Auckland Theatre Company Celebrates 30 Years In 2023

New season marks three decades of great storytelling

Auckland Theatre Company have announced a new season of six epic shows for 2023, showcasing the company’s scale and ambition.

The new programme includes works by New Zealand playwrights, world premieres, a mighty Shakespeare, exciting new writing, an international thriller, collaborations and a heartfelt comedy.

After two years of disruptions, new productions of Witi’s Wāhine by the late, beloved Nancy Brunning, in a collaboration with Hāpai Productions, and Things That Matter, Gary Henderson’s brilliant adaptation of Dr David Galler’s memoir will both finally be brought to the stage.

With large-scale plays featuring New Zealand’s top creative and acting talent, the new season celebrates 30 years of theatre-making in Aotearoa New Zealand. In recognition of the actors who tell the company’s stories, three covers feature for the 2023 brochure, starring actors Nicola Kāwana, Munashe Tapfuya and Michael Hurst.

Artistic Director & CEO Jonathan Bielski says, “In 1993 the world premiere of David Geary’s Lovelock’s Dream Run, directed by Raymond Hawthorne at the Watershed Theatre, heralded the arrival of the newly minted Auckland Theatre Company. It was an emphatic statement by a collective of theatre artists and supporters who were determined our city would have a professional theatre company. Founder Simon Prast and his comrades willed the company into existence. To now present our 30th anniversary season is a testament to the passion and skill of a generation of artists and makers who we have been privileged to work with.”

Auckland Theatre Company kicks off 2023 with the New Zealand premiere of comedy The Heartbreak Choir by award-winning Australian playwright Aidan Fennessy. Starring some of New Zealand’s funniest actors in full voice, including Kate Louise Elliott and Jodie Dorday and directed by Lara Macgregor, this effervescent, hilarious and big-hearted summer comedy makes a big noise.

The second play is the highly anticipated rescheduled season of Witi’s Wāhine, by Nancy Brunning. Here, some of Witi Ihimaera’s most memorable characters, from works like The Parihaka Woman, The Matriarch and Pounamu Pounamu, step onto the stage. A collaboration with Hāpai Productions, Witi’s Wāhine places the wāhine Māori worldview front and centre in a rich, poetic and immersive theatrical experience.

The centrepiece of the year is a return to the work of William Shakespeare for Auckland Theatre Company, for the first time in eight years. Michael Hurst, one of Aotearoa’s greatest exponents of Shakespeare, takes the crown in a majestic and powerful large-scale production of King Lear. A cast of New Zealand’s finest and most celebrated acting talent are co-directed by Benjamin Henson and Michael Hurst.

Next up, audiences are advised to strap-in for a wild ride as Basmati Bitch by Ankita Singh takes to the stage at Q Theatre for its world premiere. This inventive action-comedy about an illicit world of futuristic rice-dealing follows hot-on-the-heels of the successful Scenes from a Yellow Peril by Nathan Joe produced this year by the same collaborators; SquareSums&Co, Oriental Maidens and Auckland Theatre Company.

Another world premiere ensues in August with the much-awaited Things That Matter by New Zealand playwright Gary Henderson, adapted from Dr David Galler’s best-selling memoir Things That Matter: Stories of life & death. For more than 30 years, Dr David Galler has worked on the frontlines of New Zealand’s health system at Middlemore Hospital and in its highest reaches as an advisor to the Ministry of Health. The original production was directed by Anapela Polata’ivao and is restaged by director Troy Tua’a (Dawn Raids), as Aotearoa’s healthcare system gets a much-needed check-up.

In a nail-biting finale, riveting psychological thriller Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith is the sixth play for 2023. Patricia Highsmith, the famous but reclusive and acerbic novelist of The Talented Mr. Ripley fame will be performed by acclaimed New Zealand actor Sarah Peirse who originated the role at the Sydney Opera House. Audiences are in for a gripping and enthralling night out, in a battle of wits and intellect with a dash of black comedy.

Accessible performances will again be a key feature of the line-up, with Dentons Kensington Swan continuing to support the Company’s accessibility programmes, including NZSL-interpretated and audio-described performances and touch tours, for each show season next year.

Auckland Theatre Company’s 2023 programme invites audiences of Tāmaki Makaurau and beyond to come and explore this collection of theatre that will open minds and hearts, and to experience stories that are a reflection of the city, nation and world we live in.

Subscription packages for the new season are on sale now. Single tickets for The Heartbreak Choir go on sale 29 November 2022. To subscribe or book visit www.atc.co.nz or phone 0800 ATC TIX.

2023 SEASON TRAILER:

TRAILER DOWNLOAD LINK

SEASON IMAGES:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F95hYxJl5uqk9t3Dz7EFtJ87-5kagrkw?usp=sharing

LINK TO DIGITAL SEASON BROCHURE:

https://issuu.com/aucklandtheatrecompany/docs/atc_season_2023_brochure_issuu/2

Images for The Heartbreak Choir:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PQB28Rox2oCJj0ohULP4jr7A-hlXkrkU?usp=sharing

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