In 1926 the iconic red telephone box which was designed by British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott first appeared in the UK making communication between individuals easier.
Now 100 years later as part of the Auckland Arts Festival telephone users can enter a modern telephone booth as participants in an art event which breaks down the boundary between artist and audience.
For the next three days on Level 3 of the Aotea Centre, you can be part of an art event where you become the actor in scenarios which you create.
Pick up your phone and you are connected to another random audience member or friend. You are confronted with a teleprompter which provides you a collection of scripts, including one by New Zealand playwright Victor Rodger.
You become part of an evolving dialogue which is part theatre and part social intervention. You become both performer and spectator, creating unique dialogues which will surprise, embarrass and entertain you.
Jay Dodge, one of the creators of Red Phone“When this project started, we had five or six local writers, and now we have representation from dozens of countries.
“We asked writers to connect and think about what they love about performance but in a creative way where they can be free and not obliged to reflect what is happening right now,” said Sherry Yoon another creator. “There is so much now going on right now, that we will see artists being both reflective and relevant to now, but also to engage in work that can continue on past our global pandemic. What really resonated with us and the presenters and artists we have engaged is to give audiences a work that isn’t here to replace theatre but is in essence of what we love about live performance — the emotional ride, the intimacy, etc.”
This free installation by Canadian interdisciplinary theatre company Boca del Lupo has toured Canada, Norway, and Latin America to critical acclaim. Now it is presented in Auckland for a strictly limited season.
Bridgeway Cinemas, Auckland Thu 19 Feb – Wed 4 March
John Daly-Peoples
The Europa Film Festival opens with Testament of Ann Lee, an ambitious musical drama that premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, earning one of the festival’s longest standing ovations.
Featuring a Golden Globe-nominated performance from Amanda Seyfried, the film presents a portrait of Ann Lee, founder of the religious Shakers movement, reimagining female leadership, faith and rebellion through unconventional cinematic and musical forms.
The program spotlights new works from some of Europe’s most critically acclaimed filmmakers, whose influence continues to shape contemporary cinema.
Lav Diaz’s Magellan
Locarno Leopard of Honour recipient Lav Diaz presents Magellan, a historical epic tracing the Portuguese explorer’s final voyage while interrogating the moral cost of colonial ambition, starring Gael García Bernal.
French provocateur QuentinDupieux returns with The Piano Accident, a satire on digital fame and spectacle, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour) as an influencer famed for performing outrageous stunt videos because she cannot feel pain.
Academy Award–winner László Nemes presents Orphan, a historical drama set in post-1956 Hungary that explores intergenerational trauma and patriarchal power, following a teenage boy confronting a violent surrogate father.
Several of the films look at artists, shifting focus from public myth to private experience.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Agnieszka Holland presents Franz, a kaleidoscopic portrait of surrealist writer Franz Kafka, moving between eras to examine his enduring cultural legacy. It is a biopic of the author described as, non-linear, and free-wheeling film with a strong visual style.
Chopin, a Sonata in Paris, directed by MichałKwieciński, follows composer Frédéric Chopin’s formative years after his move to Paris in the 1830s.
Directed by Fabienne Godet, The One I Loved recounts the tumultuous true love story of Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, a relationship shaped by artistic ambition, public scrutiny and Montand’s notorious affair with Marilyn Monroe.
Damiano Michieletto presents Primavera, set within Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà, where music, discipline and desire intersect under the mentorship of Antonio Vivaldi. This is the same venue for the New Zealand National Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale featuring works by New Zealand artist Fiona Pardington.
From acclaimed director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan), comes CalleMálaga, a touching and life-affirming drama about age, independence and unexpected romance starring Almodóvar veteran Carmen Maura.
Produced by Natalie Portman, Arco is a spectacular Golden Globe nominated animated adventure set in the year 2075 follows a young girl named Iris who discovers a boy in a rainbow suit has crash-landed near her home from a far-distant future.
Karoline Herfurth’s Wunderschöner interrogates beauty standards, ageing and personal autonomy. Five women in Berlin: Frauke (Martina Gedeck) is approaching 60 and feels bored in her marriage. Julie (Emilia Schüle) is just under 25 and has spent the last few years working successfully as a model until her «look» suddenly falls out of favour. After Sonja’s (Karoline Herfurth) third pregnancy, it no longer looks the way she would like it to. Vicky (Nora Tschirner), a German teacher, does not want to commit to a relationship, and student Leyla (Dilara Aylin Ziem) is bullied because of her weight.
Set against the backdrop of a Transylvanian wedding in 1980, Hungarian Wedding combines romance and social satire, richly infused with traditional Hungarian folk music and dance.
Learning from Venice: A Workshop for Early-Career Artists, Curators and Writers, 25-29 May 2026, Venice Italy
John Daly-Peoples
The Office for Contemporary Art Aotearoa (OCAA) has announced a new initiative “Learning from Venice”, a new professional development opportunity for seven early-career Aotearoa New Zealand artists, curators and writers to take part in an intensive five-day research workshop at the Venice Biennale, between 25 and 29 May 2026.
Timed to coincide with the 61st Biennale of Venice, “Learning from Venice” will take advantage of the of multiple exhibitions mounted across Venice, including the NZ exhibition, Taharaki Skyside by Fiona Pardington mounted at Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà (La Pietà) the site of Bill Culbert’s Front Door Out Back exhibition in 2013
This immersion in contemporary art will be led by curator, writer, editor and educator, Christina Barton, and Curator Contemporary Art at Te Papa, Hanahiva Rose.
The workshop will consist of readings, conversations, visits, and talks, and there will be opportunities to meet artists, curators and individuals involved in the Biennale’s realisation.
Participants will collaborate to produce a publication reflecting on their findings, which will be published and distributed after the workshop concludes.
This initiative will enable a cohort of committed individuals to gain a sharper understanding of how the art world works in the context of one of its highest[1]profile occasions. Participants will gain a stronger grasp of the key issues at stake in current practice, testing their reactions and impressions with peers, and learning together to catalyse future thinking about Aotearoa’s place in and contribution to the global art world.
Applications will be accepted from early-career artists, curators and writers based in or from Aotearoa New Zealand who can demonstrate their commitment to pursuing a career in the visual arts. Applications will be assessed by a panel including the co-leaders, a representative from Creative New Zealand, and artist Judy Millar.
Selected participants will be fully funded to attend (including flights, accommodation and a per diem).
Partners
The Learning from Venice workshop has been made possible through the generous support of multiple partners, including Creative New Zealand, Te Papa and the Te Papa Foundation, Elam Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, Naveya & Sloane, Barbara Blake and the Gow Family Foundation. The Chartwell Trust have generously supported the Aotearoa-based elements of the project.
Julia Bullock, Bluebeards Castle, Sincere Apologies
The New York Classic review last year featured a review of Julia Bullock by Rick Perdian
“It would have once been almost impossible to imagine a vocal recital by a major artist with songs by Alban Berg, Bob Dylan, and Rodgers & Hammerstein on the program. These are different times, however, and what once would have been dubious box-office is now perfectly attuned to the times.
Bullock opened the recital with songs by Samuel Barber, whose embrace of Romanticism put him at odds with the more progressive elements of the musical establishment in mid-twentieth-century America. The three songs which she sang—“My Lizard (Wish for a Young Love),” “Nuvoletta,” and “The Daisies”—outlined the wistful nostalgia, zaniness, and embrace of the bizarre that would course through the recital.
As with the Barber songs, Bullock performed songs by Kurt Weill which spanned the composer’s career from his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht in Germany to his Broadway hit, Lady in the Dark.
The outlier was the first, “Complainte de la Seine,” which Weill composed in Paris after fleeing Nazi Germany. This setting, like earlier songs dating from Weill’s collaboration with Brecht, “Ballade vom ertrunkenden Mädchen” and “Song of the Hard Nut,” show the composer at his most hard-edged and bleak. With crystalline tone, perfect pitch, and a delivery void of sentiment, Bullock sang of cadavers resting at the bottom of the Seine, the Marxist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg’s decaying corpse in a Berlin canal, and the calculated transactions that fuel capitalism. With “The “Princess of Pure Delight,” Bullock switched gears, projecting a cool sophistication that evoked the era.
Bullock’s most sublime singing came with Berg’s Altenberg Lieder. Viennese audience’s greeted the songs with such derision in 1913 that Berg never permitted them to be performed during his lifetime. The five songs are settings of enigmatic verses by the poet Peter Altenberg which he sent to friends on postcards.
A substantial portion of the second half of the recital was devoted to songs by Richard Rodger and Oscar Hammerstein. Bullock told the audience that their music had been a part of her life from her earliest years growing up in St. Louis. “Dites-Mois” from South Pacific was the first song that she ever sang in public at the age of ten before an audience of thousands.
The audience was enthralled as Bullock sang some of the greatest hits from The Sound of Music and South Pacific. For the most part, these were straightforward renditions of beloved songs, but Bullock and Brown could be provocative, such as in “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific. Bullock delivered the song’s message with a matter-of-fact directness which was intensified by Brown’s punctuation from the piano.
There were also songs linked to Odetta Holmes,who was known as the voice of the American civil rights movement in the Sixties. Bullock sang Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” with a penetrating, unflinching directness. Odetta’s arrangement of “Going Home” and Elizabeth’s Cotten’s “Freight Train” followed.
Bullock ended the recital with Converse’s poignant ballad “How Sad, How Lovely,” a meditation on the loveliness and sadness of life.”
Bluebeards Castle
This version of Bluebeards Castel was previously performed in Wellington and Christchurch in 2023. Elizabeth Kerr reviewed the work in Five Lines.
“The dramatic trajectory of this contemporary production of Bluebeard’s Castle is vivid and deeply moving from its opening bars till the passionate conclusion. ..For me, its greatest wonder is the faithful use of the original text and music to tell a tragic story of today, a superb creative reimagining of Bartók ‘s only opera.
Bartók wrote Bluebeard’s Castle in 1911. He was 30 years old. The Gothic work, with a libretto by the composer’s friend, poet Béla Balázs, was based on the French folk tale published in the 17th century by Charles Perrault.
The opera has a singing cast of two with a full orchestra. The role of Bluebeard is sung in this New Zealand performance by US baritone Lester Lynch, and his wife Judith by UK soprano Susan Bullock. As the semi-staged production opens, the strings of the NZSO set a rather creepy mood. The couple arrive onstage, Judith appearing confused and troubled. “If you left me, I’d be lost and all alone here,” she sings.
In the original, Judith was Bluebeard’s very young wife, brought to his cold, dark castle and confronted by seven locked doors, which open in turn throughout the opera, revealing their disturbing contents. The locked doors are replaced by a suitcase, and from it are drawn contents representing memories of Judith’s life and their relationship.
Bluebeard’s Castle is often described as a Symbolist opera and symbolism remains strong in this production. ..This is the writing of a young Bartók, strongly influenced by Romantic composers and Debussy, and his score, including the challenging and chromatic vocal lines, is beautiful, colourful and lush. It is also highly dramatic and alongside the theatrical symbolism are meaningful musical motives, most noticeable the “blood” motive of a minor second, a semitone, appearing whenever Judith, remembering past losses and fears, refers to blood.
A final “door” brings the impassioned denouement. “When this door is opened, Judith, you will find my wife there waiting”, sings Bluebeard, handing her a mirror from the suitcase. The poetry in the libretto really blooms here, as Bluebeard sings of his former wives, the young lover, wife of the dawn, the young wife of his “noontime”, the mother, wife of his evening.
The younger wives return, also holding mirrors, and as Bluebeard sings of each, Judith offers a repetitive and sad little refrain from her chair. “Ah, compared to her, I am nothing.” But she is, he tells her, his wife of the night. Musically, Bartók brings the opera to its big romantic climax. “Eternal beauty!” sings Bluebeard. “Now, all turns to darkness.”
The mood in music and staging fades quietly. Tenderly, Bluebeard brings Judith a cup of tea. The lights also fade to blackness.”
Sincere Apologies
“Sincere Apologies” is an Australian production with relevance to New Zealand with a recent review of the production in “My Melbourne Arts” praising the low key, audience based play.
“Sincere Apologies” begins unassumingly: an envelope is handed to an audience member and it is passed from hand to hand. No words are exchanged, no introduction is made, no actors are present. It’s just a low-key game of “pass the parcel” that opens the door to a chorus of voices and a world of regret.
Fifty real apologies are sealed inside fifty envelopes that are distributed to the audience. These span from 1990 all the way into the future, each one factual and collected from documented expressions of remorse by public figures, private correspondence, and personal moments by the shows three creators, Dan Koop, Jamie Lewis and David Williams. One by one, in numerical order, audience members step up to a microphone and read them aloud.
Some are weighty and political – a Prime Minister’s apology to the Stolen Generation or BP’s statement following an oil spill. Others tap into pop culture’s hall of infamy – like Kanye West and Taylor Swift. Then, there are the apologies from the creators themselves, adding a deeper intimate layer to the mix. There are no actors in Sincere Apologies. No one introduces the show or welcomes the audience. Even at the end, when we clap, it’s not for performers on stage, but for each other, and the three tech staff quietly stationed in the corner. The audience is the cast, and in that shared vulnerability something almost communal forms. Strangers stumble over words, laugh nervously, or surprisingly choke up. You start to listen differently, not as a spectator, but as part of a temporary community bound by confession.
As the reading unfolds, you find yourself unexpectedly drawn in, paying attention not only to the words themselves, but to the way they are spoken. Stripped of power, fame, and PR polish, these words take on new meanings. When random people speak them, they can come across as absurd, hollow, or even heartbreaking and genuine. The performance asks: what happens when we remove status from an apology? Can tone, delivery, and intent make any acknowledgment register as authentic – or insincere?
A carefully crafted score heightens the work, as subtle sound effects and rhythmic pulses heighten particular instances, building a hypnotic rhythm that pulls the audience into this collective act of reckoning.
By the end, this experience is strangely moving. There’s humour and absurdity, yes, but there is a weight to hearing the people in the room attempt to make things right. It’s exhausting and cathartic, and a reminder that “sorry” is both universal and endlessly complicated.”
A visionary plan to preserve, establish and maintain the home of Gil and Pat Hanly as an artist’s residency and museum at 7 Walters Road, Mt Eden was recently announced at the artist’s former home.
The house and extensive tropical garden located in the heart of Mt Eden, would operate as a social hub, gallery and museum as well as an education and research space for New Zealand art history, and a unique supported urban artists’ residency and studio for emerging contemporary artists locally and from across the world.
Iconic New Zealand artists Pat, a painter and Gil, a documentary photographer, contributed significantly to the social, political and cultural landscape of Aotearoa. Through the Hanly House project the family wish to celebrate Pat and Gil’s contributions to the cultural landscape of Aotearoa, and for visitors and researchers to enjoy and be inspired by it.
The Artist Residency Programme would support artist at a critical point in their career development by providing the house rent free for up to five years.
The residency would work with key stakeholders including Te Papa, AAG, ELAM and ILAM to achieve that goal.
Initial aims of the Hanly House would be to raise capital to purchase the house and garden from the Family. Once established it is intended that house would host regular arts focused functions and support public access to events at the house, support public access to the garden and raise operational funds through events, endowment fund, and edition sales.
ARTIST RESIDENCY DETAILS
Long term (3 -5-year residency programme)
Open to national and international artists through an arts partner organisation.
Selection Process and Programme in Partnership with Te Papa, AAG, ELAM, ILAM
Artist to be between 30 and 40 years old
Artist’s family welcome to reside with artist
On acceptance of the residency, The Artist will be expected to reside and work at the address for the duration of the period, with standard holiday breaks.
The residing Artist participation and outcome expectations would include
Attend the Annual Garden Party Functions at the house.
Speak at quarterly In Conversation programmes at the house or another arts organisation.
Deliver a body of work or installation that responses to the region.
Produce and gift to the Trust a series of limited edition to the value of $20,000 for fundraising purposes.
The Hanly Family Trust is currently supporting the development of the Hanly House proposal and is calling on individuals for support. Supporters can make immediate donations of $5 or more and can pledge donations which will help offset the establishment costs and enable the commissioning of further development plans.
Supporters can register at various tiers:
Heart 1M+
Kowhai 500K+
Dove 100K+
Hope 5K+
Activist 1K+
Benefactors will be acknowledged, onsite, in print material and at functions.
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Peter Clark, Arna Morton, Gillian Ansell and Callum Hall Photo: Kāhui St David’s
Shostakovich: Unpacked
New Zealand String Quartet with Ghost Trio
Kāhui St David’s
September 24
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
For their latest concert “Shostakovich Unpacked” the New Zealand String quartet joined with the Ghost Trio to perform three works by the composer acknowledging the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death.
They performed in the recently renovated Kāhui St David’s church which has become a valuable addition to the music performing spaces in Auckland.
The concert featured his “Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano” which consisted of early works which had been arranged by Lev Atovmian, a student of the composers.
The Five Pieces are relatively easy to play works which were originally written as film background music which are Romantic dance like works including a gavotte, waltz and polka.
Throughout the work violinists Monique Lapins and Peter Clark responded to the lively music engaging in their own dance moves, notably in the last piece, a gypsy style polka.
The concert opened with the composers “String Quartet No. 4” which was composed in 1949 and premiered in 1953 after the death of Stalin. Before that Soviet composers could only write proletarian music for the Russian masses. With Stalin’s death Shostakovich’s music was more accepted and his reputation restored and he could express himself more freely
The work was written for his friend Pyotr Williams the artist and scene painter and in a sense a requiem.
Violinist Peter Clark playing was animated, his sinuous playing matched by his sinuous, vigorous movements.
The sounds of his violin were at times mournful with some ecstatic moments like the voice of a Jewish cantor.
Where his voice might be seen as that of a souring angel the two other violinists Arna Morton and Gillian Ansell provided more human responses with sounds representing human grief.
In the third movement there was lively a conversation between the violists and Callum Hall’s cello with some abrupt sounds and ricochet bowing creating a tense atmosphere which morphed into more whimsical but soulful sequence.
There was some effervescent playing as the strings seems to compete with each other, the cello providing a solid base in a headlong race. There were passages filled with pizzicato playing representing Jewish folk melodies along with some strangled voice and jazz sounds.
At times the group sounded like a choir full of disparate voices with the plucking of strings and the clashing of bows against strings. Between these harsh attacks which had an intense physicality there were sections of reverie with the work ended with an almost whispered sequence of light pizzicato.
Ken Ichinose, Gabriele Glapska and Monique Lapins Photo: Kāhui St David’s
The final, work on the programme played by the Ghost Trio was the composers “Piano Trio No 2” which was written in the middle of the Great Patriotic War and is the composer’s response to the drama and destruction of the time. It opened with the high-pitched sounds of the cello played by Ken Ichinose, a sole voice in a deserted landscape followed by the mournful piano. The insistent cello and repeated phrases of the piano suggested the harsh sounds of battles followed by victory followed by defeat and retreat.
The subversive use of the ‘forbidden’ Jewish folk themes which Shostakovich often used as a subversive element can be heard, especially in the third and fourth movements.
Throughout the work there are massive sequences in which piano violin and cello seem to compete with each other but in the end merge. There were parts where the piano performed a death march and the three instruments provided a tapestry of dispiriting sounds as the instruments wove an intricate pattern of some elaborate game, the violinist and cello in a futile dance of death. One of the final themes, possibly a Jewish dance turns into a militaristic theme before ending in a whisper.
The concert also featured the New Zealand composer Robert Burch’s “An essay to the Memory of Dmitri Shostakovich for cello and piano composed in 1975 featuring the cello of Callum Hall and pianist Gabriela Glapska. The work was evocative of Shostakovich’s work with the meticulous cello of Hall interspersed with violent interruptions from the piano.
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The current exhibition “Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua” is the artists first comprehensive exhibition of his work and features more than 65 works spanning his 50-years as a photographer. documenting the land, the people and its history. These photographs are of places across the Pacific, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Much of his practice documenting sites of significance across the country, include places where Captain James Cook and his crew came ashore on their visits in 1769 and the 1770s, as well as locations where Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840.
Over the decades, Adams has sustained a deep and ongoing engagement with subjects of interest. He has photographed whakairo Māori (Māori carving) both here and overseas and the work of, Samoan master tattoo artists, Māori–Pākehā interactions in Rotorua, carved meeting houses, locations of significance for Ngāi Tahu in Te Waipounamu and the place of museums and photography in the area of cross-cultural exchange.
It includes photographs taken across the Pacific, the United Kingdom and Europe that explore the migration of artistic and cultural practices across the globe, and examine the role of museums, and photography itself, in the ongoing area of cross-cultural exchange.
The various sections of the book show Adams’ range of work from his early works, his focus on Rotorua, tatau, Treaty Signing Sites, Museums, Cooks Sites Māori meeting house in overseas locations, Te Waipounamu and his more recent interest in Photograms.
Several of his multi-image work are fascinating in their scope and production but the book does not do them credit, even when spread across several pages. With these works the exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery make an impression in some cases filling an entire wall of the gallery. “0 degrees” is such a work, a panoramic 360-degree set of images taken at Greenwich Park which includes the Royal Observatory, the home of Greenwich Mean Time and Prime Meridian.
Other works on a grand scale include his “Nine Fathoms Passage”, the photographers view replicating William Hodges view of Dusky Sound, and his panorama of the meeting house, Hinemihi in the grounds of Clandon Park in Surrey, England as well as the magnificent meeting house Rauru in the Museum am Rothenbaum in Hamburg.
Mark Adams, 13.11.2000. Hinemihi. Clandon Park. Surrey. England. Ngā tohunga whakairo: Wero Tāroi, Tene Waitere, 2000, colour inkjet prints, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2014.
Author of the book Sarah Farrar says “You could say that, in many respects, Mark has been ahead of his time as a Pākehā and Palagi artist. But what does that really mean — to be ‘early’ or ‘ahead of one’s time’? It’s all relative and I’m sure many people would view a respectful approach to tangata whenua and tangata o le moana as seriously overdue.”
Adams’ photographs are of exceptional quality and intriguing in their distinctive approach to subject matter. The viewer is challenged to interpret , question and reflect on them. One commentator, Damian Skinner has noted that Adams photographs “offer no resolution, only problems. They patiently track the material traces of various forces that coalesce in specific sites”.
Mark Adams, 19.05.1989. Te Ana o Hineraki. Moa Bone Point Cave. Redcliffs. Ōtautahi Christchurch. Te Waipounamu South Island, 1989, gold-toned silver bromide fibre-based prints, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, 2014.
Generally, with photographs of important sites the photographer is essentially saying – “I was here – this is how it looks”. However, with many of Mark Adams photographs of historical sites, the land seems of little interest, often devoid of figures. With these the photographer seems to be saying “this is how it looked”. The photographs require the viewer to transport themselves back to that place but in another time.
Sarrah Farrar notes “His photographs of museums and art galleries remind me of the artifice and stagecraft that we are actively involved in as curators and museum professionals. Every decision we make communicates something to audiences. We construct meaning through the selection of objects (even those that are absent), their placement and their interpretation. Mark’s photographs remind me of the power dynamics and knowledge systems that are inscribed in museum, library and art gallery experiences — even embedded into the design of the buildings themselves. A great example of this is Mark’s panorama of the science-fiction-like modernist design of Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek, which feels so at odds with the fact that it’s the home of the journals of Georg Forster, the naturalist who travelled with James Cook on his second voyage.”
Mark Adams, 1988. Hori Korei. George Grey monument. Albert Park. Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, 1988, silver bromide print, courtesy of the artist.
The book is a stylish, superbly-designed production with over 200 images, mainly black and white. It features an excellent text by Sarah Farrar as well as a forward by Ngahuia te Awekotuku and afterword by Nichlos Thomas
It would be easy to pigeon-hole SIX as a high energy show with lots of froth and bubble, and aimed fairly and squarely at the tiktok generation. But you would be wrong. It is rather more.
All things must change and musical theatre is no different. SIX is important enough to represent another of those significant change points in history – following in the footsteps trodden by Oklahoma or West Side Story or Cats or Hamilton.
On leaving, I overheard an audience member mutter something about SIX being really just a glossed up pub cabaret. And, to a certain extent, it is. Originally conceived by a couple of then relatively unknown Cambridge students in 2017, Moss and Marlow took it to the Edinburgh Fringe that year, was a huge success and soon wound up at the Arts Theatre in the West End before a Broadway opening almost immediately before Covid struck. There was a sort of relaunch in 2021 and SIX now enjoys semi-permanent residence in both London and New York and has gone on to world-wide success with multiple productions all over the anglosphere, as well as Europe and in Asia.
So what has driven this success? A well-known Australian commentator once suggested it resembles a Spice Girls concert directed by Baz Luhrman – but one where the girls can actually sing. Quite apt I thought at the time. But this show is a lot more than that. It is VERY much a significant part of the musical theatre tradition. In fact there are so many references, acknowledgments and subtle nuances running through SIX that enumerating all of them becomes difficult.
First and foremost, this is a NOW show. As such it reaches its target easily and then some. So, yes, to the tiktok generation. But it is bigger than that and, while it might help grow memberships of amateur music theatre organisations, that is rather simplistic view as it impact is considerably greater. Not to put too fine a point on it, the key fundamental of SIX is pure entertainment built around that old adage – a good story told well that enthrals its audience. And good entertainment knows no age boundaries – the grandmother in front of me was up and out-boogying her two grandchildren at the end. Underlying import counts too.
The stories of the six queens are told in the language of the second decade of the 21st century – not by the archival or even slanted recollections of historians about the politics and intrigue surrounding the first Tudor king. Most of whom were men, and of a fairly clearly-defined social class at that. Further, it is told from a women’s perspective. And remember, some of the queens were all exceptionally young when they married and the Royal Court revolved around power, politics and intrigue. So we leap immediately to empowerment for women – a rallying cry for millions – and a clear audience profile for SIX.
Structurally, as the fairly comprehensive promotional campaign has pointed out, SIX is built around a history lesson and a competition. OK. Thank you. Got that. It puts the six queens up against each other each other – an Eisteddfod if you will – or is that merely a device for something bigger?
The six queens never leave the stage and their individual songs merge into six-voice choral arrangements, complimentarily and contrapuntally at times, with occasional snatches of spoken dialogue (but not very much at all). The staging itself is outstandingly conceived by Emma Bailey and reflects a modern high-tech concert stage that integratesTim Deiling’s dynamic lighting and Paul Gastrehouses’s sound in a way that clearly works. The stage is also peopled by an astonishingly well-rehearsed, syncopathic and complimentary all-girl band for the entire show.
This primarily Australian cast comes well credentialled. Dancing skills are clearly in evidence with very tight routines throughout and, even if there were one or two very minor vocal wobbles, vocal strength was generally strong and led by the assurance of Loren Hunter (Jane Seymour). But let’s face it, this show is presented more like an eisteddfod or a competition and it doesn’t really matter – one voice will always overlap another. The tenderness of Heart Of Stone and the hilarious rap of Haus of Holbein were both standouts for me.
The primary focus of attention however is largely rivetted on Gabriella Slade’s award-winning costumes. Little wonder that her outfits have a dash of Spice Girls about them as she devised Spice World back in the 1990s. But now she has embellished some glittering and futuristic sequinned outfits in ways that not only catch the eye, but help tell each queen’s story. The ‘beheadeds’ have chokers for example, Jane Seymour’s black and white bodice echoes the half-timbered houses of Tudor England, the green of Anne Boleyn’s outfit references the popular myth that this evergreen was composed by the much-wedded Henry VIII himself (that’s factually incorrect, but let’s stick with the myth). It’s interesting that one interpretation of this song concerns the promiscuity in young women, something Henry’s henchman Archbishop Cranmer used in arranging divorce and subsequent beheading.
The references go on. In fact they are never ending. There are the pop divas found in the songs : I think I heard echoes of Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Alicia Keys and probably missed a few more.
The sense of fun and campness is constant. SIX takes neither itself, nor musical theatre in general, seriously and whimsy is everywhere. Phones in the theatre, for example, were quite correctly asked to be turned off pre-show and then during the encore (or more correctly the ‘finale’), encouraged the audience to light them up again. And they certainly did. It was another moment of sheer joy and made the audience a part of the show. I think that grandma in front of me got a pretty good video take.
Any good production simply tells a story. SIX does so with succinctness and very, very well. It is not a long show, but is pretty demanding on both voices and the attention-span of audiences.
I always relish a well written show that is objective and contemporary rather than one that delves into the introspective meanderings of L-plate writers. SIX is mature writing and very clever staging.
The filmed on-stage reunion of Six’s original West End queens will be released in cinemas next month and, rather ironically, Auckland’s Civic remains one of the larger in-theatre venues it has played. After here, it’s off to complete its second lap of Australia at the Civic’s sister in Newcastle, while Asia awaits
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Auckland Theatre Company have announced their 2025 Season of six plays ranging from Shakespeare’s 400-year-old Romeo and Juliet to Roger Halls latest.
These plays include two world premieres, an Auckland premiere, and a translation of a one of the classics. The productions will be directed by some of the country’s best talent including Shane Bosher, Oliver Driver, Benjamin, Alison Quigan QSM and Katie Wolfe,
The Plays
a mixtape for maladies by Ahi Karunaharan 4 – 23 Mar Ahi Karunaharan’s talesweeps from 1950s Sri Lanka to modern-day Aotearoa. Directed by Jane Yonge (Scenes from a Yellow Peril) this is both a love letter to Sri Lanka and a lament, the story plays out over 17 songs – ranging from Dusty Springfield to La Bamba to the hit single from a Tamil rom-com.
A collaboration between Agaram Productions, Auckland Theatre Company and Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival.
Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig 22 Apr – 10 May The classic that birthed an entire genre comes to the stage with Cameron Rhodes (King Lear, North by Northwest) as the inscrutable Hercule Poirot, supported by Rima Te Wiata, Sophie Henderson, Ryan O’Kane and Mayen Mehta. This play was adapted for the stage by Tony-nominated playwright Ken Ludwig and is directed by Shane Bosher.
Roger Hall’s End of Summer Time 17 Jun – 5 Jul New Zealand’s most successful playwright Sir Roger Hall brings back one of his most famous characters, Dickie Hart who made his first appearance almost 30 years ago in C’mon Black. This is an affectionate and hilarious skewering of an old grump who realises he still has a lot to learn about the world when he moves to Auckland to be closer to his grandkids. Directed by theatre stalwart Alison Quigan, the play sees Andrew Grainger (Peter Pan, North by Northwest) bringing his big-hearted comedic talent to this solo show that like, all of Hall’s plays, has more than a little bite to it.
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 15 Jul – 9 Aug William Shakespeare’s tale of passion and heartbreak is recast as a fast-paced thriller in this large-scale production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by the co-director of 2023’s runaway hit King Lear, Benjamin Kilby-Henson. Theo Dāvid (Shortland Street) and Phoebe McKellar (One Lane Bridge) make their Auckland Theatre Company debuts as the star-crossed lovers in a Missoni and Pucci-inspired take on 1960s’ Italy, supported by a stellar cast including Bronwyn Bradley, Miriama McDowell and Beatriz Romilly. As potent today as it was when written more than four centuries ago, this tragedy celebrates the triumph of love over hate.
Mary
MARY: The Birth of Frankenstein by Jess Sayer 19 Aug – 7 Sep A villa in Switzerland, in the dark winter of 1816. Mary Shelley stands over a bloodied corpse and knows her words are to blame. The script, written by award-winning playwright Jess Sayer in collaboration with Oliver Driver, builds on the bones of history to re-imagine the events of the infamous night that birthed one of the most famous novels of all time: Frankenstein. In Mary: The Birth of Frankenstein, co-created and directed by Oliver Driver (Amadeus), the production transforms from a parlour drama into an unsettling, drug-fueled, lust-drenched Gothic horror as Shelley, played by Olivia Tennet, casts off the men who seek to control her and steps from childhood into life.
Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking
TIRI: TE ARAROA WOMAN FAR WALKING by Witi Ihimaera 4 – 23 Nov The Season closes out with a history-making new adaptation of the epic tale of Tiri Mahana, a 185-year-old matriarch, from her birth at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi to present day Aotearoa. For the first time, the play will be performed in two parts, English and te reo Māori, with both versions capturing the enduring spirit of Te Ao Māori. With the multi-award-winning team of The Haka Party Incident creator Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama) and actor Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi); Witi Ihimaera’s (Te Whanau a Kai and Ngāti Porou) extraordinary play will shine once again, re-imagined in te reo Māori by Maioha Allen and company.
Louise Pōtiki Bryant’s In Transit imagines the links between Maori myth, ritual and their notion of the ancestors observing the nutuarl world and its cretasures. Here the shaping of the creation myths, are given narratuives and images which give meaning to the transition in human life paralleling those of the spirit world.
The work appears to dwell on several aspects of Māori myth such as the creation story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, whose, children exist for a time in in the dark world until Tāne, separates their parents, bringing the children into light.
There is also reference to the evolution of the taiaha which Tū, the god of war asks Rūrūtangiākau, the weapon maker of the gods to create a weapon.
The dance opens with a low droning sounds as the sole figure, representing Tū or Rūrūtangiākau who dances through shafts of light with a branch balanced on his head., He moves from an underworld into light and is joined by five other dancers who perform with long sticks or the evolving taiaha. They dance to a soundscape which [provides a sense of the being under water along with bird sounds.
The dancers seemingly inspired by bird and reptile movement, move with short sharp steps id birds, strutting, foraging and pecking. These movements were accompanied by staccato like breath which add to the sense of existing n another dimension.
Some of the dancers entwine cresting manaia shapes suggesting the notion of messenger between the mortal and spirit worlds.
The slender taiaha are used to create a Papatūānuku womb-like shape out of which a figure emerges.
The work is full of robust dancing, flickering shafts of light along with a mesmerizing soundtrack along with relentless beats. It blends together sound, music, visual and movement describing the transitions between the physical world and the spirit dimensions.
Matter
Matter
Choreographer & Sets, Ross McCormack
Composer, Jason Wright
Lighting, Jo Kilgour
Costumes , Vicki Slow
“Matter” choreographed by Ross McCormack opens with a lone figure seemingly transfixed by one of the five post erected on the stage. He was joined by another figure and from their fitful movements it appears that they are inhabiting a world where they are seeking, discovering or being activated by lines of force or energy, possibly emanating from the poles.
Then they are joined by a group of dancers who move to a cacophony of sound, inching forward, creating a reptilian-like form with a nod to the work of the German choreographer Pina Bausch. Their erratic shuffling moves, driven by an inner tension and massive roars of music is by turns orderly as though responding to laws of Nature or manipulated by an unseen hand.
Two of the dancers appear to respond to other sounds as though out of their control and they engage in movements which area mix of tussle and dance, their movements hinting at forces which are attracting and repelling g them.
We get the sense that the poles are the xxx of these forces- electromagnetic, natural rhythms or xx. Other bodies separate and merge becoming alien creatures and the sounds and music we hear are the sound of massed bodies and the arms and legs becomes tentacles.
Throughout the work the dancers seemed to be either seduced or buffeted by the music and sounds, their movements at times urgent and sharp while at other times graceful and submissive.
In the latter part of the dance the poles / pou are moved taking on more symbolic meaning- the crucifixion, the triumphal Iwo Jima image of WWII.
There is a surreal beauty to the dancing which is created with a subtle mix of sound and lights while at one point the music takes on the rhythms of the Pacific with a hypnotic quality.
Another dramatic sequence involves first two dancers and ultimately all eight moving and dancing as mirror images of each other creating a dramatic frieze. This architectural aspect is also present in many of the other sequences, deriving from the five poles.
Much of the time the dancing could be likened to the movements of atoms and molecules in chemical and physical reactions, conforming to notions of particle physics and string theory.
Slip
Slip, Rebecca Jensen
We don’t often get to see true absurdist dance in the style of the absurdist dramatic works of the 1950s and ’60s. Nothing that suggest the human condition is essentially absurd and devoid of purpose.
Rebecca Jensen’s “The Slip” seemed to offer an absurdist dance which was set in a bizarre or surreal environment. The stage looked like an art installation – a step ladder, bucket, watering can, a table cluttered with apparatus, a sole cup and a large, directional microphone.
The opening minutes of the work continued the absurdist premise as we watched a couple of stagehands pouring water into containers and splashing it over the stage. It looked as though it was a work about sea level and climate change. This idea was reaffirmed throughout the production with images and the sounds of water.
After that opening sequence Rebecca Jensen appeared, dressed in a medieval gown, the first of her iterations. She sat, meditatively on the stage, performing simple gestures which were in marked contrast to her hectic movement in the latter part of the work.
“Slip” is a filled with precise and deliberate movements, mixed with moments of humour and provocation. It is an experimental work where the flaws and interventions that show up over the course of the performance add to its idiosyncratic quality.
It’s a work which can be interpreted as having surreal narratives, the themes of which will occur to the individual viewer as they come to grips with the many vignettes.
The focus of the work comes from the title, ”Slip”. There is a constant slippage between what we see and what we hear, between what is natural and what is fabricated between the role of the performer and the place of the technician.
While Jensen is the dancer/actor in “Slip” she is aided by Aviva Endean who acts as sound technician, participant and guide, controlling a table full of noise producing devices both physical and electronic.
When Jensen first appears, she dives into her backpack extracting various items such as a key, a bag of chips a bottle of water and a newspaper. But when she handles these items, it is not their natural sound we hear, it is Endean – shaking her own newspaper and pouring her own bottle of water, the sounds picked up and enhanced by the large microphone. When Jensen eats a chip, the crunch we hear is from Endean’s microphone enhancing the sound of her biting on a stick of celery.
This dislocation and enhancement occurs throughout the work in different forms. When Jensen walks around the stage we hear the sounds of Endean’s feet crunching on shells. At other times when Jensen walks, we hear the sounds of her body creaking as though she is robotic.
Jensen explores a range of movements from small gestures though fluid and dramatic balletic moves to the volatile actions which see her almost out of control.
The soundscape produced by Endean is similar to the enigmatic sounds created by the experimental group From Scratch and like that group she uses unlikely items to create the sounds.
New Zealand Arts Review 