The Massive Guide to the Auckland Festival and the Auckland Fringe

With the Auckland festival and the Fringe just around the corner, there is a huge amount to see in Auckland over the next few weeks. Here is our handy guide to shows that feature some familiar faces from Massive.

At the Civic, Red Leap Theatre present the World premiere of their adaptation of Shaun Tan’s award winning graphic novel, The Arrival. The cast includes Jarod Rawiri, who played Petera in Whero’s New Net. One of the show’s directors, Julie Nolan, is a former Massive Company producer, who is returning to Massive to be part of the group working with Lennie James on our new project Havoc in the Garden.

Over at the Herald theatre, Bree Peters (who played the title role in Whero’s New Net) features in Silo’s Ensemble project, and you can also catch Taki Rua’s production of Albert Belz’s play Te Karakia, with Tainui Tukiwaho in the cast.


Madeleine Sami (most recently seen as Red in Whero’s New Net) will be taking to the stage with the Sami Sisters, as part of the Red Square line up, with their show Happy Heartbreak, and Red Square is also the place to catch Tama Waipara’s show Sir Plus and the Requirements.

Auckland’s first fringe festival will feature many familiar faces from Massive Company, including Tahi Mapp-Borren, who stars in the one woman show Banging Cymbal Clanging Gong for Smackbang Theatre at the Basement.
Also at the Basement, you can catch Olive Asi (who featured in the cast of The Girls Show) perform as part of the South Auckland Poets Collective; and Ash Jones (from Up Close Out Loud) will be appearing in Titus.
The Fringe kicks off from Feb 27th, with the Auckland festival hot on its heels on from 5th March. Its going to be a wonderful few weeks packed full of theatergoing- we’ll see you at the bar!
For more info on any of the shows mentioned, check out www.aucklandfestival.co.nz or www.aucklandfringe.org.nz

Back from Obama Land

So I am back 3 days now and I think have adjusted to the heat although my Nordic genes find the summer time altogether challenging! I am excited by Massive Company's year..we have so much on and so much interest in our work and the way we make it, it is very heartening to feel you are offering something unique and something which people are looking forward to seeing or experiencing. This recession is troubling of course but I do feel we as artists are well equipped to deal with it...never having known job "security" and all that brings...so we are well conditioned to the careful ways needed to handle these times. I do feel that whatever comes our way we will "weather" it even if it means adjusting programmes and suchlike...the fact that our tutoring and workshops are in such high demand will mean we will survive no matter what. I love the Land of Obama (as a friend and I decided to now call the USA) ...I love their unabashedness to tell you how charming you are and that they love the way you talk. I love that men would let me know how cute they thought I was and ask me straight out for a date...how bloody refreshing is that!! I love that they love our work and want more of it. But I do love coming home and all that that means at a deep deep level, never really able to be articulated, to me. I hope I may keep having the opportunity to traverse both places as I do...that is a wonderful thing. But for now it is focus on our tour of WHERO'S, our workshops, our next new show HAVOC IN THE GARDEN and our re-working of THE GIRLS SHOW....onwards, onwards and onwards...........