Fringe-tastic
Dionne Christian checks out the best of the busy festival season
Less than a fortnight into the New Year and we’re already making tough decisions around the Auckland Fringe Arts Festival 2019 programme. The Fringe packs close to 90 shows — theatre, comedy, spoken word, dance, music, film and visual arts — into dozens of venues around Auckland for just two-and-a-half weeks, meaning your February and early March evenings could be . . . very busy. Like fringe festivals around the world, the emphasis is on “open access”, which means artists of all stripes — from first-timers to international stars — can submit a proposal to stage a show. As long as they’re not doing anything illegal and it fits with the open-hearted nature of a fringe festival, chances are they’ll get to stage their show.
NEW SHOWS
The team behind 2017’s Best In Fringe winner
Rushes, Malia Johnston, Eden Mulholland and Rowan Pierce are back with the world premiere of what is bound to be a spellbinding work,
Movement of the Human.
Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, February 21-24.
Navi Collective has been slowly building a reputation for thought-provoking performances that use puppetry, live music, spoken word and film. Their third original play, (On) Whatipu is set on the windswept West Coast Whatipu beach, where Nina encounters a collection of dead relatives. Is unearthing the skeletons of her past likely to help her move into the future? Uxbridge in Howick, February 22 & 23; Empire Studios in Grey Lynn, March 1-3.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth might be old, but a new company, Millions of Deaths, will stage it for the Fringe with a twist: audiences vote for which actors they want to see in the main roles but three disgruntled understudies will do all they can to subvert the show.
Toil and Trouble, Q Theatre’s Vault, February 19-23.
SHOWS WE MISSED LAST TIME
After a sold-out season last winter, Victoria Abbott returns with her own Scottish play about what you can unearth when you dig into family history.
Run Rabbit, Basement Theatre, February 28-March 2.
Award-winning comedienne, writer, singer and Division 1 Registered Nurse Zuleika Khan is back in Auckland with her homage to hospital life, Triage! A Nursing Cabaret, which won the Auckland Fringe 2018 prize for best cabaret.
Q Theatre’s Rangatira, February 23.
SHOWS THE REST OF THE WORLD HAS SEEN
Direct from a season in Tehran, following performances at an art museum in Mexico City, a converted prison in French Guiana and debut shows in Lapland, New Zealanders Thomas Monckton and Gemma Tweedie and Finland’s Kallo Collective bring “home” Only Bones v1.0. With just a 1m stage, chair and lamp, Monckton uses his hands and flexible face to create “microphysical” theatre.
Q Theatre’s Loft, March 1 & 2.
SHOWS FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE
Auckland Fringe is obviously gaining a reputation for being an artist-friendly event given there’s a fair few internationals appearing for the first time or returning. UK funnywoman Charmian Hughes celebrates the misfits and outcasts of the world in What-Not.
Garnet Station Cafe, February 28-March 3.
Meanwhile, from across the Irish Sea, comic Mary Bourke has been thinking about Brexit and what it’s done for Irish identity and demand for an Irish passport. She muses on this, using Irish music, jokes and stories, in Mary Bourke — I Can Make You Irish!
Classic Comedy Club Studio, February 27-March 2.
Aerial grace and beauty are the hallmarks of Australia cirque company Le Aerial, who cross the ditch for their NZ premiere.
Q Theatre’s Rangatira, February 26-28.
SHOWS THAT ARE LIVE
Well, they’re all live but some are, shall we say, more live than others — like playwright Sam Brooks’ Actressexual, where he’ll interview a different actress each night then, as we all watch and listen, write a monologue especially for her. No pressure then.
Q Theatre’s Vault, February 23-March 2.
The Undercuts are a five-piece band who are writing and recording an album from scratch in just 12 hours. Staged across 12 hours, each hour will bring a new song and a new song-writing method before that song is then recorded. Again, no pressure . . .
TST Studio, Grafton, noon-midnight, March 1.
SHOWS THAT WILL MAKE YOU DANCE
No, that doesn’t indicate compulsory audience participation — it’s up to you whether you chose to get your dancing shoes on. This year’s Fringe could well feature the biggest dance programme ever, with a host of shows capturing dance from all over the world.
There’s a K-Pop party planned for opening night, when Rina Chae — who’s danced with Beyonce and Justin Bieber — curates an all-ages dance party with Street Candee, 603 and Jua. Auckland Town Hall’s Great Hall on February 23.
Then there’s Love, Life and Dark Energy, with four Flamenco dancers, accompanied by suitability qualified guitarists, peeling back the layers on this traditional Spanish dance. Tapac, February 21-23.
Meanwhile, tango originated in Argentina; for this year’s Fringe, four musicians join forces to tell its story and, by doing so, the deep and vivid history of a country full of lively stories. Tango Project Milonga De Cuatro, PumpHouse Theatre, Takapuna, February 24.
In Ma¯ ui, Fresh Movement bring stories of the Pacific to life to demonstrate strength, growth, leadership and vulnerability. Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, February 21.
SHOWS THAT WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH
The comics who made Mackenzie’s Daughters, winners of last year’s best comedy ensemble prize in the Fringe, return with their take on the Salem Witch Trials, where no one is safe when accusations start to fly faster than supersonic broomsticks in this parody of The Crucible.
The Salem Bitch Trials , Basement Theatre, February 19-23.
Actor Jonny Brugh returns to the Auckland stage with an interpretive, erotic mime/dance conjuring act based on his What We Do In The
Shadows film character, Deacon the Vampire, who’s trying to bring his long dead love back from the grave. Deacon , Garnet Station Cafe, February 19-24.
SHOWS THAT WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO REACH OUT
Bring together youngsters from the Shine School of Confidence, the elderly residents of Selwyn Village, poets and writers and you get An Oldie But A Goodie, spoken word performances borne out of poetry-sharing sessions in aged care homes. Selwyn Village Theatre, March 1.
How do you make friends when you’re grown up? That’s what the Hobson Street Theatre Company, in association with the Auckland City Mission, considers in its latest show.
That’s What Friends Are For Basement Theatre, February 26-28.