ODT Dunedin Arts Festival 2022 Welcomes Back International Acts

Everyone can look forward to Spring knowing that Dunedin will come alive with a heady mix of theatre, dance, circus, comedy, music, talks and visual arts in what will surely be the best festival ever! On 12-24 October, ODT Dunedin Arts Festival will absolutely guarantee that Ōtepoti is the only place to be.

Key Dates

- 3 August: Full programme at www.dunedinartsfestival.co.nz

- 3-31 August: Early Bird discounted tickets available for most shows

- 12-24 October: ODT Dunedin Arts Festival 2022

From 12-24 October, the 2022 ODT Dunedin Arts Festival will bring an incredible range of music, theatre, dance, visual arts and community events to our city. With its action-packed programme, this year’s Festival is keeping its promise to be “a celebration of the excellent and the extraordinary”.

Highlights of the 2022 programme include the world premiere of Thom Monckton’s The King of Taking, a hilarious play that is perfect for everyone in the family; Bowie’s anthems bought to the stage by the Australian hit show Rebel, featuring high-flying physical-theatre acrobats that will have you singing along between gasps; Rutene Spooner’s highly entertaining musical-cabaret about Aotearoa’s own demigod in Thoroughly Modern Māui; symphonic concerts to blow the roof off the Town Hall when NZSO teams up with Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, NZ treasure Whirimako Black, and Dunedin’s own Shayne Carter; the alt-country neo-soul of Canada’s Frazey Ford; and the symbolic delve into the human experience with one of the country’s most in-demand dance companies, Atamira with their show, Te Wheke.

Festival Director Charlie Unwin is super confident about the 2022 programme, “It’s such a blast to be welcoming international artists back into the festival, especially knowing they’re going to be a real hit with audiences. We have two circus-theatre shows from Australia that are the perfect antidote to the last couple of years – high energy, fast-paced and heaps of fun, with absolutely thrilling performances and adrenaline-charged soundtracks.”

“It’s fantastic to be returning in our usual timeslot of Spring, when we’re all ready to come out and be entertained, challenged and surprised, and truly soak up the city in festival-mode.”

“I’m throwing out the challenge for everyone to commit to three festival shows – try something you love, something you’re curious about, and then something totally new – you never know what you might discover. A Festival is the perfect time to see a range of shows – if they’re in a festival programme, then they have my complete endorsement. There are plenty of free events, which makes that three-show-challenge too easy!”

“Book early, book often, and try something new!”

Dunedin Arts Festival is all about bringing people together to experience something extraordinary – it might be a small theatre show with just 40 people, or one of the superb NZSO concerts with thousands in the audience. It might be stamping your feet along with The Harmonic Resonators, or laughing until it hurts with Laser Kiwi. You might go straight for the iconic talent of Don McGlashan, or groove into the smooth soul of Louis Baker. The festival might mean a quiet moment in an art gallery, or having a rhymin’ good time at the festival-within-a-festival of Ōtepoti Hip-Hop Hustle. It might be taking your littlies to St Paul’s at One for a sing-along, or joining your bookclub besties to hear an award-winning author. Whatever your festival wish, ODT Dunedin Arts Festival will do its best to make it come true.

Here’s the 2022 Dunedin Art Festival programme:

MUSIC: Razor-sharp commentary, gags and song with Rutene Spooner’s Thoroughly Modern Māui; the pinnacle of all artforms with a new New Zealand opera about Janet Frame in The Strangest of Angels; bathe in the heart-felt songs of Don McGlashan; delight in the intricate melodies and supreme harmonies of Jenny Mitchell performing with her twin sisters; revel in the beguiling songs of internationally acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Frazey Ford; melt into the soul-soaked honeyed-sounds of Louis Baker; immerse yourself in the sheer grandeur of NZSO in Dunedin Town Hall with their three programmes of music by Whitehead, Mozart, Brahms, Bach, Glass, and Shayne Carter (yes, you read that right); check out the five different concerts in St Paul’s at One, featuring Emma Pearson, Tākiri Ensemble and Tararua Ensemble; be in quick for the always-sell-out Olveston at Six with its enchanting series of chamber music; not only do you get to enjoy the infectious performances of The Harmonic Resonators, but they’ll be joined on stage by the dynamic ukulele trio, The Nukes; and don’t miss the opportunity to “see music” when NZTrio have their brainwaves translated into paintings, created live as they perform.

DANCE: The unexpected combination of contemporary dance in an art gallery when The NZ Dance Company present Artefact in Dunedin Public Art Gallery; see the eight dimensions of human experience in Atamira Dance Company’s Te Wheke; and marvel at the supreme dance prowess of Swaroopa Prameela Unni’s Ātete.

THEATRE: Laugh you head off (as your stare in amazement) at two Australian theatre-circus shows, Rebel and Werk It! (can’t choose? Do both!); be there for the world premiere of supremo physical theatre performer Thomas Monckton in The King of Taking, where audience members are invited to bring a gift; the wacky antics of Laser Kiwi; the charmed show about connecting with your Danish grandma (with the help of Odin and Thor) in Back to Square One?; the intellectual wit and in-jokes of multiple professors in I Didn’t Invite You Here to Lecture Me; the harsh realities and ongoing impacts of children in state care in A Boy Called Piano; the chance to see where theatre is born with Ōtepoti Theatre Lab; get some real expert advice (not) with Agony Pants; be captivated with the intriguing life of Alma Mahler-Werfel in Alma Who?; and have your preconceptions and assumptions provoked and challenged by Hannah Tasker-Poland in The Most Naked.

FREE EVENTS: Be part of the 2022 festival, when choreographer and dancer Chloe Loftus leads a processional mass movement, Us, through the street of Ōtepoti; get your energy levels pumped with Ōtepoti Hip-Hop Hustle taking over DPAG carpark with music, art and breakdancers; bring your little ones to a free concert of classical music with Beethoven to Baby (everyone gets to sing and clap along); thrill to the spectacle of juggling, aerial acrobatics, and loads of silliness with Biggest Little Circus Show; and wonder at the novelty of an aerial wheelchair as two dancers spin and glide through the air, in The Air Between Us.

TALKS: working in collaboration with Dunedin Readers & Writers Festival, here’s your chance to hear Christine Leunens (Caging Skies, In Amber’s Wake) and crime writer Michael Bennett (Better the Blood).

VISUAL ARTS: Judy Smith: My Dunedin at Moray Gallery; Ian Scott at Milford Galleries Hurahia ana kā Whetū – Unveiling the Stars at Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Tyler Stent & Sophie-Claire Violette in Artemisia Vulgaris at The Artists Room; Kia ora Whaea with Kate Stevens West, Alix Ashworth, Emma Kitson and Caitlin Rose Donnelly at Blue Oyster Art Project Space; John Drawbridge The Protest Works at FE29 Gallery; and Nic Dempster Urban Planning at Gallery De Novo.

ODT Dunedin Arts Festival is proud to be presenting its twelfth outing and is extending the warmest of invitations for everyone to be part of the celebration. Don’t miss this chance to see Dunedin at its best – alive with a fantastic line-up of performing and visual arts.

ODT Dunedin Arts Festival is one of Aotearoa’s major arts festivals, and the largest in the South Island, inviting thousands of people to celebrate the excellent and the extraordinary in everything the arts have to offer. Every two years, ODT Dunedin Arts Festival curates a comprehensive programme of live music, theatre, dance, visual arts and free community events, featuring leading artists and creatives from across the country and around the world. 2022 makes the second festival with Charlie Unwin as Festival Director.

www.dunedinartsfestival.co.nz

© Scoop Media