Arts and culture in Ōtautahi Christchurch
Erin Harrington cobbles together a bunch of end of / start of year material. Did the performing arts in Ōtautahi survive or thrive in 2025? A little of both perhaps, but either way it was a very big year. There have been some big physical shifts in the local arts ecosystem. Wider changes - such… Continue reading Review / preview: 2025 highlights, and a 2026 wishlist
Erin Harrington reviews Indian Ink's touring production of Dirty Work at the Isaac Theatre Royal, Friday 28 July 2023. Can you make art about the cyclical drudgery of office work – or, perhaps, most work – that isn’t fundamentally dystopian? Indian Ink’s charming production Dirty Work: Ode to Joy, which is set in the New… Continue reading Review: Dirty Work – finding joy in the absurd
Erin Harrington reviews Appropriate, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins directed by Nathaniel Lees, at the Court Theatre, 6 May 2023. The acclaimed American dark comedy Appropriate starts in the massive living room of a decrepit Arkansas plantation house. It’s still, night, the atmosphere oppressive. The light changes almost imperceptibly through the oversized windows as the cicadas’… Continue reading Review: Appropriate – a provocative dark comedy about the meaning of inheritance
Erin Harrington reviews Rēwena and Be Like Billy?, staged as a double bill at The Court Theatre, Saturday 25 March 2023. The moving one woman play Rēwena, from award-winning author and playwright Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Tuhourangi, Ngāti Tumatawera, Tainui, Pākehā) invites us into the private kitchen of hospitality pro… Continue reading Review: Rēwena and Be Like Billy?- a rewarding double bill about reciprocity and those who came before
Erin Harrington pokes around at the Off Centre festival, including performances of Requiem and Much Ado About Nothing, at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Friday 3 - Sunday 5 March. For other coverage see a review of A Baby Called Sovereignty here. When The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora was severely impacted… Continue reading Review: Off Centre – Requiem, Much Ado About Nothing, and being a city
Erin Harrington reviews Back to the Future: In Concert, presented by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor Benjamin Northey, at the Christchurch Town Hall, Saturday 4 March, 2023. Some incontrovertible facts about the 1985 time travel film Back to the Future: it smashed that year’s box office, it made the DMC DeLeorean a pop… Continue reading Review: Back to the Future In Concert – A 1.21 jigawatt experience
Erin Harrington reviews I Didn’t Invite You Here to Lecture Me, presented by Artsense Productions, at Little Andromeda, Friday 10 February 2023. The writer and producer of I Didn’t Invite You Here to Lecture Me, Amy Mansfield, clearly took some pretty good notes during her time as a university student – better than most. This… Continue reading Review: I Didn’t Invite You Here to Lecture Me – in defense of a collective experience
Erin Harrington reviews Ad Parnassum - Purapurawhetū, and Naomi van den Broek reviews Th’Orchard Dreamers Chapter 2 and Pōhutukawa, all performed at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora as part of their Matariki programming, 8 June - 9 July 2022. “Ngā toi is for everyone”, notes the introduction to The Arts Centre Te Matatiki… Continue reading Review: Matariki at The Arts Centre – Ad Parnassum -Purapurawhetū, th’Orchard, and Pōhutukawa
Claudia Jardine reviews As of 34, a night of music from Jason Pemberton and Friends, at The Loons, Lyttelton, Saturday 4 June, 2022. It’s a bright autumn day in Ōtautahi, and my plans for the long weekend are turning out as I might have suspected they would. I make it to Muscle & Bone at… Continue reading Review: As of 34 – Jason Pemberton and Friends – virtue-pop in the temple of friendship
Erin Harrington writes about dance collective Tīwai's research showing of new work Te Pūtake at Movement Art Practice, 29 April 2022, and returns to JMO Theatrics' White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, which ran at Little Andromeda from 13-17 April, 2022. At the beginning of contemporary dance work Te Pūtake, from collective Tīwai (Rebecca Johnson, Kereana Mosen… Continue reading Performance, connectivity and care: Tīwai’s Te Pūtake and White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
Flat City Field Notes 