Snakes alive! There’s more to the gardens arts fest than you expect . . .
Amelia Reynolds plays Medusa in Dakota of the White Flats, one of the many shows that can be seen in this year’s Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival – albeit not in the gardens themselves in some cases. Created for young people and adults, Dakota is being st
Adapted from the novel by Philip Ridley, it tells the story of a fearless 14-year-old girl who lives in a bleak housing complex on the edge of a polluted canal filled with monstrous mutated eels.
The organisers of the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival are preparing for a big Friday night of shows – a curtain-raiser for an even bigger final weekend.
The premiere event tonight is likely to be Manawa Wera: A Conversation Piece, which features reggae/soul artist Ria Hall performing songs from her critically-lauded, award-winning album.
Touted as more than just a concert, the show invites audience participation, with the songs an impetus for a discussion around racial, economic and social issues. It gets under way in Harkness Henry’s Emporium of Scintillating Wonders at 8.30pm.
Also taking inspiration from recent global events is Shifting
Dynamics, a dance production from the Moving Parts NZ dance company that has themes of disconnection, exploration and, ultimately, re-connection.
The thought-provoking, twopart show can be seen at Victoria on the River at 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow. It features music from Janet Jennings and Jeremy Mayall, and is choreographed by Mikey Sorenson and Lily Empson.
For those who prefer their Friday nights to be a little less dynamic, Flight Mode is an evening of ambient music in the Picturesque Garden.
A popular monthly event that is usually hosted at Never Project Space in Frankton, this Flight
Mode performance features compositions by Lyttleton-based violinist Anita Clark, and Cave Circles – aka Riki Pirihi – a multiinstrumentalist, producer and conductor from Wellington.
Two Gentlemen of Verona is the result of a collaboration of two theatre companies. One of these is Slip of the Tongue, a group who have established a reputation in recent years for staging fun, fastflowing summer Shakespeare productions in the gardens.
That team is joined by newcomers RAD Company, who are promised to bring a ‘‘highly honed sense of the ridiculous’’ to Shakespeare’s tale of love and loyalty in the Surrealist Garden at 6pm. For the hardy, there is also a dawn performance at 5am on
Sunday.
Back to Square One? is a mysterious production at 6.30pm at a private location that will only be revealed to ticket purchasers shortly before the event.
It tells the tale of 95-year-old Inga who has survived world wars, cold wars and civil wars; a cameo by a Viking god; lots of chalk; and a driveway.
Performers from the Hamilton
Operatic Society will perform numbers from dramatic shows such as Les Miserables, The Greatest Showman and Hamilton
in a show appropriately titled Revolution.
The show will go on at 7.30pm tonight and Sunday nights in the Chinoiserie Garden.
Further information about all events and where to buy tickets can be found at hgaf.co.nz.