Art fans spoilt for choice
We might be relaxing at the beach or staycationing right now but Weekend also has one eye on the plays, concerts, dance performances, operas and art exhibitions we’re looking forward to in 2019. Here are some top picks:
1an The Auckland Fringe Arts Festival is now
annual event and we can’t wait to see what some of our finest independent theatre and dance makers and comedians come up with. For starters, there’s playwright Sam Brooks who’s been told he writes “amazingly” for women so he’s challenging himself by, each night, interviewing and writing a monologue for a different actress live on stage. He calls it an act of hubris. Actressexual, Auckland Fringe Festival, February 19-March 3.
aucklandfringe.co.nz 2international
Auckland Arts Festival brings the big
hits to town and there’s a fair few that we’re keen to see but, for now, let’s keep it to the “fantastically fun interpretation” of Mozart’s
The Magic Flute
reimagined for a digital generation (March 8-10) and Ulster American ,a savage black comedy that made audiences at the Edinburgh Festival gasp out loud (March 20-24).
AAF.co.nz 3Company’s
Auckland Theatre
2019 season returns to “big-hearted” award-winning blockbusters —
Six Degrees of Separation, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead and The Audience — but there are some homegrown gems we’re equally excited about. The company begins 2019 with the legendary NZ cartoonist and writer Tom Scott’s two plays about his parents, The Daylight Atheist and Joan, playing in repertoire then, in March, it’s back to the 80s for award-winning playwright’s Albert Belz’s ode to small towns and video games in Astroman.
atc.co.nz 4vibrant
Auckland’s visual arts scene is as
as ever; the city’s rebooted Art Fair is now annual (May 1-5) and October’s Artweek always leaves us scratching our heads about what to see. We’re recommending all three of these exhibitions at Auckland Art Gallery:
Pacific Sisters: He Toa Ta¯ era | Fashion Activists: A collective of Pacific and Ma¯ ori fashion designers, artists and performers, the Pacific Sisters electrified 1990s Auckland, bringing the groundbreaking style of an urban, New Zealand-born
Pacific generation to the mainstream. They’ve overturned stereotypes about Pacific culture and celebrated mana wa¯ hine and indigenous activities through pioneering and daring shows. A major retrospective, Pacific Sisters: He Toa Ta¯ era | Fashion Activists
showcases the collective’s innovative costumes and performances. February
23-July 14.
Guerrilla Girls: Reinventing the “F” Word — Feminism? follows the feminist art collective’s practice from 1984 until 2016 and explores how they employ bold, fun and provocative poster art to criticise ongoing biases in art and society. March
8-October 13.
Frances Hodgkins: European Journeys brings together works from New Zealand and the world to explore the creative and peripatetic life of one of our most significant artists. From her upbringing in Dunedin, through France, Morocco and Spain to her final days in England, it examines the influence of location on her development as a modernist painter and travel and journeying as a source of inspiration. May
4-September 1. 5so
We’re big fans of Star Wars
news that New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is taking us to a galaxy far, far away with a film screening of Star Wars: A New Hope
and The Empire Strikes Back accompanied by a live orchestra has been most welcomed. That’s in Auckland on May 4-5.
nzso.co.nz 6has The Auckland Writers Festival (May 14-19)
made some early announcements so we’re already booking tickets to a collaboration between the Festival and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Man, Sitting in a Garden is written by Witi Ihimaera and composer Kenneth Young and performed by leading New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill. Collaboration seems to be the song the APO is playing with an eclectic range of performances planned for 2019, including a live performance of David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II ,anew show with The Dust Palace and, for the kids, music inspired by Roald Dahl in Dahlesque. apo.co.nz 7 We have many fine independent theatre companies — often seen at the Basement Theatre — but Prayas is one of the standouts. In June/July, the Indian theatre company in New Zealand teams up with Auckland Theatre Company and director Ahi Karunaharan for the play A Fine Balance.
Expect it to be an epic event.
atc.co.nz 8
Speaking of Ahi Karunaharan, he joins forces with Silo in November for its blockbuster end of year production, My Heart Goes Thadak Thadak
where a legendary Bollywood director dies leaving his two children to finish his latest film. Expect an extravaganza of singing, dancing and movie-making magic.
silotheatre.co.nz 9country
A young governess arrives at a remote house to care for two children armed with only written instructions from their guardian who orders her not to disturb him . . . before long, things take a turn for the chilling in a ghostly story “saturated with menace”. It comes to life in NZ Opera’s The Turn of the Screw
with a haunting score by Benjamin Britten. October 18-23.
nzopera.com 10audiences
The Royal New Zealand Ballet enchanted with The Nutcracker and it will likely do the same with its story ballet, Hansel and Gretel, next Christmas. There’s a twist, though. This is a new two-act ballet written by our own Loughlan Prior, with a specially commissioned score by Claire Cowan. It tours the country through November and December. 11Horse, And one more for luck — War
based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, comes to town courtesy of the National Theatre of Great Britain’s Tony Awardwinning production. At its heart are astonishing life-sized puppets created by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to thrilling life on stage. From June 21.