A Taste of the Crème De La Crème in NZ New Performance
Date: 27 Jan 12
THE EDGE presents
NEW ZEALAND ARTIST’S AT THE NEW PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL 2012!
17 - 25 February 2012
www.npfestival.co.nz
Five immersive works from some of New Zealand’s most innovative arts practitioners return to the Auckland stage as part of the New Performance Festival. Revered performance activist Louise Tu’u, underground dance legend Sean Curham and Wellington indie favourites Binge Culture, join renegade dance creator Mark Harvey (with visiting Swedish performance artist Johannes Blomqvist) and performance provocateur Tao Wells in this ground breaking festival programme.
A sell-out sleeper hit in 2011, award winning playwright, actor and director Louise Tu’u returns with her remarkable activism-meets-performance work Providence. Developed over three years of going undercover, speaking with the homeless, having meals at drop-in centres and spending a night in a shelter in central Auckland Providence isn’t just the retelling of stories but an investigation of the states of homelessness.
2005 saw Louise Tu’u become the first New Zealand playwright to be invited to the Royal Court International Theatre Residency in London with her debut play, Le Tauvaga (The Competition). This Samoan/NZ work was also presented at the World Indigenous Theatre Reading Series in New York.
Having caused a media storm of controversy with The Beneficiary’s Office, Community Conceptualist/Conceptual Abstract Expressionist/Public Relation Specialist Tao Wells subverts the utterances and thoughts of his performers with The Risk of Listening. This enigmatic work from one of New Zealand’s iconoclasts’ takes these thoughts and beliefs and remixes them into an entirely new script. This new mash up of words is then given back to his chosen subjects on the night of the performance which is then read and performed for the first time.
Dance virtuoso Sean Curham returns with Ghosting Part 2 - Cabaret the best of his highly acclaimed Ghosting series. This performance offers a menu of events which the audience chooses from - a mix tape of physical entertainment at the limit; exquisitely detailed, menacing and generous. With three performers and 13 separate events on the menu (all pop song length) a new show is created for and by the audience each sitting.
Wellington- based theatre company Binge Culture Collective make the long road trip north to perform their hit show Wake Less which premiered as part of the 2011 STAB season in Wellington. Surprising, absurd and immediate, Wake Less is an exploration into our need for entertainment as an escape. Messy, edgy, disorientating and hilarious, Binge Culture Collective implicates the audience in the games they play.
Exploring endurance and failure as a state of performance is I am a wee bit stumped. Sitting comfortably yet uncomfortably between visual art and contemporary choreography this piece brings together two charismatic performers for what is described as “a grand master rock-star modern choreographer and an artist’s nightmare.” The collaboration between the two performance artists; Auckland’s Mark Harvey and Sweden’s Johannes Blomqvist, draws upon their shared disciplines of choreography, performance art, theatre and installation work.
IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A GENRE-BLURRING 9 DAY FESTIVAL...
www.npfestival.co.nz
PROVIDENCE: 24th & 25th February 7:45pm
Lower NZI 1, Aotea Centre – Adults $25, Concessions $20 (booking fees will apply)
GHOSTING PART 2 - CABARET: 17th & 18th February 7:45pm
Lower NZI 3, Aotea Centre – Adults $25, Concessions $20 (booking fees will apply)
WAKE LESS: 24th & 25th February 9pm
Lower NZI 2, Aotea Centre – Adults $25, Concessions $20 (booking fees will apply)
THE RISK OF LISTENING: 17th, 9pm
Lower NZI 1, Aotea Centre – Adults $10 (booking fees will apply)
I AM A WEE BIT STUMPED: 18th February 9pm
Lower NZI 1, Aotea Centre – Adults $10 (booking fees will apply)
Book online at npfestival.co.nz or call 0800 BUY TICKETS