This weekend we want to go to...
Albert Park
For three nights, Auckland’s Albert Park is transformed into an illuminated winter wonderland for the first Tu¯ rama Festival. Free to attend, it’s an immersive light art show which promises to engage the senses with multimedia, dance and performance artists as well as music from contemporary musicians such as Ed Zuccollo, Timothee Nolier, Hama McNeill, The Saxobros, Yoko Zuna (Jazz Jam) and Dylan C. One of the most intriguing attractions is bound to be Sound of Peace ,a soundscape woven from online messages of peace in many difference languages. Everyone is invited to record a message of peace online. The messages will be composed and replayed in surround sound.
Tu¯ rama Festival, Albert Park, tomorrow until Sunday.
Basement Theatre
You’ve got just 60 minutes to come up with an idea to save the world and your time starts . . . now! Massive Company has spent the better part of three decades developing the talents of some of our finest performers — without the theatre outfit, we might not have people like Madeleine Sami, Miriama McDowell or Beulah Koale entertaining us in quite the same way. This weekend, there’s a chance to see the next generation on stage in an absurd, political and weird new show. Here, they get to channel their inner super heroes, comment (satirically) on protest in Aotearoa’s history and set out their ideas for making the world a better place. They’ve been aided and abetted by playwright Jo Randerson. Like a River, Basement Theatre, until Saturday (then Forum North in Whanga¯ rei on August 7).
Artis Gallery
Born in Samoa in 1946, resident in New Zealand since 1966 and a fulltime artist since the mid-1980s, Fatu Feu’u is one of our most important Pacific artists. Now, he’s created a work inspired by ancient designs and patterns — from tapa cloth, lapita pottery and tattoo — and the Samoan tradition of “ifoga” or reconciliation/ rebuilding after a terrible event or action. The central letter “I” as a motif captures this, with different colours coming together, meeting halfway. This can be a meeting between families, tribes, villages or even nations. Reconciliation, Fatu Feu’u, Artis Gallery until Sunday, August 11.
Q Theatre
It’s been a busy week for comedian Urzila Carlson. Not only did the new TVNZ show Have You Been Paying
Attention debut last night (Carlson is one of the hosts alongside Hayley Sproull and ZM’s Vaughan Smith), she’s performing at Q Theatre on Saturday.
Maybe she’s busy because, as Carlson herself says, Africans have become the new “must have” accessory.
In her show Token African, Carlson muses on what makes one African. Is it enough to have been born on the continent and why does being South African not register as African in most places?
The comedian will try to come up with some answers in a show that’s rated R16 because of its adult themes and colourful language.
Urzila Carlson, Token African, Rangatira at Q Theatre, Saturday, 8.30pm.
ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre
Here comes the sun — or, at least, some new rays of Beatlemania. The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra is playing its first ever fulllength Beatles concert led by Australian musicians who will perform live renditions of hits such as I am the Walrus, Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, A Day in the Life, Across the Universe, Let It Be and Hey Jude.
The pieces are selected for their ability to benefit from a world-class orchestral arrangement, and APO’s assistant concertmaster Miranda Adams — a long-standing Beatles fan — says she’s thrilled about playing this epic event.
“I’m looking forward to playing some of the extraordinary violin lines especially in Penny Lane and
Eleanor Rigby. We can really change gear and let our hair down for this one! It’s a whole different genre and style to our normal music repertoire.”
All You Need is Love, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Sunday at 7.30pm.