Fantasy and reality collide
Music, dance stand-up comedy, opera, kapa haka, outdoor movies, plays and a unique multimedia event about the uneasy tension between fantasy and reality. It’s all happening in the second half of the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival over the next few days.
Following a two-day halftime break, the festival will resume today with a production called He Piko He Taniwha.
Featuring some of the Waikato’s top performers, it will showcase the full spectrum of Ma¯ ori performing arts with narrated waiata (songs), mo¯ tea-tea (chants) and haka (dances) of particular relevance to the Tainui region. Performances will take place on the Riverside Terrace stage at 6pm today and tomorrow.
Taking inspiration from a short story by Katherine Mansfield, Something
Childish But Very Natural will feature the combined talents of the artistic collective known as Dr Mesmer’s Private Army.
The army in question are musicians Jeremy Mayall (keyboard and electronics), Kent Macpherson (octave guitar, synth and electronics) and Eszter Le Couteur (violin), who perform while Paul Bradley – the street artist known as Pauly B – draws with textures and liquids, creating an intangible, temporary work that will be projected onto a canvas in the form of the facade of the Edwardian house in the Mansfield Garden.
The story’s themes include the transition from adolescence to adulthood and what happens when fantasy is confronted with reality. It will be staged at 8.30pm tomorrow night.
A theatrical trifecta in the form of three thought-provoking plays will be staged today, tomorrow and Friday nights.
The first of these is Pitching a Tent, which is based on the premise of four old friends who embark on a camping trip, and discover they have drifted apart in different and unexpected ways. Staged in the Rogers Rose Garden, the play will be performed all three nights.
Hailed as an important conversationstarter for young adults, Yes Yes Yes isa documentary-style production that explores the knotty and necessary topics of
healthy relationships, desire and, importantly, consent.
Taking place in the Pacific Crystal Palace, each of the two sessions at 6pm today and 1pm tomorrow will be followed by a half-hour debriefing session for those who need it.
Conversations with Dead Relatives isa
play created by the makers of Drowning in
Veronica Lake and Miss Jean Batten, productions that have been the highlights of previous Gardens Arts Festivals. This show has a local element to the narrative, with writer and performer Alex Ellis a direct descendant of former Hamilton mayor JW Ellis.
This civic connection forms part of the story and tells how he and his wife, Manawa met through her uncle, Rewi Maniapoto.
‘‘JW and Manawa were my Great Great Grandparents,’’ Ellis explains, ‘‘and in March 1917 JW accepted a nomination to be mayor.
‘‘Sadly he died after only 15 months in office. In spite of the short term, Ellis Street was named after him. It’s been fun trying to decide which story and which ancestor makes the cut. Once you start thinking about it, it’s amazing just how many stories there are.’’