Observations from the ground.
Flat City Field Notes offers reviews and essays about theatre, arts and culture in and around Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Latest Posts
If you don’t look you can’t see, or, the consequences of Southern invisibility in national arts funding
Erin Harrington on the lack of South Island investment in Creative New Zealand’s Arts Organisations and Groups (AOG) funding round, including the news that South Island organisations collectively received less than 10% of the total funding offered, and that Christchurch theatre Little Andromeda and the Dunedin Arts Festival have been defunded entirely. Hello, world There’s…
Review: de Castro-Robinson, Mahler, Berlioz – a triptych of works circling heartbreak, grief and the macabre
Nick Harte reviews de Castro-Robinson, Mahler, Berlioz, presented by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Northey, at the Douglas Lilburn Auditorium in the Christchurch Town Hall, Saturday 1 August 2026. Eve de Castro-Robinson’s Hour of Lead (2024) takes its namesake from the Emily Dickinson poem which reads: After great pain, a formal feeling comes…
Review: Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Winter Season – a triple bill that’s pretty, playful and political
Breeze Robertson reviews the Royal New Zealad Ballet’s Winter Season at the Isaac Theatre Royal, Friday 31 July 2026, RNZB’s Winter Season triple bill was somewhat of a whiplash tour through the evolution of ballet – from the tutus and tights of the traditionally classical Birthday Offering, through the playful contemporary quartet Ultra Folly, and…
Review: Dear Stalker – a bloody funny show that works the audience like a pleasure device
Naomi van den Broek reviews Dear Stalker, written and performed by Harriet Moir, at Little Andromeda, Friday 24 July 2026. Dear Stalker is a tight, frank, and riotously hilarious stand up hour about the trials and tribulations of looking for love, from comedian Harriet Moir. It opens with a David Attenborough-esque voice over introducing us…
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