Trick Of The Light Unpacks A World Of Theatrical Magic With ‘Suitcase Show’ National Tour

PANNZ and Trick of the Light Theatre presents
Suitcase Show
9 centres from 28 February – 5 April

Award-winning Pōneke based theatre company, Trick of the Light, is packing their bags to bring another masterful production to nine centres across the country, from 28 February – 5 April. Suitcase Show is an eclectic box set of short stories, each one told out of a suitcase. Dark, spiky and comic, this is storytelling at its finest from a team of Aotearoa’s greatest creative minds.

As with their acclaimed play The Bookbinder, the staging for Suitcase Show is inventive – from lo-fi shadowplay to wireless projection, from dancing disembodied hands to narratives that crackle from a 70s stereo suitcase. Tiny in scale, but expansive in story, this small but mighty production touches on climate change, love and death, travel, and secrets that we carry with us. An overthrown autocrat finds themselves on the run from their own shadow, an astronaut turns their telescope back on Earth and back in time.

Trick of the Light, renowned for crafting imaginative and engaging shows and intricate narratives, have spent the last decade touring works such as

The Griegol, The Road That Wasn’t There and Tröll around the world, from Aotearoa to Australia, Canada, USA, and South Africa. In 2024 the company toured the UK, China and across Aotearoa, including successful performances at Edinburgh Fringe.

“It was so exciting to share our work with audiences from completely different cultures and countries and find that they still respond to the motor of a good story. When we open a new suitcase and everyone gasps, it’s the kind of collective experience you can only have in a theatre,” McCubbin Howell says of their previous performances of the show.

Suitcase Show reunites multi-award-winning artists Hannah Smith, Ralph McCubbin Howell, with Emmy award-winning composer and long-time collaborator Tane Upjohn-Beatson (The Bookbinder, The Road That Wasn’t There). In true Trick of the Light style, this ingenious team of creative heavyweights developed Suitcase Show through a series of showings in unusual site-specific spaces, from a pub to a photography darkroom.

Smith and McCubbin Howell are not only dedicated to crafting compelling work — they’re also redefining what it means to create and tour sustainably. Last year the pair co-wrote the Green Guide to Touring, a practical resource to help artists reduce their environmental impact. It’s not just theory either; they walk the walk, making their tours as green as possible through their transport and accommodation choices.

PANNZ Senior Producer, Jo Bond says, “I am lucky to have a long history of working with Ralph and Hannah, having programmed their work during my time as Artistic Director of Tauranga Arts Festival. It has been an absolute privilege to watch their work evolve over the years and I have such admiration for their commitment to creating work driven by their steadfast environmental values and creative flair. PANNZ is really looking forward to bringing Suitcase Show to centres around Aotearoa, it is a delight of a show!”

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