A wild alt-cabaret ride with creator, Johanna Cosgrove, Iconoclast scratches off the gilt and dives into the guilty with ecclesiastical sleaze. 

Revelling in provocative imagery and classic cabaret tropes including 1920’s Berlin nights and early American stand-up, this naughty nun, accompanied by a lone musician (Alistair Deverick – Desperate Late Night Energy), explores faith, loneliness and grief in a mad attack on all things sacrosanct.   

This development season is directed by Barnie Duncan and presented in partnership with Auckland Fringe Festival.   

Laura is an anthropologist, an activist, an artist, and a Slut. She is part of a worldwide community of “Ethical Sluts” who challenge the status quo by living empowering – if occasionally seedy – non-monogamous lives. In Slut Songs, Laura shares clever raunchy sex-positive songs about sluttery (or in technical terms, “Ethical Non-monogamy”). You’ll laugh, learn, and (quite possibly) want to do her.

Audience feedback from her debut performance at Whangarei Fringe:

- “You sound like a Disney Princess, but you're singing about your WAP. Priceless!”

- “Your work is like a giant “fuck you!” to shame.”

- "You make me proud to be a Slut."

- "SO HEALING."

- “So, what are you doing after this... ?”

SPECIAL CONTENT WARNING: Although my show could potentially be activating, I chose not to include any content warnings in the past (after discussing with Fringe organizers in Whangarei and Wellington) because the only activating topics pertain to sex (i.e. trying to develop a healthy sexual identity in a toxic patriarchal culture), and the title and blurb of the show is therefore enough of a content warning (i.e. I assume that no one will choose to attend a show with this title and blurb unless they are excited to hear about sex and its complexities)

Simon is a ‘Sad Boi’. Climate change, wealth inequality, the crushing awareness of one's eventual demise. It’s a lot to deal with. How does he cope? By ignoring the advice of his therapist and laughing through the tears. Join Simon as he shares his entire catalogue of jokes in his best attempt to be a ‘Funny Guy’.

Still fresh to the comedy circuit, Simon was a finalist in the 2020 Wellington RAW Comedy Quest and featured in the 'The Classic' Comedy Club’s New Pro Showcase of 2021.

It’s his debut solo show and Simon has one question on his mind. Will he be more ‘Sad Boi’ or ‘Funny Guy’?

What is a ‘good’ Chinese woman?  How does a woman live an authentic life in a patriarchal, capitalist and colonial society?

愛，媽媽 (Love, Mum), is Cynthia Hiu Ying Lam’s debut autobiographical one-woman show, exploring the lives and relationships between herself, her mother and two grandmothers Ah Mah and Por Por. 

A matrilineal memoir that interweaves storytelling, multimedia, Chinese martial arts and song, we follow Cynthia’s journey as she navigates mental health, relationships, self-discovery and finding one’s vocation against a legacy of ancestral trauma and cultural conditioning.

“A heartfelt and deeply moving, impressionistic play” –– Stuart Hoar, playwright.

“I cried and laughed! Telling your story in such a beautiful and brave way is inspiring” – audience member.

“Your closing lines ‘how we are the sum of all women’ just hit me hard. I actually started crying….Any woman over the age of twenty who has pondered their mother, grandmothers or maternal figures…your play would resonate with every woman regardless of cultural background” – audience member.

A sneek peek in the link below…

https://youtu.be/bx3mchdJ3Hs

Sept 17 performance will be live-streamed with a 48 hour replay window:

vidzing.tv/love-mum

‘The Queen and Me’ is the story of a thoroughly modern, fully empowered female role model – how the woman who headed up a country and united a commonwealth for more than 70 years earned respect, admiration and affection from around the world.

From the vantage point of her Platinum Jubilee and final year, we see how this colourful lady head of state defined the postwar era. In this show, Carole Shaw reflects on HM’s long life and reveals her ‘all’ to her people – her undying love for her corgis, the men in her life, her singlehanded success at forging peace processes, her secret passion for motorbikes … with a surprise ‘coming out’ at 96.

You are regally commanded to join Her Majesty for tea, free cake & biscuits, and a gracious glimpse into hitherto unseen aspects of her life – with audience participation, SingalongaLiz and a quiz. We may mourn her passing and the end of an era, but HM would not have wished us to be miserable. And don’t miss Handbag – the regal older lady’s Fleabag!

Things aren’t always what they seem on the surface. Put your ear to the ground, can you tune in and hear the stones speak? What stories do they tell?

Unearthing Frequencies – Stone Stories takes you on a participatory headphonic walk through Stonefields, an ongoing housing development in a former quarry beside Maungarei.

On the surface, a 21st century community is evolving, following a master plan for an “urban village”. But just four decades ago this was the largest aggregate quarry in Aotearoa. What was here before that? And what lived and lithic stories have been lost to productivity and progress? Join us as we see how far back can we go into the history of this site, through the entanglement of human time and geological time. 

This ambulatory, site-based work has been formed around the bones of a cyberfeminist reworking of the myth Echo created in the early isolation of COVID-19 as an exchange between the UK and Aotearoa. This work responds to the lands we inhabit and the stories that reverberate from these sites, our ancestral bones. Standing in the old Mt Wellington Quarry we draw the connection between the stone buried deep in the substrata and our online technologies as they connect us across space and site. 

This walk will be experienced via supplied headphones and involves an hour of gentle walking with some stairs and uneven terrain.

There will be a wheel accessible performance and fully masked event on Saturday 17 September at 2pm.

We will follow the public health guidelines for Covid-19

"I bit into your heart and I chewed on it slowly like a connoisseur. I swallowed it. I remember thinking it was an especially small heart and easy to digest. But no matter what I did you wouldn't die"

It is day one of the newly formed Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Northern Ireland at Stormont.

As Sandra Richardson prepares to take her seat on the commission, her long-lost sister Teeni explodes into the chamber and attacks the South African chairwoman, Dikeledi Mashiane. Is this part of a terrorist plot or just her sister's way of announcing her return to Belfast?

Deep in the heart of the Northern Irish Parliament, overshadowed by the legacy of hurt, Sandra and Teeni must fight through decades of violence, anger and denial to discover if reconciliation is possible on the pathway to peace.

A taut and fast paced two-woman showdown, Everything Between Us is a dramatic, dark, unflinching comedy written by Northern Ireland's boldest contemporary writer.

Fur coats and an eer of secrecy. An evening of intrigue and angst as three well known figures in society come together to navigate an underground world in which they can unveil their true selves before having to cover their tracks and return home; their escapades unbeknownst to those they sleep next to. Inspired by underground societies that existed for women in the early 1900’s that enabled women to meet and carry out jobs that were only to be done by man at the time. Daughters of willow allows these alias' to be reimagined and resurfaced as we celebrate the feminine power and lean into a sensuality that propels the performance. We invite the audience to a weekly meeting at our underground society, where we confide in them and reveal our truths. Liberated and frustrated, we journey our way through town rumours, inner desires and secrets.

Award-winning poets Miss Leading and Rose Northey think they have something to write home about with their new multimedia show of spoken word poetry, comedy, song, electronic music and live illustration. Prepare to laugh and cry to an assortment of incredibly crafted poetry then drift into this wholly immersive experience as Miss Leading serenades you with musical stories on the theme of home to projected images drawn live by Rose Northey.

Who needs a backing track when you can have the real deal?

Ever wished you could walk into a joint, pick up a mic and start crooning with your own personal backing singers? Now’s your time.

You be Gladys, we’ll be The Pips.

You be Diana Ross, we’ll be The Bee Gees.

You be Righteous, we'll be your Brothers.

The Burt Bacharachups are here to back you up. Step up to the Piano Bar stage at The Civic's Taj Mahal Room and, this time, add live backing vocalists crooning along to your karaoke-on-opium experience. Singing songs from the 50s and 60s through to right-now classics, they’ll be your on-demand backing vocals right there in the Cabaret flesh. Who needs a backing track when you can have the real deal?

Part of Auckland Live Cabaret Season

Heaven and Hell need a re-set. Overcrowding has reached critical mass in both after-life options, so a more selective approach is urgently required. As undecided souls can no longer be accommodated in Heaven or Hell, God and Satan have collaborated on a new project to remove the non-believers from their respective operations. Hellansville is a shiny, new development designed to meet the needs of an increasingly secular society who have shuffled off this mortal coil but have nowhere to go. Before the project goes live, the top representatives from both sides meet to discuss the issues at hand; Michael the effortlessly cool Archangel and Malphas a powerful demon in a crumpled suit. Together they thrash out the details of Hellansville under the watchful eye of the mysterious Maureen. 

Enter Robert, the recently deceased guineapig. All Michael and Mal have to do is sell Robert the Hellansville dream. All Robert has to do is sign up for the deal of an ‘after’-life time. All Robert has to do is believe. A tough ask for a cynical, stubborn atheist.

Welcome to Hellansville' will be performed at The Rose Centre, Belmont, North Shore on Wed 14th, Thurs 15th and *Fri 16th Sept 2022 at 8pm.

*The final show will include a post-show cheese and wine event where you are invited to a Q&A session with the writer and director.

Tickets available soon from iTicket.

Left to his own devices and wild imaginings, absurdist comedian and DJ, Barnie Duncan returns with cult-hit, Club-a-lub-a-ling-long - a surprise attic bar with questionable antics and chance encounters from one of Auckland’s most experimental entertainers, alongside special guests.   

You bring your friends; he’ll bring the records and wonky jokes. 

A visceral portrayal of a conveniently forgotten part of the struggle for gender equality. Part verbatim, part musical theatre, always theatrical...

Suffragettes: Deeds not Words chronicles ten years of torment and torture culminating in the ultimate victory of Emmeline Pankhurst and the other heroic women of the WSPU who took on the established order of belligerent, bullying, self-entitled men and won.

A comedy line up show brought together by Janaye Henry.

Craigslist is the debut solo hour of award winning comedian Craig Westenberg. Described as being clever, confident, and witty, "Craiglist" promises to be an hour of fun, cleaver, and witty stand-up comedy.

Tarantino's early 2000's genre busting cinematic masterpiece "Kill Bill" is given the shadow treatment in Present Company's "Kill Puppet Bill". Using traditional and experimental shadow puppet techniques, this tale of betrayal and revenge is played in cinematic form in which the creation of imagery is as much part of the show as the play itself. The team that brought you "Puppet Fiction" is striking while the iron is luke warm in sharing the love of puppetry and genre film in a theatrical setting, thrilling and cracking up audiences with absurd and creative special effect influenced puppetry. Kill Puppet Bill is not for the little ones.

"Oh My F*#king God Grief Makes You Horny!"

A hilarious new, semi-autobiographical play written by Tatiana Hotere. SKIN HUNGER is one woman’s roller-coaster journey through Grief, God and ‘Gasms. Raw, passionate, sexy, and heartbreakingly funny, this show is for anyone who’s ever lost someone, and had to find themselves (and perhaps their clitoris) again. 

Skin Hunger explores the intersection of grief, faith, and sexuality. After the death of her husband - grief-stricken Eva, a perimenopausal woman of faith - embarks on a journey of self-discovery, spiritual awakening, and sexual empowerment. Amidst a deluge of tragic tinder dates, self-doubt, and Catholic guilt, she finds the courage to forge a new path for her life in the chaotic aftermath. Eva discovers - there is always life after death.

Produced by Kaituhi Creative 

A little spicy but not too much, Kiwi Hot is a stand-up comedy show from Wellington up-and-comers Mike Fowler and Sri Nair. Enjoy two comedians from two different backgrounds, at two different stages of a midlife crisis, share their potentially unhealthy main course of comedic observations on life, complete with a side dish of healthy cynicism. 

Mike Fowler 

- Best Debut - NZ International Comedy Festival 2019

- Best Up & Comer - Wellington Comedy Awards 2020

Sri Nair

- Best Show, NZ Fringe Festival 2017

- Nominated Most Improved - Wellington Comedy Awards 2016, 2017

- 60 Seconds, TVNZ

From Titanic to the beginning of The Troubles, the story of BELFAST, Northern Ireland, city on the side of the Lagan, sectarianism and a world gone mad. A visceral tragedy told through the lens of EPIC THEATRE with ten new songs.

Winner of the Best Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe (Clare Awards 2021), and winner of the Week 4 BankSA Best Theatre & Physical Theatre Awards, Adelaide Fringe 2022. "This is Belfast... an extraordinary piece of theatre. ***** " 

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Belfast. One town, two God-fearing communities under the watchful eye of an Almighty whose wrath and retribution are known to be terrible; and then from behind the assembled dignitaries there to launch the greatest vessel ever to sail the oceans, some common working man, looking up at her and overwhelmed with pride and believing it with all his heart cried: “Even God couldn’t sink the Titanic”.

There was awe then for a split second at the majesty of her, before a roar of agreement, caps and hats, flung high in the air and even those who didn’t cheer, felt it beneath their skin. A curse was on the ship, a curse was on the yard, a curse was on the town, a curse spread far and wide.

Directed by David Dunn. Text by David Dunn. Songs by Mark Howard, David Dunn, Lydia Saroto and Peter Noble.

A plague on both your houses.'

The Epic play with 10 new indie songs. A hybrid drama recontextualising the Romeo and Juliet story and setting it in contemporary Belfast, where the sectarian divide between protestant and catholic families re-defines the feud between the Capulets and the Montagues. The story is told through integration of modern dialogue with some of the more poetic monologues and dialogue from the original text.

Text by David Dunn. Songs by Meg Dunn.

Meet Frank, the freshly animated being. He is dying to meet you.

To be Frank is a terrifyingly funny solo performance about a monster being created and trying to discover why. 

There may be spooks... .

There may be goofs... .

There will definitely be blood-curdling screams... 

This is an epic tale taking inspiration from Mary Shelley’s original creation where the ‘monstrosity’ finally gets to tell its own story. And it is guaranteed to leave you in stitches.

An eerie comedy that pays homage to campy horror films. This modern reimagining of the classic tale is as confronting and comforting, terrific and horrific as seeing the re-animated creature standing in front of you asking to be loved. 

“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.”

-   Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Creator and performer Michael Hockey graduated from Toi Whakaari in 2019, studied at École Phillipe Gaulier and is a founding member of Bullrush Improv.

You know what’s better than listening to the radio? Going to the theatre and listening to people pretend to be on the radio! Radio Show is a brand-new show from celebrated improvised theatre company Improverished. It’s an improvised radio play live on stage! What could be better!

Improverished have been called “highly entertaining”, “incredibly silly”, and “charming” by reviewers and were nominated for the illustrious Best Use of Mayonnaise prize at the NZ International Comedy Festival 2021. 

Born out of the Big Surprise Lockdown of 2021, Radio Show is the culmination of months spent improvising together entirely over Zoom. Improverished have mastered the art of telling a story that can be enjoyed with or without visuals. Thanks to that, this performance will be able to go ahead at any Alert Level, either in-person or online. 

Best known for their improvised Dungeons and Dragons show “Can I Get an Underground Location and a Mythical Creature?”, Improverished love to tell stories in interesting ways. They have sold-out many shows at the NZ International Comedy Festival, Auckland Fringe Festival, and Auckland Improv Festival since 2019. They have tackled Choose Your Own Adventure books, fairytales, and high fantasy in the past; and are so excited to be taking on such a classic form of storytelling. Improverished are sure to bring their signature joyfulness to this exciting new format.

This show will be fully accessible for visually impaired audience members. Unfortunately no sign interpreters will be available for hearing impaired audience members at this time. Improverished would love for you to be able to enjoy this show, if you have any specific accessibility questions please get in touch!

Ivy Blue frontman James Brodie embarks on his first ever solo tour sharing stories about growing up with Autism and ADHD and stripped down versions of his back-catalog, including Ivy Blue favorites and cuts from his debut solo album BECOMING. Motivational, Uplifting, Beautiful, and at times funny; this is a show not to be missed.

Starting from humble beginnings in Te Aroha, New Zealand; the show explores James's life with Autism and ADHD in 3 stages; "Innocence", "Experience", and the present day; with stories about his experiences with Autism and ADHD and a setlist complementing each section of the performance performed using nothing but a guitar, a piano, a harmonica, and his voice. Animations created especially for this tour that allow you to see the events from James's life in real time, adding a new dimension to this intimate event.

Touring New Zealand and Australia from August-November 2022, this is a rare opportunity to see James perform outside of Ivy Blue in his first ever solo tour and risk being his true self to entertain and educate audiences about mental health issues from an Autistic perspective. Two shows only. Don't Miss Out