Theatre at the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival

Theatre Programme

AUCKLAND ARTS FESTIVAL 2011

The Festival’s major international theatre piece is Teatro de Los Andes’ La Odisea (The Odyssey) – director Cesar Brie’s inspired retelling of the Homeric poem, in which Ulysses is a Latino immigrant seeking to return to his family in Bolivia.  Brie’s production is a stunning blend of theatrical sophistication and world renowned Latin American magical realist style; rarely seen by New Zealand audiences.  Reflecting the company’s founding roots in the blend of poetry, performance and art, La Odisea weaves an ancient tale with urgent contemporary politics, all the while using story, song and dance to delight, provoke and move its audience.

Red Leap Theatre has had a busy 18 months since their triumphant premiere of The Arrival at the 2009 Auckland Festival.  Company directors Julie Nolan and Kate Parker have taken The Arrival to festivals in Sydney, Hong Kong and Wellington, to critical and public acclaim.  Building on that success, at this year’s Festival they premiere an enchanting new work on a more intimate scale, Paper Sky – A Love Story.  Infused with the same sense of magic and wonder, Paper Sky is a delightful story of love between two unlikely souls, Henry, a loner, and the mysterious Lumina, performed by Veronica Brady, Alison Bruce, Julia Croft, Justin Haiu and Emmett Skilton.

Brilliantly inventive Swiss duo Zimmermann and de Perrot present the sensational Gaff Aff, described as physical theatre meets silent movie-style comedy.  Staged on a giant turntable, controlled by DJ and puppeteer, de Perrot, the work is a playful exploration of the “spin” of modern life.  Precisely choreographed, Zimmermann’s twists and turns reveal the absurdities that underlie the most seemingly trivial aspects of our contemporary lives, taking the audience on an awe-inspiring, theatrical rollercoaster ride.

This year’s Festival features three Irish works from two renowned companies: Gare St Lazare Players’ theatrical presentations of Beckett’s novellas The End, and First Love; and Brokentalkers’ Silver Stars.  Gare St Lazare Players have become synonymous with the work of Samuel Beckett.  Founding company member Conor Lovett, trained at the famous Jacques Lecoq physical theatre school in Paris, and has performed 17 Beckett roles in 23 different Beckett productions.  He is acclaimed for the wit, energy, truth and verbal and physical dexterity he brings to the landmark texts.  His performance in First Love, directed by wife Judy Heggarty Lovett, was praised by the New York Times as “supremely funny … such a pleasing triumph.” 

Brokentalkers’s Silver Stars, a moving and eloquent song-cycle, was made in collaboration with Irish folk/indie/pop legend, Sean Miller, aka Doctor Miller, described by The Irish Times as “an Irish National Treasure.”  The series of songs, performed by a community choir of gay men, is based on Millar’s interviews with men from Dublin to New York.  They tell the real-life stories of ordinary men in search of happiness and fulfillment in a country that was challenged by their very existence.

Multi-award winning comedian Daniel Kitson returns to New Zealand with his masterpiece of storytelling, The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church. While house-hunting, Kitson discovered an attic filled with over 30 000 letters.  An “an inveterate emotional hoarder,” the archives of someone else’s life provided the spark of inspiration for writing the fictitious story of Gregory Church, a man who begins typing suicide letters 24 years before his death.  Described by The Guardian as, ‘infinitely rich and effortlessly theatrical,’ Kitson’s work is clever, sophisticated comedy at its best.

After the international success of The Sons of Charlie Paora, Massive Company premiere their second collaboration with British writer Lennie James, Havoc in the Garden.  With the same dramatic power as their previous work, Havoc puts local urban life under the microscope.  Set in a small neighbourhood of five houses on an Auckland hillside, an act of violence and rage is about to shatter the community. In an ensuing police siege, five families are forced to confront the truths they have kept buried.  Directed by Sam Scott, the cast includes Miriama McDowell (This Is Not My Life, Dean Spanley, No. 2), Nicole Thomson (Shortland Street), and Wesley Dowdell (Outrageous Fortune).