Auckland Arts Festival brings a wealth of great performances next year

Auckland Arts Festival
March 2 - 20

Next March the Auckland Arts Festival will see hundreds of artists and companies from around the globe performing theatre, dance, music, circus and cabaret acts during the city’s annual festival of New Zealand and international arts.

Following on from last year’s dramatic Auckland Domain event, “The Breath of the Volcano”  by the Groupe F, another French troupe, Carabosse, will be igniting thousands of flames on the lower slopes of Auckland Domain creating a magical “Fire Garden” described as part after-dark dreamscape, part steampunk playground.

“The James Plays” make their Festival debut, bringing to life the turbulent 15^th century reigns of James I, James II and James III of Scotland. Described by the UK’s Guardian as “better than Shakespeare” and by The Telegraph as “the most elating things you’ll see all year.”

“Milonga” is a collaboration between tango superstar Nelida Rodriguez de Aure and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who brought Babel two years ago. This is a mix of Latin aesthetics and state-of-the art video design featuring a dozen virtuoso dancers and an on-stage tango orchestra.

Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens will be performing symphonic folk suites from his latest album alongside other favourites with an eight-piece band, in a visual and sonic extravaganza while another festival favourite, the American singer-songwriter John Grant makes his New Zealand debut with his Icelandic band with their mix of new wave, electronic, industrial rock and pastoral chamber-pop.

John Adams’ “Nixon in China”, one of the great contemporary operas, tells of Richard Nixon’s visit to China and his interaction with Mao Tse Tung, Chou En Lai and Madame Mao.

The co-production by NZ Opera and the APO directed by newly-announced Arts Laureate Sara Brodie will feature an international cast from China, Korea, Australia and New Zealand – including Simon O’Neill and Madeline Pierard.

The Royal New Zealand Ballet will be presenting three new dance works in “The Speed of Light” including Andonis Foniadakis’s seductive “Selon Desir,” which is inspired by the monumental opening choruses of the St Matthew and St John Passions.

Described by The Guardian as “the work that changed ballet forever,” William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” was initially commissioned by Rudolf Nureyev for the Paris Opera Ballet.

Alexander Ekman’s “Cacti” has taken the dance world by storm since its premiere in The Hague in 2010. It combines daredevil virtuosity and split second timing with a playful wit.

Neil Ieremia’s and Swee Boon Kuik’s “Changes” will be performed by Black Grace in a work which sees two cultures co-exist and create side-by-side, while Nina Nawalowalo’s “Marama” is a  visual theatre piece told by women of the South Pacific.

East meets West in “The Chorus; Oedipus,” a re-imagining of Sophocles’ tragedy as music theatre.

2,500 years of oratory from a range of different cultures and contexts more than stands the test of time when Flemish artist Valentijn Dhaenens shape shifts, croons and loops his way through history in the jaw-dropping theatrical tour-de-force “BigMouth.”

The Festival’s Close Encounters series will see an adaptation of Wolf Erlbruch’s children’s book “Duck, Death and the Tulip” on at Takapuna’s PumpHouse Theatre; while “Waves,” the story of Elizabeth Moncello who learns to swim with the help of fish, penguins and other amphibious friends, will have shows at Piha and Waiheke and Jamie McCaskill’s theatre, “Not in our Neighbourhood”, brings the voices and experiences of domestic abuse survivors and support workers to Te Oro in Glen Innes.

The concept of circus takes on new meanings with “360 ALLSTARS”  which replaces acrobats with breakdancers, jugglers with a basketball freestyler and unicycles with a world champion BMX flatlander, to connect the street with the elite, delivering a radical urban circus.

At The New Zealand Herald Festival Garden will be the  “Circus Ronaldo Big Top Tent,” home to the world of La Cucina dell’arte, where sixth generation Belgian circus brothers, Danny and David Ronaldo, perform slapstick, vaudeville and traditional commedia.

In the Aotea Square’s Spiegeltent fresh from sell-out seasons in Berlin, New York and Sydney, will be the world premiere of Meow Meow’s cabaret “Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid”. Other Spiegeltent performances include Tami Neilson, Bella Kalolo and Anna Coddington paying tribute to the iconic Dusty Springfield in “Dust to Dusky” as well as the Grammy-nominated New Yorker, Emily King, the brilliant and batty Shooglenifty and the home-grown talents of Don McGlashan and Shayne Carter.

Back by popular demand, RAW returns in 2016 with  audience sessions of theatrical projects handpicked and presented at different stages of development:  Scotty Morrison and Inside Out Production’s “Hinemoa and Tutanekai,” the Jason Te Kare-directed “Cell Fish”; and rehearsed readings of Silo Theatre’s “Black Tree Bridge” by Chye-Ling Huang, and Ahi Karunaharan’s saga “TEA.”

The visual arts’ night of nights – the iconic White Night – will see one Saturday evening providing free exhibitions and visual arts installations across Auckland. The Festival’s wide-ranging visual arts programme also includes Fiona Pardington’s retrospective exhibition  “A Beautiful Hesitation” at the Auckland Art Gallery and a series of exhibitions, including the New Zealand premiere of the secret and magic world of Kathrin Simon’s “Full Moon Kingdom; Aotea Squared.”

There are several world premieres of New Zealand works including “Te Pō” –a surreal theatrical work by Carl Bland and starring Carl, George Henare and Andrew Grainger, and punctuated by songs of Māori show bands; the one act opera “Brass Poppies,” by Ross Harris and Vincent O’Sullivan (Requiem for the Fallen); and John Psathas’ “No Man’s Land” – an unprecedented large scale work incorporating 150 musicians from around the globe, performing both live and virtually.

Eight Must See Events

March 2 – 6, Marama, Q Theatre

March 4, No Man Land, John Psathas and others, Auckland Town Hall

March 5 – 12, The James Plays, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre

March 9 – 14, Te Po, Theatre Stampede and Nightsong Productions, Q Theatre

March 16 19, Changes, Neil Ieremia & Kuik Swee Boon, SkyCity Theatre

March 17 – 20, The Chorus Oedipus, LG Arts Centre and Juk-da! Q Theatre

March 17 & 19, Nixon in China, John Adams, Auckland Town Hall

March 23 – 6, Speed of Light, Royal NZ Ballet, SkyCity Theatre

Auckland Arts Festival programme at www.aaf.co.nz