events from Bluebeards past, events she needs to recognise if she is to fully understand him. He also needs to acknowledge these events if they are to be a truly understanding, loving couple.

In opening the chest for the seventh time she discovers the three women of his past, one found in the morning, one at noon and one at sunset, Then with Judith, his fourth, the bride he found at night, having fully understood her husband she joins the women  leaving Bluebeard in perpetual darkness.

The seven memories in the trunk contain the relics of the couples past that Lester Lynch’s Bluebeard remembers with joy and anguish, while Susan Bullock’s Judith emotionally engages with her former self, as lover, bride and mother.

References are made throughout the opera about the power of light to overcome darkness and symbolic of this the stage was studded with two dozen domestic lamps which flickered on and off at various points.

Like the story of Bluebeards Castle, the music is mysterious and riveting, providing a background soundscape which seems to continually shift as the various events of the opera are revealed.

Throughout the work there were sequences where the music provided particularly unsettling sounds, while there were other times when the orchestra was able to symbolise the idea of light flooding into the darkness of the castle. There were some exquisite passages particularly the blaring drama of the organ which was like a palpable force and the swelling of the strumming harps.

It was the emotional richness provided by the two singers which helped maintain the tension along with their creation of character though their acting. Bullock displayed a voice of amazing power while Lynch plumbed great depths as he revealed his inner thoughts.

This production was a stunning display of acting and singing along with an inspiring performance by the Auckland Philharmonia under the direction of conductor Brad Cohen.

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

Macbeth: A Machiavellian tale of corruption

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Brandon Reiners and Ana Gallardo Bobainaw Photo credit: Stephen A’Court.

Macbeth

Auckland Arts Festival

Royal New Zealand Ballet

Co-production with West Australian Ballet

Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre

4-7 March

CREATIVE TEAM:

Choreography – Alice Topp Set & Lighting Design – Jon Buswell

Costume Design – Aleisa Jelbart

Dramaturgy – Ruth Little

Music – Christopher Gordon

Conductor – Hamish McKeich

String Ensemble – Musicians of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Then

Dunedin, The Regent, 13-14 March

Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal, 18-21 March

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Royal New Zealand Ballet ‘s new Macbeth, is a contemporary interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most ruthless tragedies which is as relevant now as it was four hundred years ago. As in many of his plays Shakespeare explores the intense, often tragic tension between the individual and the state, showcasing how personal identity, ambition, and morality clash with political power and societal duty. In his plays state authority and sovereignty, demand conformity, yet individuals seek autonomy or challenge the status quo, navigating complex power structures.

He explores the Machiavellian rise to power and the devastation that two individuals can inflict on the state.

This is all achieved in this production through the choreography, the sets and the music.

The sets designed by Jon Buswell are essentially minimalist while the lighting, also by Buswell is more complex. At some points the lighting is focused on the main characters, at other times shadows and darkness dominate.

Created by internationally director / choreographer Alice Topp the ballet unfolds in a ruthless modern world shaped by political ambition, media manipulation and the fatal seduction of power.

She says, “Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, exploring themes as current today as they were when first written,” says Alice Topp. “An epic story fuelled by political ambition, passion, desire for power and the burden of guilt, its potency endures. Our Macbeth is set in a hierarchy-hungry, high-society city, where political storms, media frenzy and personal ambition collide.”

The music for the work has been composed by Christopher Gordon and features both recorded and live music. One hundred and twenty-nine musicians contributed to the recorded music while an octet of strings from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra provide live music. The musical landscape provides full orchestral sound with driving, unrelenting tempo that echoes the character’s anxieties.

Gordon created a series of musical themes designed to reflect the characters as well as the mood of the various sequences of the ballet. His complex music consisted of big band music, electric dance music, funk, film music and references to composers such as Phillip Glass.

At the centre of the ballet are the two malevolent Macbeths (Brandon Reiners and Ana Gallardo Bobainaw) who dance their solos, pas de deux with moves which indicate  corruption and self-centeredness.

The visceral language of the choreography is used to explore the characters psychological pursuit of power and duplicity.

The classical poses and movements which are normally used to display romantic connections were subverted so that these movements create a disquiet which reflects their own inner turmoil. When the two of them dance their elaborate almost ritualistic dances they seem to be abusing each other in erotic displays.

While the sets are minimal, they are often dominated by tables surrounded by protagonists who engage in discussion and planning. These balletic movements around the table recall Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s “The Scenario”, her witty take on a boardroom meeting,

As the three witches / influencers Kirby Selchow, Ruby Ryburn, and Shaun James Kelly are an excellent melding of the comic, the supernatural and the intruding media with the endless writhing, gesturing and guttural sounds.

Laurynas Vėjalis as Duncan, Dane Head as Malcolm, and Kihiro Kusukami as Banquo gave strong displays which contrasted with the spikey dancing of Reiners and Bobainaw.

There were a few occasions when the audience was given some indication of the story with texts projected onto screens, including a few lines form the play itself but there were other times when the audience could have been given more useful indications of location and event.

Categories
Reviews, News and Commentary

Music without end: A book of listening

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Music Without End; A book of listening

Roger Horrocks

Atuanui Press

RRP $45.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

We are surrounded by music every day, in our houses, in the public space in shopping malls and with our audio devices and through this soundscape to our lives which we build up a huge sound bank of songs and music. Often, we are not aware of how this music is created but we are conscious of its components such as melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, and form, which work together to create a piece of music. But we rarely investigate them, they are magically and mysteriously assembled, providing enjoyment and diversion There are many though who become obsessed by what a composer, band  or singer have created and how these creators have seemingly produced something which touches on our psyche, our emotions and our way of seeing the world. There are some writers, composers and philosophers who try and understand this fascination with what music is and what it does.

Roger Horrocksm is deeply interested in this world of music and his new book  “Music Without End; A book of listening” which follows on from his 2022 book “A book of Seeing” delves  into areas of music which will resonate with readers as well as offering new perspectives and insights.

As the author says in his preface “I take a very broad approach … since I am interested in popular music, jazz, classical music contemporary classical sounds and music form non-Western traditions (including, Indian, African and Māori).

This very catholic approach has resulted in a book which covers the musical landscapes which most readers will be aware of but also presents new landscapes which will be new, novel and intriguing sending readers off in a quest for these often unknown composers, musicians and compositions.

The four chapters of the book are Music and Listening: A personal History, On Listening, Interviews and Music without End: A History of Western Classical Music

The opening chapter reads very much like the account many music lovers would write- early encounters with music which stimulated great interest in listening and collecting music. For Horrocks this has led to a very wide interest in both classical and popular music. He recounts his exploration of music with its various interwoven strands such as hearing Vivaldi’s “Four Season as the soundtrack to Kenneth Angers 1953 short film “Eaux d’Artifice” filmed at the Villa d’Este. 

His music education really developed when he spent time in the1960’s is the US One encounter meant that he saw the Merce Cunningham dance groups performing to music by John Cage and David Tudor and also got to talk with John Cage. An encounter with Arab / Andalusian music in a taxi in Paris as well as exposure to the experimental jazz of the of the 1960’s hearing musicians such as Ornette Coleman and archie Shepp

He also includes miscellany of musical events such as a performance of Handel’s “Messiah” at Crystal Palace in 1857 which had an orchestra of 500 and 2000 singers. Providing a New Zealand context, he notes that two years before the concert the infant Auckland Choral Society had performed the work in Auckland.

For the third chapter the author interviewed ten contemporary musicians who offer different perspectives on the Importance of listening, inspiration and process in the creation of music. These include contemporary composers Eve De Castro Robinson and Annea Lockwood, conductor / composer /performer, Petere Scholes and   singer Caitlin Smith,

“Music Without End: A history of Western Classical Music”, is the final chapter in the book takes a broad approach to the history of Western Music. As the author notes, ‘What interests me is the constant evolution of styles and genres, along with development of instruments, venues and technologies.

Here he follows the course of the Western music over 800 years looking at the major periods – Baroque, Romanticism, Late Romanticism, Modernism, as well Atonal Music Serialism and Minimalism, He also devotes space to many of the Russian composers. including Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke and Valentin Silvestrov.

As well as looking at various aspects of music he devotes much of the book in tracing out the historical threads of Western Music he interested is in trying to understand how the music got to be written and the changes in approaches to composition.

In his exploration of the nature of listening he broadens out his enquiry, looking (and listening) at music from various perspectives such as the compositions of John Cage where the music is close to a theoretical or philosophical model.

This exceptional book not only introduces readers to many specialist areas of music, but it does so using an accessible language, providing interesting anecdotes and providing readers with a way of understanding their own approaches to music.

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