Presented by Andrea Kelland

Join Andrea Kelland as she discovers that working as an actor clashes with the Ultimate Good Time.

Andrea has been an actor for over 50 years. In 2018 she wrote, produced and performed a One Woman Show, Random Shagger, with dramaturgy and direction by Deb Filler, for the Pride Festival. Random Shagger toured to Coromandel and Waiheke Island. The themes were Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'roll in the lifestyle of an Actor.

A Tart on Tour is about the work and the touring aspects of Andrea's career, her drive to get to Le Coq Mime School, interspersed with her relationship with alcohol and drugs and the roller coaster effect of these conflicting aspects.

The show has some poignant moments, some exhilarating times and tragedy too! The audience witnesses 35 different characters as they play out their roles in Andrea's life. Some family members, other actors, and then the classics, Ophelia, Mary Ann Sailors from Under Milkwood and Don Marquis' Mehitabel.

Do come, be enthralled and amazed and maybe somewhat confessional?

CREATIVE TEAM

Producer, Performer, Writer - Andrea Kelland
Directors - Alison Quigan and Tom Sainsbury Dramaturgy - Deb Filler Graphic Designers - Marika Jones and Nikki Perry

With thanks to Paul Sonne and Colin McColl

By Swaroopa Prameela Unni

Witness the power of resistance in this mesmerising dance-theatre performance.

Ātete | Resistance | ചെറുത്തുനില്പ് is a solo dance theatre choreographed by Swaroopa Prameela Unni exploring a woman’s right to bodily autonomy within the Indian community of New Zealand. One in every 4 women in New Zealand experience family violence. Women from Indian ethnicity are part of this statistic but very little is known about the challenges they face; not just from the patriarchal culture, but also the shame and stigma attached to it as well. These women’s bodies become a site for violence in every form– emotional, physical, financial and sexual. They become a site where power is contested and negotiated.

Ātete is choreographed in Mohiniyattam, a South Indian Dance form, known for its portrayal of ideal womanhood and Swaroopa will juxtapose how this very concept shaped the pattern of violence on women’s bodies. Ātete will use spoken words, movements and digital media to narrate the stories of women who resisted against the system.

CREATIVE TEAM

Concept, production and Choreography - Swaroopa Prameela Unni
Music - Jyolsna Panicker, Sandeep Pillai
Lighting and Sound and Tech design - Stephen Kilroy

Presented by String Bean Puppets

A bat who is afraid of the dark meets a glow worm who thinks she is a star. Friendship triumphs fear as the glow worm leads the bat out of darkness and together they fly.

This show is a work in development, inspired by conversations with children during workshops at Zealandia about their fear of the dark and the real threats that our native species face from introduced pests. Through shadow puppetry, we explored how the dark can make the familiar seem strange and frightening. Their words and the art and images they created will feed into this work. Join this courageous short-tailed bat, and his new glow worm friend as they face his fears and delve into the shadows, discovering the light on the other side.

CREATIVE TEAM

Anna Bailey - puppeteer/puppet build and design
Struan Ashby - set design and construction
Stephanie Cairns - Music composition and sound design
Jen McArthur - direction/dramaturg
Gillian Hanemayer - Lighting Designer
Joseph Bailey - Electrical Wiring
Jimmy Williamson - Production Management Intern

Get ready to laugh, cry and everything in between as six emerging performers take the stage with brand-new work. They’ll take you on an adventure hunting BigFoot, introduce you to imaginary friends and tell you ghost stories around the Pasifika shared lunch.

The Last Farewell, by Aimee Dredge

How much do you share with the person you love? The joyful and heart-wrenching story of a young couple separated by war.

Heart of the Bush, by Tom Hayward

Only death will stop Forrest Bush from finding Bigfoot in this wacky, high-octane comedy about one man's perilous search for proof.

I am not afraid of sadness, by Joey Sheppard

How do you help a child navigate loss? Through laughter and a really good boogie right?

This World Of Yours, by Ngahaki Gardiner

A monologue about the Māori experience in Aotearoa.

The Ghost Of Tongan Language Week, by Nova Moala-Knox

An insecure Tongan ghost tells stories at a Pasifika shared lunch.

Think, Before You Overthink, by Bo Jarratt

Inside the mind of an overthinker. How making a simple choice can feel like life or death, but what if it actually was?

CREATIVE TEAM

Performers / Writers: Aimee Dredge (Te Auaha)(she/her), Tom Hayward (Te Auaha)(he/him), Joey Sheppard (Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School), Ngahaki Gardiner (Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington)(Ngāiterangi, Ngāti Whakaue and Ngāti Tūwharetoa), Nova Moala-Knox (Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School), Bo Jarratt (Te Auaha)(she/her)

HATCH Facilitator: Emma Katene (she/her)
Designer: Wren Glover (they/them)

Presented by Trick of the Light Theatre

A traveller unpacks a stack of suitcases - from within them whole worlds will emerge.

Trick of the Light Theatre (The Bookbinder, Tröll, The Griegol) are renowned for crafting inventive shows and intricate narratives. They are building their latest work, Suitcase Show, through a series of modular work-in-progress showings. After outings at Lōemis and NZ Fringe, join them at TAHI Festival as they unpack another story.

Suitcase Show is inspired by ideas of lone and lonely travellers, of carrying your home, and of odysseys of travel in a post-pandemic world. The tone is dark and spiky, the aesthetic is diverse. Previous showings have ranged from from lo-fi light and shadowplay to wireless projection, from a departure lounge dance between two disembodied hands to a narrated story that crackles from a 1970s stereo suitcase.

CREATIVE TEAM

Hannah Smith - Creator / Director
Ralph McCubbin Howell - Performer
Tane Upjohn-Beatson - Composer

Presented By Sameena Zehra

Written and performed by Sameena Zehra, with expert direction by Sabrina Martin, Tea with Terrorists shares stories from a life that straddles two very different cultures. Examining the nature of conflict and the need for power and control, this show confronts everything, whether sombre or silly, with a light and insightful touch.

Arguing with mullahs, being an atheist in a religious, liberal family, wandering outside the green zone in war torn Kabul, being stalked by a sheep in Coniston, and having tea with some terrorists in Kashmir; journey with Sameena to find out why fear is redundant, joy is essential, and terrorists can be a real hoot. ‘The wonder and magic that stories bring have a collective, connective power. The only thing better is to add laughter. Tea with Terrorists started as a stand up comedy storytelling show. Over the last 10 years it has morphed, mutated, and transformed into the theatre show before you now. I never tire of the thrill I feel being in the room with a live audience, creating that moment of sharp intimacy between strangers as we agree to let our imaginations collude and collide and escape, together, into the world of stories’ says Sameena

This show is accessible to Blind and partially sighted folk without the need for audio description.

CREATIVE TEAM

Director - Sabrina Martin (she/her)
Set Design - Isadora Lao (they/them)
Lighting Design - Marcus McShane (he/him)
Composer & Musical Director - Mike Mckeon (he/him)
Operator/Tour Manager - Bekky Boyce (they/them)

By Sally Stockwell

‘We’ve Got So Much To Talk About’ takes an unbridled ride through the chaotic world of motherhood with rock ‘n roll songs, stories and a Vegas showgirl thrown in for good measure. Set in a dream world of backstage tour cases, tangled cables, and hanging microphones. Sally Stockwell navigates the live wire mess of parenting with mesmerising vocals, a looping pedal and her body. This show touches the jagged edges of motherhood with honesty, humour, love and validation.

CREATIVE TEAM

Performer & creator – Sally Stockwell
Musician, sound design & operation – Chris Marshall
Director – Julia Harvie
Dramaturge & collaboration - Emma Willis
Lighting - Tim Jansen
Choreographic collaborator - Hannah Tasker-Poland

Presented by TAHI Festival

ONO is a collection of six new monologues by Māori and Pasifika writers especially commissioned for TAHI New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance 2023. Six unique voices from Aotearoa.

These six stories weave together concepts of aroha/alofa, in a myriad of ways: as both tūingoa (noun) and tūmahi (verb). From learning to love our tīnana, to the mysteries of sisters; from lost and loveless fathers to a whānau bound by struggle; from a cautionary tale of inherited power to the love stories which thread through a whakapapa – ONO will take you to the heart of humanity itself. Starring Erina Daniels, Robert Ringiao-Lloyd and Kaisa Fa'atui.

ONO follows the success of TAHI’s collection of monologues Batch, Whānau and Joy.

Writers

Jthan Morgan (Ngāi Tāmanuhiri, Rongowhakaata, Sapapāli'i, Magiagi, Lotofaga)
Michaella Steel (Tainui, Rarotonga)
Vela Manusaute (Niue / Samoa / South Auckland )
Isaac Martyn (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa)
Poata Alvie McKree (Ngapuhi / Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa, St Vincent, Barbados)
Tainui Tukiwaho (Tūhoe / Te Arawa)

CREATIVE TEAM

Dramaturg: Maraea Rakuraku he uri o Te Urewera, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa me Ngāti Pāhauwera.
Directors: Sally Richards and Nicola Hyland (Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi and Ngāti Hauiti.)
Producer: Sally Richards
Production and Stage Management intern: Parekawa Finlay (Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Whakatohea)
Lighting Design and Operator: Isaac Kirkwood
Composer: Angelique Te-Rauna (Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngati Porou, Tuhoe, Ngapuhi)

Presented by TAHI Festival

Murder is situational: time, place, circumstance.

There is a perpetrator, there is a victim; lives are changed forever.

But what is society’s part in the story?

How responsible is systemic oppression, in laying the foundations for a culture of violent crime?
What of the world that surrounds the individual?

TAHI: Festival of New Zealand Solo Performance & Circa Theatre combine to bring William Brandt & Miranda Harcourt’s seminal, unflinchingly authentic 1993 play ‘Verbatim’, back to the stage. Thirty years on, how have things changed?

Directed by Amelia Reid-Meredith, this production is fronted by the “exceptional” and “incredibly versatile” Renee Lyons, who returns to perform the play a decade later.

This new version of what is inarguably one of Aotearoa’s greatest solo theatre works, is not to be missed.

“If is a very big word…”

The legacy of violent moments, revisited.

Click here to view Verbatim Resource Hub

CREATIVE TEAM

Performer: Renee Lyons
Director: Amelia Reid-Meredith
Producers: James Ladanyi and Sally Richards
Lighting Design & Operator: Niamh Campbell-Ward
Stage Manager: Jessie Rochford-Barber
Production Designer: Anne-Lisa Noordover