Charlotte Thornton reviews StoryLab Christchurch Story Night, at Papa Hou, Friday 6 November 2026.
People are great. This is an increasingly unpopular point of view, both for those feeling jaded and for the pro-AI crowd who do the jading. But I stand by it – even if we could all do with a reminder.
StoryLab is a great reminder. It hosts storytelling evenings: a half dozen people each tell a 10-minute true story about themselves with no notes at hand. The theme for StoryLab’s debut South Island evening is “New Beginnings / Sliding Doors”. The name refers to the 1998 rom-com Sliding Doors, which follows Gwyneth Paltrow across two different timelines: one where she catches a train, and one where she misses it. This StoryLab evening follows that central idea: what’s the little moment that changed your life?
Our lovely emcee, Carie Pritchett, first welcomes Susannah Kenton. Susannah’s hypnotising transatlantic accent offers the perfect tone for her tale of star-crossed romance turned solo adventure. Susannah paints a beautiful picture with her writing and performance; so does the second speaker, Hannah Herchenbach, also telling a globetrotting tale. Hannah’s story begins in the United States, clear from the use of thoroughly American terms like “Ivy League” and “honour roll”. Hannah tells us that one day she spun a globe and travelled as far from the U.S. as possible: to Aotearoa New Zealand, of course, where she made a home.
There are some straight-up love stories in the mix. In the first half, the delightful Maria Webb tells us about a years-long courtship from emo teenhood to dog-owning adulthood. In the second half, Sophie Gray uses the format of The Dating Game to structure her comedic account of getting back out there post-divorce. Sophie is a gifted comic voice with total control of the audience – her 10-minute story would be a terrific stand-up comedy set.
Dr Jo Prendergast, a psychiatrist and established stand-up in New Zealand, uses her 10 minutes to speak about her cancer journey. She’s discussed this journey before in her show Cancer and Cartwheels, but here the Sliding Doors theme allows her to focus on the pivotal moment when she discovered her cancer. The story acts as a poignant meta-analysis of Jo’s stand-up work; it asks us to question where and why we share our stories.
The final scheduled speaker is the charming Nick Henare, whose career is so varied that I cannot reasonably select a single occupation to describe him. Chef, model, painter, lifestyle writer, archaeologist, roadie, cinema owner, real estate agent, radio manager, actor… a life full of Sliding Doors moments, the most significant one being an accident which Nick speaks about with tender vulnerability.
StoryLab has a bit of extra time for some impromptu speakers, beginning with science communicator Molly Magid. Like me, Molly is one of several N95 mask wearers at this event, and I want to give her a special shout-out for normalising N95s on stage. More of this, please!
Molly’s story is unique and thought-provoking. It concerns her research on bat flight and her attachment to her mysteriously ill-fated “lab materials”. Molly’s Sliding Doors moment was her questioning the objectivity demanded in the study of non-human animals. She says this moment decided the direction of her career – like all great science communicators, Molly leaves me desperate to know more.
The final speaker is Ben Mills, whose story traces multiple lived experiences of queerness and allyship found in unexpected places. He brings up a theme which pops up consistently throughout the evening and is always approached with grace and care: the significance of the people who define our past but no longer define our present. The room is mostly Millennial and Gen X, which are the demographics getting into the age bracket of second marriages, career changes, and health challenges. These are the aspects of life you can’t anticipate – so they make the best stories. In the perfect end to the evening, Ben’s story concludes with a special connection to a previous speaker. The reveal is nothing short of glorious.
StoryLab’s debut Ōtautahi evening is a balm to the heart and soul. Papa Hou is a lovely venue for it, from the big windows to the well-organised bar, and it especially shines on a warm November evening. My only notes are minor: perhaps tiered seating for visibility and some unobtrusive microphones for audibility.
The evening encourages a lot of gentle audience participation, including anonymous stories and theme suggestions. My suggestion is more structural: is there a way can we hear stories from people who might not otherwise tell them? Most of the speakers have some theatre or arts industry experience, which makes the evening a wonderfully smooth ride, but I’d love to see a tradie or a retail worker give it a shot too. There might be space for a Toastmasters-esque course from StoryLab, where anyone could be taught how to tell a good 10-minute tale. Storytelling is an important life skill, and we always need more reminding that people are great.
This is the first time StoryLab has taken place in Ōtautahi. You can find out more about the initiative here.
