Arts and culture in Ōtautahi Christchurch
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
Erin Harrington responds to Ariā, created and performed by Juanita Hepi (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Wai, Moriori, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāpuhi), with artistic direction from Julia Harvie, from 2-245pm on Saturday 22 January 2022 at the installation Isolation Hotel at Canterbury Museum. Multidisciplinary storyteller Juanita Hepi is one of the busiest and most interesting creatives in Ōtautahi.… Continue reading Review: Ariā I and II – voices of longing, absence and connection
Erin Harrington writes about the Foundation Pop-Up Festival (AKA the Not-Quite-New Regent Street Pop-Up Festival) , which ran from 5-11:30pm at Foundation Cafe, Tūranga / Christchurch Central Library, on Saturday 13 November, the last night of the WORD Christchurch festival weekend. The New Regent Street Pop-Up Festival has been a key feature of the last… Continue reading Starlings, Dead Authors, and Sexy Polliwogs: the WORD Foundation Pop-Up Festival
A ghost light is a light left on inside a theatre that’s gone dark, usually sitting in the centre of the stage. Some say it’s to placate (or scare off) theatre ghosts, some say it’s to stop people falling in the orchestra pit in the dark; both are valid. (It is also the name of… Continue reading Ghost light, or, the week that wasn’t
Erin Harrington reviews Frankenstein, a co-production between The Court Theatre and the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Arts (NASDA), at The Court Theatre, Saturday 7 August 2021. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novella Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is a creature that refuses to die. More than two hundred years after she brought it to life,… Continue reading Review: Frankenstein – some beautiful parts, but not yet whole
Flat City Field Notes 