Shaun Tan’s Book Arrives On Stage at the New Zealand International Arts Festival
“The Arrival held its audience in a state of rapture and curiosity.” New Zealand Herald
The Arrival is a near-wordless stage production based on an adaptation of the award-winning graphic novel by Australian artist and
author Shaun Tan.
Creators Kate Parker and Julie Nolan combine visual and physical theatre to draw in all senses and tell the story of a
character who is forced to leave his home country and create a new life in a strange world. This character is met with
strange customs, flying ships, curious creatures, travelling balloons and an indecipherable language in his quest to
find security in order to reunite his family.
Parker and Nolan met while studying at the John Bolton Theatre School in Melbourne in 1995. They returned to New Zealand
shortly after and established themselves as entrepreneurial theatre artists creating, performing, producing and teaching
their craft.
Both Parker and Nolan are no strangers to creating surreal works of art for the stage. Parker was the duck puppeteer in
Indian Ink's The Candlestickmaker and Nolan directed The Land of Make Believe for Silo Theatre. They have collaborated on Moahunting in 2001, The Butcher’s Daughter in 2003 and Beyond the Blue in 2008.
Shaun Tan is the author of popular illustrated books; The Rabbits, The Red Tree and The Lost Thing.
Tan was the first Australian to win the International Illustrators of the Future Contest and has gone on to win the
“Book of the Year” prize for The Arrival as part of the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the “Picture Book of the Year” from the Children’s Book
Council of Australia.
Tan was the University of Melbourne’s Department of Language Literacy and Arts Education Illustrator in Residence. In
2010 Tan will be Artist Guest of Honour at the 68th World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Melbourne.
The Arrival is sponsored by Wild at Heart with support from the Major Events Development Fund and Creative New Zealand.
WHEN: 11-14 March
WHERE: Opera House
ENDS