Hamilton Arts Festival invites you to the stage
If you have a fear of being dragged on stage at a show, beware - it could very well happen in the second week of the 2024 Hamilton Arts Festival.
Audiences have already been asked to help Penni Feather’s Deaf-Defying Cunning Stunt, or to pull Captain Festus McBoyle’s finger during the Travellin’ Variety Show (you can guess what he did next).
But shows still to come could have you determining the plot or playing the performer’s family.
And Saturday night will bring headline act Bic Runga, who burst into international fame with her hit Sway. She’ll be supported by Tauranga singer-songwriter Georgia Lines.
Friday afternoon at the festival brings Spark Live, a “multi-sensory production” that’s no holds barred.
“We let whatever the audience wants happen in that moment,” the show’s artistic director Charlotte Nightingale said.
At the final dress rehearsal, that was an improvised dance jam.
Spark Live tells the story of a young girl, Kate, who has a heart condition, and involves aspects the audience can hear, smell, taste, and touch.
“It’s probably one of the most accessible pieces of theatre because even if you have a profound disability with high and complex needs, you can explore it in your own unique way.”
Meanwhile, Kasiano Mita’s one-man show, Talofa Papa, is about a family reunion - and the audience is the family.
The idea came from a conversation with Mita’s dad about how quiet the house was since his kids and grandkids moved out.
And it seems he liked the result. “He came to see it like six times in Wellington.”
But not everyone’s asking for audience participation. Morgana O’Rielly only asks that people laugh at her show, Stories About My Body.
“You can sit up front with no fear. I will show you some s… you won’t be able to unsee. But that’s just me communicating that I’m all in.”
Her show is part stand-up, part story-telling, and part poetry, with some nudity.
“Female bodies are either sexualised, or hidden because of how ‘dangerous’ they can be. But what we don’t explore much is that they’re funny! The female body is pretty silly.”